A new independent P&C agency needs five things: a way to track clients and policies, a quoting tool, e-signatures, payment collection, and a system for follow-ups and renewals. Here's what actually matters in year one — and what you can skip until your book justifies it.
Start Your Insurance Agency From Scratch.
Everything you need to launch, grow and scale — all in one platform.
The Challenge
Starting a new agency is hard enough.
- ✕ Too many disconnected tools
- ✕ Leads get lost or follow-up is missed
- ✕ Manual quoting and policy tracking
- ✕ No visibility into pipeline or producer performance
- ✕ Renewals fall through the cracks
- ✕ Expensive, complex, and overwhelming
You didn't start your agency to fight software.
We built Tower CRM to run it for you.
Tower CRM: One Platform. Everything You Need.
AMS Integrations
Works with Applied Epic, HawkSoft, EZLynx & more
CRM & Pipeline
Manage prospects, clients, policies and pipeline in one place
Dialer & SMS
Built-in calling, texting and voicemails. Connect faster and close more
Marketing Automation
Email, text, nurture campaigns and drip sequences that convert
Lead Management
Capture leads from any source, route to producers, track every step
Website Forms
Custom forms and landing pages that turn traffic into opportunities
Policy & Renewal Mgmt
Track policies, set renewal alerts and automate follow-up
What You Get
- ✓ Launch faster with one unified system
- ✓ Capture more leads and follow up automatically
- ✓ Close more business with an organized pipeline
- ✓ Never miss a renewal or cross-sell opportunity
- ✓ Real-time visibility into your agency
- ✓ Lower costs and scale with confidence
Run your agency.
We'll handle the rest.
Your Agency Workflow — Start to Finish
1. Attract Leads
Web, Facebook, Google, Referrals
2. Capture & Route
Forms, calls routed to the right producer
3. Engage
Auto text, email and calls to start the conversation
4. Manage Pipeline
Track every lead, quote and follow-up
5. Close & Bind
Quote, bind and store policies with full history
6. Renew & Grow
Automate renewals, retain clients and cross-sell
Works with your AMS (or we can be yours)
Replace multiple tools with one platform
The advice you’ll find in most insurance forums goes something like this: pick an AMS first, then add a rater, then layer in everything else. That advice is technically correct for an established agency with a $2M book and two producers. For a scratch agent writing their first 50 policies, it’s a $300/month anchor before you’ve collected your first commission check.
I’ve helped hundreds of small businesses set up their CRM and sales infrastructure. Here’s the honest picture for someone starting from scratch.
The AMS-first myth
Agency management systems like Applied Epic, HawkSoft, and AMS360 are excellent products — for the agencies they were built for. A scratch agent is not that agency.
These platforms are built around carrier data integrations, ACORD form automation, multi-user workflows, and compliance reporting. All genuinely valuable at scale. All dramatically over-engineered for someone building a book from zero.
The real cost isn’t just the monthly fee. It’s the setup time, the learning curve, and the mental overhead of configuring a system designed for a 10-person agency when you’re a team of one trying to close your next policy.
What you actually need in year one
Most of what a scratch agency needs lives inside Tower CRM. Here’s how it breaks down:
CRM, pipeline, renewals, marketing, and analytics: Tower CRM (native)
Tower CRM’s insurance mode covers the full operational layer: policy and X-date tracking per household, visual sales pipeline from first contact to bound policy, renewal automation sequences that fire email and SMS reminders 30/14/7 days before every X-date, email campaigns and cross-sell drips, book of business analytics, and built-in commission tracking with a pre-configured dashboard report by producer.
When a policy binds, upload the carrier’s declaration page PDF and Tower extracts carrier name, policy number, effective and expiration dates, premium, and coverage details automatically — no retyping. At renewal, upload the new dec page and the policy record updates in place.
Cost during beta: free.
Quoting: carrier copy + built-in multi-factor rater
Tower’s carrier copy feature eliminates re-keying: enter client data once, push it to any carrier portal in a click — no retyping names, DOBs, VINs, and addresses across five different sites. When quotes come back, you log them directly in Tower’s Quote Comparison table.
Tower’s built-in rater scores every quote across four factors — premium (40%), deductible (25%), liability limit (20%), and AM Best carrier rating (15%) — and ranks them automatically. The cheapest quote isn’t always the winner, and the table makes that visible at a glance. No standalone comparative rater required.
E-signature: DocuSign via Zapier (one-time setup)
Tower connects to DocuSign through Zapier — configure it once and trigger signature requests directly from a client record without leaving Tower. You get the DocuSign workflow your clients recognize without paying for a standalone e-sign subscription on top of your CRM.
Payment processing: ePayPolicy or Stripe via Zapier
Payment collection isn’t native to Tower yet — connect ePayPolicy (insurance-specific, handles premium financing and agency fees) or Stripe via Zapier. Tower logs the payment trigger and outcome; the processor handles the transaction.
AMS vs CRM: what actually happens when you connect them
An AMS handles policy administration and carrier data feeds. A CRM handles relationships, pipeline, follow-up, and marketing. The common assumption is that you need both running in parallel forever. In practice, many independent agents find something different.
When Tower CRM connects to an AMS like EZLynx, HawkSoft, or NowCerts, your policy and client data syncs automatically. Tower then handles everything the AMS was never built to do well: renewal sequences, lead pipeline, email campaigns, cross-sell tracking, and client communication history. Agents who run both often find that Tower is doing the actual daily work — and the AMS is running quietly in the background handling carrier downloads.
The AMS doesn’t disappear. But it stops being the center of gravity. For many agencies, that’s a better outcome than choosing one tool over the other.
If you’re starting from scratch with no existing AMS: Tower CRM covers your client tracking, pipeline, renewal automation, and marketing from day one. You may find you never need a separate AMS — or you add one later for specific carrier feed requirements without disrupting anything you’ve already built.
The setup order
- Tower CRM — configure your insurance mode, set up your pipeline stages, and enter your first contacts before your first appointment
- DocuSign via Zapier — 30-minute setup; connect once and trigger from Tower going forward
- ePayPolicy or Stripe via Zapier — when you collect your first agency fee
- AMS (if required) — if a specific carrier appointment requires documented AMS usage or you want direct carrier data feeds; Tower connects and keeps running as your relationship and sales layer
Most scratch agents need items 1–3. Item 4 is a when-you-need-it addition, not a day-one requirement.
Free Download
CRM & AMS Evaluation Checklist
20 questions to ask before choosing your agency software stack — so you don't get locked into the wrong platform in year one.
Business email required · No spam
Full Guide
How to Start a Scratch Insurance Agency — The Complete Year-One Guide
Everything you need to launch your first independent P&C agency: licensing, entity setup, carrier appointments, leads, dialer, CRM, and the lean tech stack.