The appointment you cannot get is the business you cannot write.

A carrier appointment is a commercial decision about volume. From the carrier's side an agency writing under a million dollars is a small relationship with the same servicing cost as a large one, which is why the answer is so often no, or a production requirement you cannot meet in year one.

Inside a network the volume being evaluated is the group's. That changes which carriers will talk, what production commitments look like, and how quickly a new line becomes something you can actually quote. What it does not change is the carrier's appetite, their underwriting or their right to say no, and we would rather tell you that here than have you discover it after joining. What membership moves is which side of the carrier's arithmetic your agency is on.

Direct appointment. The carrier appoints your agency, in your name, with your own code. You are the agent of record. If you leave the network, the appointment is yours to keep, subject to the carrier's own rules and whatever your network agreement says. This is the strongest form and the hardest to get.

Sub-code under the network's appointment. The carrier appoints the network, and you write under it. This is how most networks deliver most of their access, and it is a legitimate arrangement that gets you into markets you could not reach alone. What matters is what happens at the end: whether the business can be moved, what notice applies, and whether the carrier will convert you to a direct code. We answer all three in writing, carrier by carrier, before you write anything through one.

Placement through the network's team. Somebody who places risks all day handles the submission. Useful for the account that does not fit anywhere obvious, and for a line you are learning rather than one you write weekly.

Wholesale, excess and surplus. The hard-to-place business that walks into every agency and usually walks back out again. Access here is about relationships with brokers rather than appointments with carriers, and it works differently.

We wrote this up at length in direct appointment or sub-code, including what to ask and what the answers tell you.

1. Which carriers, in which states, for which lines. A list rather than a total. "Over 100 carriers" means nothing if four of them write your line in your state, so we answer it the way it matters to you.
2. Direct or sub-code, carrier by carrier. Not in general. Carrier by carrier, in writing, because the difference decides what you own. There is more on that in direct appointment or sub-code.
3. What happens to each appointment if you ever leave. Settled before you sign rather than when you want to go.
4. What production is expected, and what happens if a year is light. Carriers grant appointments against expected volume. You will know the number before you take the code.
5. Who you call about a risk that does not fit. A person who places business all day, not a list.
6. How long a new appointment actually takes. It depends on the carrier and on what you already hold, and we will tell you what we are seeing rather than what sounds good.

All six are part of the first real conversation, and the commercial terms behind them are published on the terms page.

The most common frustration in an independent agency is not having too few markets. It is having markets and not knowing, at the moment a client is sitting in front of you, which one wants this particular risk this particular month. Appetite moves constantly and nobody sends a memo.

Two things help. The first is people: somebody who places this class of business every week and knows where it is landing right now. The second is tooling, and appetite search is on the technology roadmap in the list of things being built rather than the list of things that exist. We would rather say that plainly than describe a feature you cannot use yet.