Frequently Asked Questions
What is Yapacopia?
- Yapacopia is the best way to find and buy financial products and services like insurance. Yapacopia connects you to financial providers that live in or near your community that have agreed to give a substantial portion of their earnings back to the charity of your choice. You get the benefit of a financial professional that knows your needs and your market better than anyone, your community wins with all the benefits of ‘buying locally’ and the ultimate benefit of creating an ongoing donation to your favorite charity at no cost to you. Customers get a secure account space on Yapacopia where they can view all their providers, their chosen charities, and track the donations made.
Our California insurance customers get the added benefit of choosing a rebate of funds instead of a donation or, if they choose to donate they can take a tax deduction for the amount donated.
What is a yapa?
- A yapa is an extra bit of value given by a merchant to a customer, usually after a purchase; like getting the 13th donut in a baker’s dozen or a free cup of coffee when you buy a pound of beans. For Yapacopia, it is an entire circle of benefits – adding value for the customer, the community, charities, and the brokers we work with.
What is the Circle of Benefits?
- It shows the three stakeholders at Yapacopia, and how they connect so each one benefits. You get professional assistance in the financial service marketplace. The professional financial service provider assisting you gets a great new customer and becomes a socially responsible local business person. The charity you support gets a yearly donation from a brand new source, and from money you were spending on services like insurance already! Win-win-win!
It sounds too good to be true. What’s the catch?
- There is no catch, our customers get great service and quality products from independent financial professionals, their charities benefit, and our associated financial providers get a flow of high quality motivated customers, like you.
Will my insurance cost more because some payment is going to charity?
- Nope! Your donation and Yapacopia’s fee come out of the insurance broker’s commission. No fee is passed on to you as the consumer. Our insurance brokers and other professionals agree to this because our service actually reduces their customer acquisition cost and they really want to meet you and customers like you that care about your community.
What is an independent insurance broker?
- An independent insurance broker is an insurance professional that works with multiple insurance companies. They are not limited to a single insurance company, but have acquired the knowledge and network to find the best insurance fit for their customers from many insurance companies. Independent brokers sit on your side of the table, and they use their expertise and knowledge of the local marketplace to represent you to the entirety of the insurance market. When you can choose among many insurance companies for your needs you often get a better product, a better price, or both.
Are independent carriers lower quality or less likely to pay on a claim?
- No. A.M. Best & Co, which provides news, credit ratings, and financial data products and services for the insurance industry, rates all insurance carriers on a yearly basis. They are graded on a number of factors, including the ability and quality of the company to resolve claims. Ask your insurance broker for the ratings of the companies he or she presents as options.
How does it work?- Any individual, family, or business seeking insurance can use Yapacopia. Our site puts that person in touch with an independent insurance broker that will search their needs in the insurance marketplace. The broker will present you with options from multiple insurance carriers, and discuss with you the values and benefits of the best choice. You choose your insurance, let your broker know which charity you want to donate to, and when the term ends, the broker will send the donation check to your selected charity.
(The donation comes from the broker’s commission, not from any added cost to the customer. As such, the broker needs to earn his commission before the donation is made, so it is made after the policy term when the broker is paid.)
Tax deduction information
- In California, when you purchase insurance from an independent insurance broker through Yapacopia, to the extent allowed by law, your broker will offer you a partial rebate of the commission he or she receives in the transaction. You may choose to accept this rebate in the form of a cash payment or ask your broker to donate it to your charity of choice. If you choose to make the charitable contribution, you may be eligible for a charitable contribution deduction on your tax return. The availability of the charitable contribution deduction, and the value of the benefit it confers, will depend on which charity you select, whether you itemize expenses on your tax return, and the amount of the charitable contribution as a percentage of your taxable income.
The materials on this website are not intended to constitute legal and/or tax advice. Everyone’s circumstances will vary and we recommend that you consult with a tax advisor to determine how the charitable contribution may apply to your circumstances. IRS 2 disclosure: To ensure compliance with the requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any tax advice contained in this communication, including any attachment to this communication, is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or promoting, marketing, or recommending to any other person any transaction or matter addressed herein.
How does Yapacopia make money?
- Yapacopia charges a fee to the independent broker when they find a new customer through our service. There are no fees or costs passed on to the customer from using our service.
Who can I talk to with questions about this service?
- Our Yapacopia provider partners can answer all of your insurance questions, and most of your questions about the Yapacopia service. If you have questions you would like answered before using the service, send them to info@Yapacopia.com and we will reply.
Do you offer pet insurance?
