First Chicago Insurance Information

First Chicago sells its policies through a select network of professional independent insurance agents. Agents are vital to our organization and the service that we provide to our customers. Their expertise, customer service and local presence are instrumental to the way we promote and sell our products. Independent agents are not employees of First Chicago; however, we do compensate them for placing insurance with us and for providing other customer service to our policy holders. We pay agents a base commission for each insurance policy they sell. The commission is paid for new and renewal policies with First Chicago. The commission is a percentage of the premium charged to the insured for the policy. The amount of the commission varies by the type of policy sold, state where agent does business, and a host of other variables. Throughout the year, we may also provide incentives or contests to encourage agents to place business with First Chicago. These contests generally offer either cash or prizes to the agent when he or she sells a particular First Chicago product that the contest serves to promote. We may also reimburse an agent's expenses relating to marketing activities. This may include advertising materials, training expenses, or goods and services that help to promote our company and our products. We also may pay for business meals and provide other entertainment for our agents. From time to time, we also send agents complimentary items of nominal value in order to introduce new products or services that are available to them and our customers.