Shopping for insurance can be an intimidating process for many people, and while it’s becoming increasingly simple for consumers to get insurance quotes through a variety of different mediums, many consumers are electing each year to simply renew their current policy. According to a recent report from PropertyCasualty360.com, only 21% of people in the past 12 months have shopped their auto and home insurance, and less than half of those people have ended up switching their carrier. Knowing that only one in five consumers will shop their insurance in a given year, many financial institutions are discouraged from getting into the insurance business because the large upfront investment required to acquire an insurance agency doesn’t justify the return on investment from projected new policy sales.

Several credit unions and banks around the country have found that this is simply not the case. By positioning an “insurance aisle,” where shoppers can receive competitive rates from the nation’s leading insurance carriers, as part of their product suite, these industry leaders are finding that not only will a higher percent of their members and customers shop their insurance, but they will shop their insurance with them.

In October, 2012, Insight Credit Union launched Insight Insurance Services, a wholly owned insurance agency where credit union members could shop, compare, and buy their insurance. Based on national averages, a credit union of Insight’s size (55,000 members), would have expected that about 900 of their members would shop for auto or home insurance that month, and only a fraction of those would shop with the same agency.

Within 30 days of launch, Insight Insurance Services had seen over 700 of their members shop for insurance through their online insurance agency site. Projecting that out over their first year of operation – they expect that over 15% of their members will shop their insurance with them – meaning that nearly all of their members who will shop their insurance this year will shop with them.