- We will, we are looking for the best partner for this insurance. Pet insurance is a specialty, and our brokers do not usually work with this insurance. Please be patient, we will have a broker partner soon.
Do you offer rental insurance?
- Yes, ask your chosen broker for assistance.
Can I get State Farm, Farmers, or Allstate insurance here?
- You may have to contact these carriers directly or perhaps online, to get a quote from them. They have their own distribution outlets that only sell their products. They have sales agents, not brokers, who only sell from their company. From time to time, an independent agency may have the ability to offer their products, but most do not.
What is the difference between an agent and a broker?
- The main difference is choice here as well. An agent that works for one company sells only the products of that company. A broker, by definition, negotiates among multiple insurance companies for the best deal. Our partner brokers earn their income finding the best fit for their customer, where as sales agents earn their keep selling only their company’s products.
Why do we only work with brokers, and not agents?
- We work with brokers in the independent brokerage community. They make decisions for their own brokerages, such as deciding to work with customers of Yapacopia, and have the choice and flexibility Yapacopia wants for our customers. Agents of a single company rarely have the flexibility, and rarely have the choice of what to sell. Yapacopia welcomes the opportunity to work with any insurance outlet, but at this time we are focusing on the outlets that provide the most choice for our customers.
How do you determine the donation amount to charity? How can the broker pay 20% of his or her commission?
- Our broker partners know that the customers that come through Yapacopia are motivated to get the products they need, and to help the charities in their communities. There is always a cost for acquiring new customers for any business, however, at Yapacopia this acquisition cost is sent to the charities, benefiting the customers and charities in their own communities. This structure makes the costs of working with Yapacopia very easy for the broker to bear. Many of our brokers have long been established in their communities and are excited to have a service that allows them to be socially responsible business partners.
I just got insurance. Do I have to wait for my renewal date to become a customer of Yapacopia?
- No, you have two options to work with Yapacopia insurance partners right away.
1. You can keep your current insurance, if it is with an independent carrier, and have one of our brokers assigned as the broker of record. This is a simple process of a letter to your current carrier requesting this change. The Yapacopia broker will provide the assistance you need to do this quickly. This broker will then be your contact for your insurance, and upon the broker’s receipt of commissions from the policy or policies, you will accumulate donation dollars for your charity (or rebate in CA).
2. For most personal insurance, you have the right to cancel an existing policy at any time. In the case where you have found a better insurance product through Yapacopia, you can most likely replace your current coverage on the same day with no lapse in coverage. If you used our service to review your policy and found a better value, a Yapacopia sourced broker should be able to stop the existing policy and start the new one for you. If you have paid in full for your current insurance, the law requires the cancelled premium value be returned to you in full.
FAQs for Charities
What is Yapacopia?
- Yapacopia is a service that connects consumers with local independent insurance agencies and other financial service providers. When a policy is purchased and the agency commission is earned, Yapacopia collects a proportionate fee and donates 20% of that fee to the charity designated by the customer.
Does my charity have to do anything to benefit from Yapacopia?
- No, any charity can be chosen by a customer to receive the donation. For many charities, the first time they learn about our service will be when they are chosen to receive a donation.
Why would my charity want to be listed on the website?
- Many people use our site for the local service value, but may not have a charity in mind for the donation. By listing on our site, your charity and message are visible to potential donors, and you may be chosen to receive the customer’s donation as a result.
How does a charity work with Yapacopia?
- A charity can ask to be listed on our site. If you are a registered 501 (c) 3, you will not be refused listing. There is no cost for this listing. A charity can also use the tools Yapacopia makes available to inform their supporters about a better way to find and buy insurance, and support their charity at no additional cost. You will be provided a branded landing page for you to use to inform your constituents of our relationship, and the goal of using the financial service purchases they make every year to create substantial donations to their favorite charity at no added cost to them. In brief, these pages describe the benefits of locally sourcing their financial service purchases, working with professionals that live in their communities, and supporting their charity through those purchases at no added cost.
Are charities expected to share supporter information?
- No, absolutely not. Yapacopia does not and will not ask for the support base information from any nonprofit. We feel it is the nonprofit that is serving their support base and themselves, by letting their supporters know about this service. By helping people get more insurance and financial service options from Yapacopia, a service that connects them to professionals already in their communities, that alone is a valuable service. When that connection leads to a considerable donation to the charity of choice of the customer, at no extra cost to them, that is information we feel every nonprofit will choose to share with their supporters.
What are the benefits for a nonprofit of working with Yapacopia?
