Have you been thinking about how to hire an insurance VA? You aren’t alone. It’s hard to hire, payroll is up, and carriers are putting more work on agents. Insurance VAs (virtual assistants) are a great way to not only help scale your agency but relieve your team from unnecessary stress and burnout.
If you aren’t familiar, an insurance virtual assistant is often a non-licensed team member who can help support your team by taking routine tasks off their plates. They often are overseas and eager to help assist your team be successful.
There are several different insurance VA models that your agency may explore:
- As Needed Assistance: You pay by transaction and send work as needed.
- Processing Support: You have a set list of work that automatically gets assigned to your team. You often have a team that works with your agency and other agencies at the same time.
- 1:1 Relationship: You select your insurance VA and they work only with your agency. They are a member of your team via a VA company partner. Similar to a remote team member they work almost in the same fashion.
You need to identify the right fit for your agency and team as all models have some pros and cons. We also have our complete guide on How To Hire an Insurance VA with sample job descriptions, interview questions, and how to tell your team.
Why Agencies Are Looking at Insurance VAs
In a perfect world, we would all love to hire local people who are qualified and would stay with us for their entire career. Unfortunately, we have a great deal of insurance professionals nearing retirement and not nearly enough new people entering our industry. This, coupled with rising payroll costs, has gotten independent insurance agents more and more interested in the virtual assistant model.
Here are some key reasons independent insurance agencies are looking at insurance VAs:
- Challenges in finding team members who want to enter into the insurance space.
- Compensation rates are increasing and agencies need to scale non-licensed work to support people.
- Office space can be expensive, but offshoring can help reduce the need for it.
- Need to build up agency leaders – for most virtual assistant companies you don’t need to directly manage the team members.
- Routine detailed work may not be the skill set of your licensed team.
- When you can free your team up you find more time for sales activities.
- Profit margins are shrinking, but scaling both licensed and non-licensed work can help increase them.
We recommend all of our agencies look into the insurance virtual assistant model as it can solve a multitude of independent insurance agency challenges.
What Can Insurance Virtual Assistants Do for an Insurance Agency?
For many agency owners the first question is, what can an insurance virtual assistant do to help support our agency and team? The general answer to this is – anything that does not require a license. However, identifying a clear list is helpful to identify how many you may need and what impact they can make.
Personal Insurance Tasks
- Sending documents for e-signature
- Updating billing information, including changing payment plans
- Distributing memos and processing cancellations
- Handling policy downloads
- Reviewing policy increases
- Quoting new business
- Remarketing accounts
- Cross-sell campaigns
- Adding or removing drivers/vehicles
- Adjusting coverage on auto policies
- Updating addresses on policies
- Updating VINs or other corrections
- Updating loss payee
- Updating billing information, including changing payment plans
- Updating discounts on auto
- Quoting new business and remarketing accounts
- Reviewing policy increases
- Calling clients regarding late payments and cancellations
- Collecting signatures for exclusions or applications
- Auditing accounts for proper signatures and trailing documents
- License tracking
- Inbound/outbound phone calls
- Mortgage changes
- Adding/removing scheduled coverage
- Updating policy discounts
- Making policy edits and corrections
- Collecting client information for new business quotes
Commercial Insurance Tasks
- Completing certificates of insurance
- Ordering loss runs
- Policy checking
- Inbound/Outbound calls
- ACORD forms and supplemental applications
- Adding/removing scheduled coverage
- Updating policy discounts
- Monitoring cancellations
- Sending documents for e-signature
- Updating billing information, including changing payment plans
- Distributing memos and processing cancellations
- Handling policy downloads
- Reviewing policy increases
- Quoting new business
- Remarketing accounts
- Auditing accounts for proper signatures
- Following up on trailing documents
- IVANS download reconciliation
Other Agency Tasks
- Claims Process
- Account current statements (agency bill)
- Direct bill commission (any method)
- Bank reconciliation
- Invoicing/billing
- Agency bill (Transactions, Installments, Multi-entry)
- Vendor (Payables, Templates, Credit cards)
- Cash receipt recording (Customers, Carriers, Epays, and more)
- Recording payroll transactions from third-party software
- Producer commissions, AJE’s, EOM, EOY
- Reporting on request
- 1099s
Recently, I went over to our virtual assistant partner, CoverDesk. There were a few other clients who were in attendance. I had the pleasure of meeting someone whose entire role was to identify anything that could be done overseas rather than in person in the U.S. They have 2 VA’s for every 1 licensed person in the U.S. and have been using virtual assistants for 7 years.
The idea is that when you identify what needs to be done in the U.S. vs. overseas, you may be surprised by what you find. I also share that virtual assistants can be a bit addictive. Once you have a few, you’ll see how easy they are to work with and how much value they can add to your agency and team.
Identifying Your Agency’s Insurance Virtual Assistant Needs
We never recommend doing something just to do it. Instead, you need to ensure there is a business need for you and your agency.
Here are some ways to identify what your agency needs:
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- Look at Your Agency’s Activity Report: For most agency management systems you can identify a year’s worth of tasks that your team has been doing. Identify all of the listed items that don’t require a license. If each one of those takes 5 minutes you can do the math and easily identify what work may be better suited for an insurance virtual assistant.
