Going from captive to independent: moving your marketing

Plan the marketing move before you give notice. The carrier's brand, its listing page and possibly your phone number and Google profile may stay behind. Have a new name, domain and website ready for the day your appointments start. Read your agent agreement with a lawyer before you contact a single former customer.

Key facts

• Independent agents placed about 62% of US property and casualty (P&C) premium in 2025, and 39.5% of personal lines (Agency Checklists on the Big "I" 2026 Market Share Report).
• There were about 37,000 independent agencies in 2026, down from 39,000 in 2024 (Insurance Journal).
• In 2023 a federal appeals court upheld Allstate's win against two former agents who kept policyholder spreadsheets and used them to solicit customers (Insurance Journal).
• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rule that would have banned most noncompete clauses never took effect, so your contract and state law decide (FTC).

What can you take with you, and what stays?

That depends on your agent agreement and your state's law. This is general information, not legal advice.

Book ownership, non-solicitation periods and the use of customer lists differ by carrier and by contract. Read yours line by line with a lawyer who handles agent agreements, before you resign.

Court cases show what is at stake. In the 2023 case, the agreements listed policyholder names, addresses, policy types, premiums and renewal dates as confidential information. They also made Allstate the exclusive owner of that information and required agents to return it when they left. The appeals court treated the spreadsheets as trade secrets.

Don't take the customer list: In another 2023 case, a former Allstate agent in North Carolina agreed to stop selling rival products to former clients and to return confidential client information. She disputed Allstate's allegations but settled (Insurance Journal).

There is no federal ban on noncompete clauses to fall back on. A court stopped the FTC rule in August 2024, and in February 2026 the FTC published a notice removing it. Ask your lawyer these questions:

1. Who owns the book of business, and is any payment due for it?
2. How long does any non-solicitation or non-compete period last, and over what area?
3. What counts as soliciting: direct calls, mailings, texts, social media posts?
4. May you run general local advertising, such as search ads, during that period?
5. What must you return or delete, and by when?

Step 1: Choose a new name and domain

Pick a name you can use for years, and register the domain in your own name. The carrier's name belongs to the carrier, so leave it out of the new name and domain. Google's guidelines say a profile name "should reflect your business's real-world name," as used on your storefront and website (Google). Settle the name first, because the profile, website and signs all follow it.

Register the domain, email and every account in the agency's name, not a vendor's. Our website ownership checklist lists the accounts to hold yourself.

Step 2: Have the website ready on day one

Build it before you leave, and launch it when your appointments are active. Assume your carrier listing page will come down or change hands. You can't redirect a page the carrier controls, so the new site starts without its history.

If you owned a separate domain as a captive, keep it and redirect its pages to the new site, where your agreement allows. Google recommends permanent redirects, kept for at least a year (Google Search Central). It also warns to expect "temporary fluctuation in site ranking during the move."

The site should name the carriers you now represent, where each carrier allows it. Carrier approval of your website and ads is your responsibility.

Step 3: Sort out the Google profile, phone number and reviews

Ask who controls each one before you leave. The answers decide what you rebuild from scratch.

Google Business Profile. For a solo agent at a branded office, Google's guidelines call for one shared profile. Its name takes the form "[brand/company]: [practitioner name]". If yours was set up that way, ask the carrier whether you or the carrier manages it after you go.

If the carrier keeps it, you start a new profile under the new name. Its reviews stay with the old profile.

Phone number. Federal rules define number portability as keeping your number "when switching from one telecommunications carrier to another." That helps only if the phone account is in your name. If the insurance carrier supplied the number, ask whether you can take it. Google requires a profile number "under the direct control of the business."

Reviews. You start again on a new profile. Ask every new customer, not only the happy ones, because Google bars businesses from selectively soliciting positive reviews (Google). Our guide to asking for Google reviews has wording you can use.

Step 4: Tell people without breaking the contract

Announce the new agency to the public, not to the former carrier's customer list. Local search ads, a new profile, signs and community events reach anyone nearby. Whether any of those count as soliciting during a restricted period is a question for your lawyer.

Our guide to marketing a new agency covers the first year in more detail.

Which Webdimonia plan fits a new independent agency?

Independent agencies can choose the Agency System or the Website plan. The Agency System is $500 for month 1, then $299 a month from month 2.

It includes the website, hosting and care, plus a follow-up system: instant replies to new leads, a text back to missed callers, review requests and renewal check-ins. The Website plan is $2,000 to start, then $99/month for hosting and care. The full lists are on our pricing page.

Set up any automated messages so they reach only people you are allowed to contact. A renewal check-in to a former carrier's customer could count as soliciting.

Bring your new agency name and your lawyer's answers to a website strategy call, and we will plan the site and launch date around them.