By
Captive Agent vs Independent Insurance Broker
Both hold the same Texas license and both are good at the job. The difference is who they work for, how many doors they can open, and who remembers your file next year.
The answer
A captive agent works for one insurance company and sells only its policies. An independent broker holds the same Texas license and chooses among many carriers with you. The captive is faster on a quote and knows one carrier cold. The broker makes every carrier win its way onto your page and keeps your file as the carriers change. Captive carriers are excellent for most families, and the moment a household moves from a policy to a portfolio is the moment the second door earns its keep. The license is the same. The duty is different.
Two doors, side by side
TDI puts it in two sentences. Captive agents work for an insurance company and sell only that company's policies. Independent agents sell insurance for multiple companies. Everything else on this page follows from where the duty runs, to the company, or to the family at the table. Where the duty runs decides everything after it.
-
Captive agent
- TDI's description
- Works for an insurance company and sells only its policies
- Carriers on the menu
- One
- The first quote
- Fast, one system to run
- Who the duty runs to
- The company
- When your life changes
- The menu stays one carrier wide
- Who remembers your file
- The agent, until the carrier or the agent changes
- What it comes down to
- One menu
-
Independent broker
- TDI's description
- Sells insurance for multiple companies
- Carriers on the menu
- 50+ top Texas carriers we know well
- The first quote
- A little longer, every carrier runs
- Who the duty runs to
- The family at the table
- When your life changes
- The menu grows with you
- Who remembers your file
- The same desk, carrier after carrier
- What it comes down to
- The whole market
What a captive agent does best
Give the captive agent full credit. The quote comes back fast, because there is one system to run and one carrier to know, and a good captive agent knows it cold. Captive carriers are excellent for most families, and some reward decades of tenure in ways no new carrier can match. When that is the case for you, we say so first. When staying is right, we are the first to raise the white flag.
A roof, a grandfather, and the right answer
A household called with good rates. We could save them a little, and they wanted to switch. Then the roof came up, thirty-five years old, and the grandfather had been with the same carrier for decades. No carrier we know would have taken that roof as new business. Their captive carrier had carried the family long enough to keep it. We told them to call their State Farm agent back and apologize, because he had done the best anyone could have for them. The same goes for a run of accidents a new carrier would never take. Staying was right, and a fleeting switch would have let them down.
Two doors, one carrier, and the price
People assume going direct is cheaper. In our experience the two doors are rarely the same price, and it is not always the door you would guess. The direct door asks fewer questions, because it is built to be easy at eleven at night, and some carriers write each door through a different company of their own. Progressive's own annual report describes an Agency business written through independent agencies and a Direct business written online, on mobile, and over the phone. At a brokerage, the carrier you end up with had to beat every other carrier we run to reach the page at all. A carrier has to win its way onto your page.
Service after bind, the best of both doors
Here is the part almost nobody tells you. Written through a brokerage, you still have the carrier's service line. Our clients with Progressive can call Progressive. A billing question, a payment date, the app, the card in the glovebox, roadside, those are the carrier's to answer, and they answer them well. An underwriting question, a change to the house, a new car or a new driver, advice, next steps, a claim you want walked through, those come to the desk that knows your file. You keep the carrier's service line. You gain a desk that knows your file.
Call the carrier for
- A billing question or a payment date.
- The app, the login, or a card for the glovebox.
- Roadside or a tow.
- A payment that did not post.
Call your broker for
- An underwriting question, or a letter you do not understand.
- A change to the house, the roof, the fence, the pool, the addition.
- A new car, a new driver, or a driver leaving the household.
- Advice, next steps, a claim walked through, and the renewal read line by line.
Your own primary care physician
Calling a carrier's service line is like walking into the emergency room downtown. You will be helped, by whichever of a thousand people is on shift, and you will start from the top. A broker is your primary care physician. One desk that knows the house, the cars, the record, and the history, and keeps knowing it when the carrier changes. Our lives move too fast and carry too much context to re-explain to a stranger every time. Three carriers in fifteen years, and nobody re-explains the file.
- 01
Carrier 1
Year one
The first house and two cars. The carrier that wants a newer roof and a clean record wins the page.
- 02
Carrier 2
Year six
The move-up home, a teen driver, and a roof that is no longer new. A different carrier wants this household now, and the file moves with it.
- 03
Carrier 3
Year twelve
A rental, an umbrella, and inherited land. The portfolio outgrows the second carrier, and the desk that placed the first house places this one.
