Every article on this site says we compare carriers. This page says exactly which ones, which lines each writes, how we handle the companies we can't place directly, and how we get paid. If you're going to take advice from an agency about which insurer to use, you should be able to see the agency's own interests first.
Richard Johnson Group's carrier access is 25 direct appointments, and this market disclosure lists what we can place and what we can't. We write home, auto, renters, life, business and recreational coverage across Georgia from Ringgold and Augusta. State Farm, Allstate, USAA and Georgia Farm Bureau we cannot bind directly; when one fits better, we connect you through partners.
- 25 direct appointments, listed in full below and on our carrier page.
- Not every carrier writes every line. Appetite varies by product, property type and county.
- We're paid by the carriers we place with, which is how independent agencies work. That's the interest to know about.
- We'll tell you when a company we can't place is likely the better answer.
Do this: when any agency compares carriers for you, ask two questions. Which of these can you actually bind today, and are there companies outside your list that would likely price me better? Any honest agency will answer both.
There's a version of "independent agent" that means very little. An agency with three appointments can truthfully say it shops the market, and a comparison across three carriers is not a comparison across the market.
So rather than ask you to take the word independent on faith, here's the full picture: who we can place, who we can't, how appetite varies by product, and where our compensation comes from. Richard has been doing this in Georgia for forty years and the agency has been independent since 1997. This page is what that actually buys you.
Our market access at a glance
| Item | Where we stand |
|---|---|
| Direct carrier appointments | 25, listed below |
| Lines placed | Home, auto, renters, life, business, recreational (RV, boat), umbrella, dwelling fire and rental property |
| Licensed in | Georgia. Licensee status is verifiable through the Georgia Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire. |
| Offices | Ringgold (headquarters) and Augusta |
| Independent since | 1997 |
| Direct and captive carriers | Referred through carrier and agency partners, not bound by us |
| Compensation | Commission from the carrier that issues the policy |
| Paid placement | None. No carrier pays for position on this site. |
Why Do We Publish This?
The short answer: because we compare carriers publicly, and a comparison is only worth reading if you can see the comparer's constraints.
Three specific reasons. An agency that ranks insurers while hiding which ones it sells is producing marketing dressed as advice. Readers and search engines have both gotten better at spotting that. And practically, it saves everyone time: if you already know we can't bind State Farm, you won't spend a conversation wondering why it isn't in our comparison.
It also sets a standard we then have to meet. Every article on this site that names carriers carries a short version of this disclosure, and this is the long version those link to. The companion page, our rate and quote data methodology, covers how we handle the numbers.
Which Carriers Can We Place Directly?
The short answer: these 25. The same list appears on our carrier page, and it's what we mean whenever an article on this site says "we shop 25 carriers."
An important qualification: a carrier appointment is not a blank cheque. Each of these companies writes specific lines and has its own appetite, and several are specialists rather than generalists. Hagerty writes classic and collector vehicles. Jewelers Mutual writes scheduled jewelry. Banner Life and Prudential are life carriers. Obie writes rental property. Universal Property, Homeowners of America and Orion180 are property carriers. So "25 carriers" is the size of the toolbox, not the number of quotes you'll get on any one policy.
What you'll actually see on a given quote is the subset of those 25 that writes your product, in your county, for your property or vehicle and your record. On a straightforward Georgia home or auto policy that's typically several companies, which is enough to reveal the spread that matters.
"Which of your carriers actually quoted my policy, and which declined or weren't eligible?" We'll tell you. Knowing that two carriers declined your roof is more useful information than a single number, because it tells you something real about where your property sits in the market.
What About Carriers You Can't Place?
The short answer: we tell you about them anyway, and we can connect you through our carrier and agency partners rather than pretending they don't exist.
Several of the largest names in Georgia insurance sell only direct to consumers or only through their own captive agents. State Farm, Allstate, USAA and Georgia Farm Bureau are the ones that come up most. They appear in published rate comparisons, they're competitive for some profiles, and no independent agency can bind them.
