Excellent article. Thank you for taking the time to share this. I wholeheartedly agree that there is hope for the agency distribution model. In fact there is a greater need for a trusted, talented caring human being (agent) to educate other human beings (consumers) more today than pre internet, pre-video technology. You rightly point out the model will need to evolve, like most everything else to survive and thrive. In the end the agency model boils down to conversations with customers. Today conversations don’t take place as often in person, but by other vehicles such as email, chat, text, social media, etc. The point is that a conversation is still valuable to the consumer. To use an admittedly crude analogy; ever since cavemen traded rocks for sticks a trusting relationship mattered. In today’s economy and in fact todays insurance point of sale interaction that trusting relationship is king. Trust is the foundation of the relationship and the relationships is gold. Cavemen progressed to drawing a picture on the side of cave wall to make their point, enhance their ability to build a trusting relationship. Excellent article. Thank you for taking the time to share this. I wholeheartedly agree that there is hope for the agency distribution model. In fact there is a greater need for a trusted, talented caring human being (agent) to educate other human beings (consumers) more today than pre internet, pre-video technology. You rightly point out the model will need to evolve, like most everything else to survive and thrive. In the end the agency model boils down to conversations with customers. Today conversations don’t take place as often in person, but by other vehicles such as email, chat, text, social media, etc. The point is that a conversation is still valuable to the consumer. To use an admittedly crude analogy; ever since cavemen traded rocks for sticks a trusting relationship mattered. In today’s economy and in fact todays insurance point of sale interaction that trusting relationship is king. Trust is the foundation of the relationship and the relationships is gold. Cavemen progressed to drawing a picture on the side of cave wall to make their point, enhance their ability to build a trusting relationship. The video technology is just another incremental step toward a richer, more valuable conversation/interaction.