10 STEPS TO OVERCOME COMPETITION by Jack Burke Remember the first time you experienced a Chinese box set? As each box opened to reveal a smaller box, you wondered with childlike curiosi...

The cluster concept has been a popular one for doctors, dentists, realtors, and others for many years. Insurance agency clusters have been around for a few decades, but interest in them intensified during the hard market of the early 1980s. At that time, smaller agencies banded together to protect themselves against increasing carrier demands brought on by tighter market conditions.

MARKETING CLUSTERS - A MEANS OF GROWTH AND SURVIVAL by Jack Fries The benefits, drawbacks, and formation of a marketing cluster. Clustering has been around for ...

MOTIVATION: GETTING OFF THE TREADMILL by Al Diamond Three agencies we visited had problems so similar that we decided to see just how many agents have the same experience, and the sa...

SHOULD YOUR AGENCY BE AN 'S' OR A 'C' CORPORATION? by Gary Jacobson and Larry Morrison There are several options for setting up an agency, including sole proprietorships, pa...

SUCCESSFUL STRUCTURAL OPTIONS: MERGER, CLUSTER, OR ACQUISITION? by Catherine Oak and Bill Schoeffler The pros and cons of merging versus clustering. ...

THE CLUSTER OPTION: A SHORT SURVIVAL GUIDE by Catherine Oak and Bill Schoeffler Merger, acquisition, or clustering - that is the question. ...

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 ROLE OF LIFE IN A MERGER Recently, we discussed the role and potential of Life/Health production in agency clusters. Related but different factors are involved in the buying, selling...