First Vocational Visit - Paul

My first vocational on Tuesday is spent all day at Correta Seguros - http://www.corretaseguros.com.br/. It is owned by Rotarian Sergio Magalhaes who is also a city councilman. It is a big day for him as they are in meetings about their upcoming IPO. I spend the day with his brother Luciano. Their business has 40 offices through out the state and they buy agencies all through out Epirito Santo. As it is in the US, insurance is very competitive, but not mandatory. If you cannot or do not buy insurance, the government will privide you with a very basic limited policy for free. The largest part of their business is auto insurance, but they also sell home, business, life and annuities. I see the familiar names of Liberty Mutual, Met Life, Chubb and ING. There are also many Brazilian insurers here as well. Here, every agent is an independent broker like me there are no exclusives like State Farm, Allstate and Farmers. Here insurance is about 3% of GDP, where in the US it is 13%. They are confident it will continue to grow, and are poised to take advantage of this and have a very sophisticated and well drawn business plan that focuses on customer service, as the majority of their business is by referral. I can tell it is successful, they have over 50,000 policyholders. Insurance is expensive for cars (as are the cars themselves), but very inexpensive for property. They have the same coverage forms, but you must choose everything, not bundled like the US. Limits are lower and they have a very unique way of deductible options with the deductibles being a percent value of the car, not a fixed dollar amount.

More later on my visits on Wednesday.