- 04
Same desk
Every year between
The renewal read, the questions answered, the claim walked through, by the people who know what happened the year before.
When your life changes
The trouble starts when a family's life changes and the carrier's appetite does not grow with it. The move-up home, the kids who drive, a second property, a business, inherited land or jewelry, layered liability. Read the two lists as they are. Your life changed. The insurance deserves another look.
Stay with your captive agent when
- One policy, or a home and two cars, with a carrier that wants exactly that.
- Decades of tenure are holding a roof or a record a new carrier would question.
- The price moved with the market and the contract did not.
- The agent reads the renewal with you and says stay when staying is right.
Open the second door when
- The household moved from a policy to a portfolio, a rental, an umbrella, a business, a boat.
- The roof, the record, or the location put the house outside one carrier's appetite.
- The renewal came back with changes nobody explained.
- You want the whole market read against the contract you hold, with the reason in writing.
What happens when you send it
You want one thing from this page. To know whether the second door changes anything for your household, and to hear it plainly, including when it does not. Here is the whole path.
- 01
Free
Send it
The declarations pages for the house and the cars, through Compare Coverage or by email to contact@mcdadeins.com.
- 02
On our desk
We read contract to contract
Every carrier we run has to beat the policy you hold on the contract before it is allowed to beat it on price. Comparing apples to apples does not work, because we do not sell fruit.
- 03
Your call
You get one of three answers
Stay, adjust, or move, with the reason in writing. About 40 percent of the time we tell homeowners to stay with their current carrier, and sometimes even with their current agent, because that is the right answer for the family.
You choose the door. We make every carrier earn the page.
The duty is the difference
I interned at State Farm and built my career at Liberty Mutual, and I did that work well enough to be a nationwide Rookie of the Year. A captive agent works for the company whose name is on the door, and that is honest work I respect. I left because I wanted more control over whether my promises to a family got kept, and I believe the standard went up the day the duty ran to the family at the table. It is why McDade Insurance is driven to serve.
Charles McDade, LUTCF
Questions readers ask
Is a captive agent cheaper than an independent broker?
Rarely the same price, and not always the door you would guess. A licensed carrier's rate is on file with TDI and no agent can change it, but the direct door often asks fewer questions, and some carriers write each door through a different company of their own. Through a brokerage, the carrier you see had to beat every other carrier we run.
Can I still call my insurance company if I buy through a broker?
Yes. The policy is with the carrier, and the carrier's service line is yours for billing, payments, the app, and roadside. The broker's desk is for underwriting questions, changes to the house or the cars, advice, and the renewal. You keep the service line and gain the desk.
What is the difference between a captive agent and an independent agent?
In TDI's words, captive agents work for an insurance company and sell only that company's policies, and independent agents sell insurance for multiple companies. The license is the same Texas agent license. The difference is who the duty runs to and how many doors can open.
Does an independent broker charge a fee?
Nationally the word broker often comes with a fee, and NAIC says so in its own guide. In Texas the license is the same agent license, and McDade adds no agency or brokerage fees to personal lines policies, including personal flood and surplus lines home. The carrier pays a commission it sets.
When should I stay with my captive agent?
When the carrier wants exactly what you have, when decades of tenure are holding a roof or a record a new carrier would question, and when the agent reads the renewal with you and says stay when staying is right. We say it often, and we mean it.
What happens to my file if a broker moves me to a new carrier?
The carrier changes. The desk stays. The history, the roof, the claims, the cars, and what was decided each year stay with the people who placed you, so nobody re-explains the file to a stranger.
Sources worth opening before you decide
- How do I find an insurance agent or company?, Texas Department of Insurance, updated December 11, 2025
- How to Choose an Insurance Agent, National Association of Insurance Commissioners, February 1, 2019
- Texas Insurance Code, Chapter 4001, Texas Legislature Online, the agent license and the acts of an agent
- The Progressive Corporation, 2020 Annual Report, Form 10-K, the Agency business and the Direct business as separate channels
The purpose is to help the reader ask better questions before claim time.
Get an unbiased read
One menu or the whole market. See what the second door opens.
Send the declarations pages for the house and the cars. A licensed Texas agent reads them contract to contract, makes every carrier earn its place on the page, and tells you plainly when your captive agent is already the right call. We translate the contract before you sign for another year.
The audit is free. The decision is yours. No broker fees for personal lines clients.