Our approach:
- We name them in comparisons where the data includes them. Hiding a competitor from you isn't a service.
- We say plainly when one is likely to beat us for your specific profile. USAA for eligible military families is the most common example, and it comes up regularly around Fort Eisenhower and Fort Moore.
- We connect you through our carrier and agency partners where a partner relationship exists, rather than sending you off to figure it out alone.
- We never present a referred carrier as a direct appointment. If we can't bind it, we say we can't bind it.
The reasoning is simple and slightly self-interested: the households that stay with us for decades are the ones we told the truth to in year one, including the year we told them to go somewhere else.
What Does Independent Actually Mean Here?
The short answer: we work for you rather than for one insurer, we can move you between carriers without you starting over, and no carrier sets our advice.
How Does Richard Johnson Group Get Paid?
The short answer: commission from the carrier that issues your policy.
That's the standard independent agency model and it's the interest you should know about when reading anything we publish.
You don't pay us a fee for a quote or for a policy review. The carrier pays a commission out of the premium, typically a percentage that varies by line of business and carrier. That model has one obvious tension worth naming: an agency is paid more when premiums are higher, and paid nothing when we tell you to stay where you are.
Here's how we handle that tension, stated so you can hold us to it:
- We tell you when your current policy is already competitive. That conversation earns us nothing and it's the reason people come back.
- We don't recommend coverage you don't need to raise a premium. The recommendations that recur on this site, adequate liability limits, matching uninsured motorist coverage, replacement cost roofs, are the ones that pay claims, and several of them cost very little.
- No carrier pays for placement on this site. There is no paid ranking, no sponsored carrier, no affiliate arrangement behind the comparisons.
- We disclose partner referrals as referrals.
If you'd rather work with a fee-only advisor who takes no commission, that's a legitimate model and it exists. It's just not ours, and you should know which one you're dealing with.
Where Are We Genuinely Limited?
The short answer: in six places, and naming them is more useful than claiming we cover everything.
- Georgia only. We're a Georgia agency. If you're moving out of state we'll help you find someone, but we can't follow you.
- Direct and captive carriers. Covered above. We refer rather than bind.
- Some hard-to-place property. Very old roofs, homes with multiple recent claims, certain coastal exposures and unusual construction can exceed our standard markets. Specialty and surplus lines often solve it; the Georgia Underwriting Association, the state FAIR plan, is the genuine last resort. When it makes sense is explained in our Georgia FAIR plan guide.
- Large commercial accounts. We write small business and commercial property well. Complex or large-schedule commercial risk sometimes belongs with a specialist broker and we'll say so.
- Non-standard auto after serious violations. We have markets, and they're limited, and pricing improves as the record ages.
- Product lines we don't write. Health insurance and Medicare are not our lines.
When Does This Disclosure Change?
The short answer: whenever our appointments change, which happens more often than people assume.
Carrier appointments are business relationships and they move. A carrier may pull back from Georgia, tighten appetite on roof age, restrict new business in certain counties, or open up a line it previously didn't write. When our list changes, this page changes and the last-verified date at the bottom updates. Any article that names carriers is refreshed on the same quarterly cycle described in our methodology.
Two practical notes. First, availability at the time you read an article isn't a guarantee of availability at the time you apply, so we confirm eligibility at quote rather than promising it in print. Second, appetite is not binary: a carrier we place regularly may still decline your specific property, and that's normal rather than a sign something's wrong.
Carrier lists and appointment status change. This page reflects our market access as of the last-verified date below. If you're reading it much later than that, ask us to confirm current availability for your product and county before relying on it.
The Bottom Line
We hold 25 direct carrier appointments and place home, auto, renters, life, business and recreational coverage across Georgia from Ringgold and Augusta. Not every one of those carriers writes every line, so the number of quotes you see on a given policy is the subset that fits your risk.
The large direct and captive carriers we cannot bind, and when one of them is the better answer for you we'll say so and connect you through our partners. To see how that market access works on a real quote, start with our auto insurance, home insurance or business insurance pages.