- Poll Your Team: Ask your team what tasks seem to backlog them. Most likely quoting will be high on the list (both new business and remarkets) once you have a list you can identify what parts of a process a virtual assistant can be handy in helping in.
- Find Services Your Agency Has Always Wanted to Enhance: Maybe you always wanted to have a claims process or someone to answer the phones. A virtual assistant may be a great fit to enhance your agency’s customer experience.
How To Find an Insurance VA
There is no shortage of opinions on this topic. Everyone with an insurance virtual assistant no doubt thinks their way is best. The reality is, insurance VAs are about 7-9 years old, so we are just getting started. It seems there are new VA companies popping up routinely. We encourage you to do the research and vet your partner.
Hiring Your First Insurance VA
There is a great quote, “There should be no first marriages, only second ones.” While I am very lucky to have a great first marriage, I get what this quote is getting at. In your first marriage you learn a lot. A lot about yourself, the other partner and what works. When you’re looking at hiring your first virtual assistant, you need to realize you will learn a lot from your first virtual assistant. Having the right partner is critical.
When getting your first virtual assistant, we recommend you work with a vendor who has done this for a long time and has the process down. You won’t know what you don’t know – but with a trusted long-term partner, they can link arms with you and navigate the process.
How To Find Potential VA Partners
You can do a quick Google search, contact your state association, or if you are brave, post on an insurance social media room and get all sorts of opinions! Whatever you do, I recommend you interview at least 3 potential partners to hear about all the ways they work and what they each do differently. This will help you identify what is best for your agency.
🎉 Get Your FREE Top Questions To Ask Your VA Partner Before Signing A Contract
Getting Your Agency Ready To Hire an Insurance VA
I have seen several insurance agencies think they can’t hire a virtual assistant until things are perfect. The reality is, with the right vendor, they have some of the key components ready for you.
If you want to get a bit ahead, here are some resources you can pull together:
- Job Description for your virtual assistant (this will help you find the right partner and right virtual assistant).
- Interview Questions: if you work with a partner that allows you to select your team, having some interview questions handy can be great. Just remember many of them will not have insurance experience when you interview them, once they accept the virtual assistant partner will start training them. Also, many of the virtual assistant firms also have an interview process with questions to assist you.
- Build your agency process and procedures: Every agency should have a written procedure manual however, few do. Don’t worry if you don’t have one yet. Many VA companies have some resources for this or you can have your VA create the procedure manually. Don’t worry we also have you covered with our process and procedure templates.
Check out our How to Hire an Insurance VA Process Pack for all of these resources ready to go for your agency!
Onboarding Your Insurance VA
Just like any new team member, there is an onboarding period. We recommend you work with your VA partner to identify their best practices, as training, technology, etc. will vary by each virtual assistant company. However, there are a few steps to a smooth onboarding for your U.S. team and the virtual assistant.
Telling Your U.S. Team About Your Insurance VA
The only way the VA model works is when your team is bought in and sends them work to accomplish. Without buy-in, you still have a stressed out team and you’re paying for an additional team member who is not being maximized.
Don’t be surprised if the team has concerns. I think we have all had a bad experience with an overseas customer service person. The clearer you are on the plan, logistics, and what they will be doing, the better the outcome you will have!
Also, upfront, make it a requirement to send certain tasks to your new virtual team member. It’s not up to the team member, it’s the new agency’s way of doing business.
One tip I always give agencies embracing virtual assistants is to make sure that a dedicated team member truly feels like part of your agency’s culture. This means team meetings, bonuses, parties, incentives, everything. They aren’t the VA, they are your team members.
Struggling with how to communicate what a VA is to your U.S. team? Let our How To Hire an Insurance VA Process Pack help you!
Onboarding Checklist for Insurance VAs
- Company organizational chart
- Job description
- Hours
- Chat, email, other communication channels
- Who they report to
- Company policies
- Processes
- Logins
- Identify any team and 1:1 meetings that need to be established
Maintain a Feedback Loop
Anything new has challenges. Challenges don’t mean we just stop, it means we work through them. Ensure you have a good feedback loop with your virtual assistant, the U.S. team, and your partner. Open and clear communication helps clear out any challenges quickly and efficiently. Most issues arise around training, clarity on the process, and slight cultural differences.
Conclusion on How To Hire an Insurance VA
Virtual assistants are transforming the insurance industry, offering a powerful solution for independent agencies facing staffing shortages, rising payroll costs, and the need for scalability. By leveraging the expertise of an insurance VA, you can alleviate stress and burnout for your team, free up time for high-value sales and client relationships, and boost your agency’s profit margins—all while maintaining compliance and efficiency.
Whether you opt for as-needed assistance, processing support, or a dedicated 1:1 relationship, the key is to identify your agency’s unique needs, vet potential VA partners thoroughly, and establish a clear onboarding and communication process. With the right partner and approach, an insurance VA becomes more than just a remote team member—they become an integral part of your agency’s success, helping you navigate the challenges of a dynamic industry while fostering a collaborative, productive culture.
Ready to take the next step? Explore our free resources, such as job description templates and interview questions, to start building your dream team today and unlock the full potential of your insurance agency.
🔥 Check Out Our Latest Blog: How To Hire An Insurance VA
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