- Primarily, generating a new stream of income for the nonprofit, from an expenditure their supporters are already making. They will also be adding value to their local community, by having supporters work with local professionals to find a better insurance value at no additional cost. In all of these ways, and others, Yapacopia is completing the Circle of Benefits by putting dollars and value back to the community the nonprofit serves.
What can my charity expect for donation flow?
- The retention rate for individual consumers working with an independent broker is around 93%. That means that if a supporter uses Yapacopia, they will most likely donate money for several years. By accumulating new customers each year, in just a few years the donation stream becomes considerable.
FAQs for Brokers and Agencies
What is Yapacopia?
- For an agency, Yapacopia is a customer acquisition site offering a success only model, meaning you pay a fee only when you win a new customer and bind insurance. Yapacopia also offers an agency social responsibility in the community, because the Yapacopia model has give-back encoded in its DNA. Yapacopia as a service is also a tool for growing your business as a socially responsible local business. You can immediately market your agency services to the nonprofit community as a way of sourcing new donations for the charity. Yapacopia is a win-win-win scenario that will help the charity, the community, and your agency while strengthening the local economy by returning funds locally.
What are the costs of working with Yapacopia?
- Insurance Brokers Fees and Costs
Insurance brokers, upon approval, will receive prospect requests for quoting in real time thrrough our system. A prospect will be sent to ONLY ONE broker as chosen by Yapacopia. Notification of a new lead is real time by our MatchUP PRO app, avialable in the Apple App Store and for android in Google Play. There is no cost to the broker for this lead, and they are required to accept the lead within 5 minutes or it will be re-assigned to another broker. The broker, upon accepting the lead, will contact the prospect and quote their insurance needs. Lead actions, updates, and outcomes are handled by the broker in the Yapacopia MatchUP PRO app. Billing is done monthly. Any policy cancelled within 3 months (proof of cancellation required) results in no billing. Policies in force for 3 or more months are fully billed.
Property & Casualty (P&C)
4% of premium for new policies, 3% of premium for renewals. This is for Personal Lines and Professional Lines.
(Includes donation to designated non-profit)Health, Group Policy and Individual (Applies to all lines of insurance coverage: medical, dental, vision, life/ad&d, short and long-term disability)
30% of commission the first year, 25% of commission renewal years
(Includes donation to designated non-profit)Life
25% of first premium year commission
(Includes donation to designated non-profit)Apply Today
What are the benefits of working with Yapacopia?
- 1) Low cost of customer acquisition. It usually takes 2-3 years to recoup the cost of acquiring a new client, with Yapacopia’s success only model, you pay only for the clients you retain, and you make money on them from year one (see previous question).
2) Involvement with philanthropy. The customers that are coming through Yapacopia are motivated to assist their charity, and as such are motivated to work with their broker to find the insurance products they need. Yapcopia delivers motivated, quality prospects. Is there a better kind?
3) Repeat business and quality referrals. Customers of Yapacopia are motivated to renew their business, and renew their donation to charity. They are also more inclined to refer others to work with Yapacopia, and you! Insurance is not a hot conversation topic generally, but when someone can say they bought insurance and made a donation to their favorite charity, all of a sudden insurance is news to tell, and we’ll help you tell the story.
How does it work?
- Apply on the Yapacopia website to be listed as an independent broker. You will be notified quickly if you qualify. If you are approved, accept our terms of service and you will be listed as an independent broker on the site. Here at Yapacopia, we will be working to improve our customers’ choice by adding search parameters they can use, so be aware that updates and improvements are always in the works. You will receive a ‘Broker’s Manual’ that outlines how the system works and what the rules are, as well as how to use the Yapacopia system to accept clients and update the information system. Your clients will have access to the information, and the ability to request changes through the system. When a prospect becomes your client, you will update their private record on Yapacopia with their insurance information, and their choice of charity. You will be billed by Yapacopia on the first of the following month for our policy initiation fee. On the first of the month after the insurance term ends, you will be charged the premium percentage applicable to your type of insurance, and Yapacopia will make the yearly charity contribution or, in California and upon the customer’s request, return the contribution amount to the customer.
FAQs For Other Financial Services Providers
Everything you need to know
- Yapacopia would like to list all the professional financial services that are represented in the community. This includes but is not limited to: accountancy, banking, credit unions, real estate, tax advisement, and wealth management. We are currently asking providers that are interested in learning how they can work with Yapacopia, be listed on the site, and be viewed as a potential service provider by our customer base to use the online application here. We will return information regarding partnership specifics for each discipline. We want consumers and businesses in your community to use your services, to buy financial services locally, and to assist their chosen charities through our service. Together, we can strengthen our community, enhance our businesses, and empower charities to do the good work they do every day.