I recently listened to an interview with Vic Conant of Nightingale-Conant talking about the shift in their program sales. During the 80s and 90s, such corporate names Tom Peters and Warren Bennis dominated program sales. However, since the early 2000s, there’s been a significant shift to programs for those want to become in charge of their own destiny. This “Brand You” trend has been going on for more than a decade, posing a significant exposure to today’s companies. As the workforce ages and changes, we’re going to have less available talent than ever. Given future economic uncertainty, more and more of the available talent will opt out to work for themselves.

'Call it whatever you like-re-engineering, restructuring, transformation, flattening, downsizing, rightsizing, a quest for global competitiveness- it's real, it's radical, and it's arriving every day at a company near you.' (Fortune April 5, 1993)

Almost two years ago, after 10 years of consulting, I accepted a temporary assignment of managing an independent agency that generated 85% of its income from Property/Casualty Lines and 15% from Life, Health, and financial services products.

AGENCY VALUATION, MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS: IS IT A NEW DAY? by Robbie Smith The significant loss of surplus from the 9/11 catastrophe, together with an already compelling need for r...

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This article is adapted from the new publication The Survival Guide for the Evolving Insurance Crisis and the video Are You Ready for Insurance Dot Com?, both written and produced by Edward Curry. The article appeared in Missouri Agent magazine and is reproduced by permission.

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AUTO INSURANCE Dear (Customer Name), Isn't it worth a few moments of your time to learn whether you're paying more than you need to for Automobile insurance? (Your Agency Name) will answer that ...

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BONUS/COMPENSATION PLANS: PART TWO by Jack Fries Do you provide your employees with a year-end bonus? Do you want the bonus to mean something to your key employees? This document by Jack ...