We're paid by the carrier that issues your policy, no carrier pays for placement here, and nobody reviews what we publish except a licensed Georgia agent whose name is on it. That's the whole disclosure. Now, if you'd like to see what the market actually does with your profile, send us your declarations page.
Want the number for your situation?
Send us your declarations page and we will run identical coverage across the carriers that write your risk. More in our trust and methodology pages and on our about page.
Related questions
Usually several, but not all 25, because each carrier writes specific lines and has its own appetite by property type, vehicle, record and county. On a straightforward Georgia home or auto policy you'll typically see multiple competing quotes, which is enough to reveal the spread. We'll tell you which carriers quoted and which declined.
Those companies distribute through their own captive agents or direct to consumers rather than through independent agencies. It's a distribution choice on their part, not a judgment about them or us. They're competitive for some profiles, we say so when they are, and we can connect you through our carrier and agency partners.
No. The commission is paid by the carrier out of the premium, and rates are filed with the state, so the same policy generally doesn't cost more because an agent placed it. What you get in exchange is one application across several carriers and a person who moves you when your carrier reprices you.
We re-market it across our remaining appointments and, if needed, specialty and surplus markets. Non-renewals in Georgia are usually about roof age, claim frequency or a carrier exiting a segment rather than anything you did wrong. It's a conversation, not a dead end, and it's one of the main practical advantages of not being tied to one insurer.
We're a Georgia agency serving the state from Ringgold and Augusta. If you're relocating we'll help you understand what changes and point you toward finding an agent in the new state, but we can't place the policy ourselves.
Not by name, since that's other people's business. What we can do is tell you which carriers are currently competitive for your profile in your county, and which ones tend to decline it, based on what we're placing now. That's more useful than an anecdote anyway.
Frequently asked questions
Which insurance carriers does Richard Johnson Group represent?
We hold 25 direct appointments, including Travelers, The Hanover, American Modern, Aegis, Foremost, National General, Obie, Orion180, American National, Liberty Mutual, RLI, Progressive, TPI, Personal Umbrella, Universal Property, Homeowners of America, Cincinnati Insurance, Mercury, Prudential, OpenRoad, US Assure, Jewelers Mutual, Hagerty, GEICO and Banner Life. Several are specialists, so the carriers quoting any given policy are the subset that writes that line and appetite.
Can Richard Johnson Group quote State Farm, Allstate or USAA?
Not directly. Those carriers distribute through captive agents or sell direct to consumers, so no independent agency can bind them. They do appear in published Georgia rate comparisons and they're competitive for some profiles. When one of them is likely the better fit for you, we say so and can connect you through our carrier and agency partners rather than leaving it out of the conversation.
How is Richard Johnson Group compensated?
By commission from the carrier that issues your policy, which is the standard independent agency model. You don't pay a fee for a quote or a policy review. No carrier pays for placement, ranking or favorable mention on this site, and there are no affiliate arrangements behind our comparisons. The tension worth naming is that we earn nothing when we tell you your current policy is already competitive, which we do regularly.
What does an independent insurance agent actually do differently?
An independent agency takes your information once and runs it across multiple carriers rather than one, matches your profile to the carriers whose appetite fits it, and can move you between insurers at renewal without you starting the process over. Because no single carrier employs us, no carrier scripts our recommendations, and when your current insurer reprices you we can re-market rather than defend the increase.
What kinds of insurance can Richard Johnson Group not place?
We're licensed in Georgia only, and we don't write health insurance or Medicare. We refer rather than bind the large direct and captive carriers. Very hard-to-place property, such as homes with very old roofs, multiple recent claims or unusual construction, may exceed our standard markets, in which case specialty and surplus lines usually solve it and the Georgia Underwriting Association is the last resort. Large or complex commercial accounts sometimes belong with a specialist broker, and we'll say so.
Last verified by the Richard Johnson Group team on .