Online insurance company opting to use agents

Michigan-based American Community Mutual Insurance Co., which in 2007 formed a new subsidiary called Precedent Insurance to market exclusively online in Texas, has abandoned that effort and switched to using agents. The online-only sales approach didn't work so well, and the company has ceased using the technology it had licensed from a California business software developer, said a spokesman. American Community is now using agents to sell the same individual coverage in Texas and nine other states.