THE FOUR PILLARS OF AGENCY MANAGEMENT by Bill Schoeffler and Catherine Oak There's no single ideal way to set up and ad...

THE FRAUD EQUATION: FIGHTING CREDIT CARD MAIL FRAUD by Leslie Kim The crime of fraud is an equation. It consists of pieces: this criminal, plus that method, plus an element of opportunity. The ...

THE GENERATION GAP AT WORK: HOW BOOMER OWNERS MUST DEAL WITH GEN X EMPLOYEES by Al Diamond To explain how the older 'boomer' generation must relate to its successor, 'Generati...

P/C agents often have reviewed contracts and leases in conjunction with writing Contractual Liability coverages. In many cases, agents will advise clients to reject hold-harmless clauses which place undue hardship on them. Yet insurance agents themselves may be in the grip of hold-harmless clauses, which could lay immense financial burdens on them, even if they are totally innocent of any wrongdoing. We refer to the producer or general agent (GA) contracts of some-not all! -- Life carriers. Unfortunately, some of these carriers are among the best-known career or brokerage companies and, even worse, agents often aren't aware of the poisonous clauses until it's too late and they're sued.

THE ILLUSION OF SERVICE by Al Diamond I recently tried a little experiment. Two agencies that I encountered expressed a great deal of pride in the degree of service provided by their staf...

THE IMPACT OF CLUSTERS ON AGENCY VALUE by Chris Burand In this document, Chris Burand addresses the question of how an agencys value is affected when it doesnt own...

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTRACTS by Al Diamond I have just completed expert witness testimony in a trial of a specialty insurance agency against two former employees and a large firm accused o...

Are independent insurance agents on the verge of extinction? On the MisFortune 500 list of endangered occupations? You might think so after reading some of the press. For a different perspective, Kevin Stipe offers his observations of current and past trends and market conditions to prove that we’re not necessarily going the way of the dinosaur and the door-to-door encyclopedia salesman.

THE KEEP/SELL DECISION by Brian Burke Agency owners who are faced with the decision of keeping or selling their agencies can't really explore one of these routes without investi...

THE KEY TO PROFITABILITY by Mary Beth Bolen To be successful in business, carrier marketing managers must thoroughly understand what business they are in, why they are in it, and ho...