AGENCY ACQUISITIONS: LET THE BUYER BE SMART Every independent agency in the country will experience a change in ownership at least once in its lifetime. Close to one-third of agencies h...

AGENCY VALUATION: HAVE THE FUNDAMENTALS CHANGED? by Bill Schoeffler Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Theres a general perception that agency value has been increasi...

BUSINESS COMBINATIONS: SURVIVING/THRIVING WITH A MERGER by Carol Hammes These guidelines will help you meet the challenges of merging your agency. Most industr...

COMMISSION-REDUCTION STRATEGIES by Ken Buehler Commission reductions have been in practice for a number of years and, given the current expense reduction needs of carriers, there are no r...

Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? There’s a general perception that agency value has been increasing during the past few years. Bill Schoeffler explains why this belief is partially true and partly the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

During the past few years, there have been some notable acquisitions of agencies that seemed to push the agency value envelope. In some cases, banks were making their platform acquisition and thus willing to pay top dollar to their first acquisition of a large, well-run firm. In other cases, publicly traded firms were able to exploit their high price-to-earnings ratio to offer a high price to the seller.

DUE DILIGENCE IN AN AGENCY SALE OR ACQUISITION by Al Diamond Proper Due Diligence permits you to assess the true earnings potential of any acquisition or merger poten...

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT IN AN UNCERTAIN MARKETPLACE by Carol Hammes It takes a lot of planning to attain higher growth rates and lower expense levels. The first step in the process is to evalua...

IF I WERE MARKETING MANAGER FOR A DAY by Janis Williamson, CPCU, CPIW The role of the marketing manager is quite different than it has ever been before because the marketplace is li...

KEEP A CLEAR FOCUS ON FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT by Carol Hammes The hardening market, together with the start of new year give you the perfect opportunity to reflect on how to improve your busine...

STAFFING SMART by Roy Phillips Agency profitability can start with well-trained, well-compensated customer service reps who know their jobs. Reasonable expense ratios can be the difference b...