The cost of professional services continues to escalate, with partners in top CPA firms billing hourly rates of $400 or more, and partners in top law firms billing at rates even higher. Could a CPA or a lawyer really be worth that kind of money? How about an insurance agent? Kevin Stipe helps you to determine your effective hourly rate and its potential influence on your daily activities.

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.

In the early 1990s a state insurance commissioner, in a Wall Street Journal front-page article, called insurance agents the 'buggy-whip makers' of the late 20th century. Several years later, you seem to be doing just fine, and in many cases, even better than investors in other areas. Kevin Stipe offers an overview of the insurance agency as an investment vehicle in this document.

Whether you watch the Super Bowl for the competitive drama or just for the commercials, Kevin Stipe asks you to consider these three similarities in strategy between championship caliber football teams and Best Practices insurance agencies.