$200,000 GROSS COMMISSION PER PRODUCER: DREAM OR REALITY? by Chris Burand Whats your agencys break-even point for producers? Does $200,000 sound high? Read this document b...

AGENCY FINANCIAL PLANNING: TODAY AND TOMORROW by Carol Hammes There can be little doubt that changes are in the wind in the Commercial Property/Casualty marketplace. Some industry observers have...

ARE YOUR PRODUCERS SUBSIDIZED? by Chris Burand If you dont think youre subsidizing your producers, you might need to think again. The average agency spends b...

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN by Virginia Bates According to a study by Conning & Co., small agencies have experienced flat growth over the past five years, with owner compensati...

IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY TO INCREASE NEW SALES by Carol Hammes When setting your agency's production goals for the coming year, don't rely on help from the marketplace. In fact, it...

Sustainable earnings are the 'bottom line' of agency value. It's important for agency owners to...

THE FOUR FACES OF PROFITABILITY: PART I by Diane Herbert and Pamela Millard Even if you see a healthy profit when you look at the bottom line, you might want to consider your profitability...

An agency valuation I completed recently came in considerably lower than the agency owners expected. The reason? Their balance sheet was very poor and they were materially out of trust: Meaning that their ratio of Accounts Receivable + Cash to Accounts Payable was less than 1. The agency principals were quite upset that I would decrease their value for this reason. They retorted, “We always pay our companies on time, our companies have never been hurt by this, our customers have never been hurt by this, and our CPA has never found fault with this practice. You're the only one who thinks it matters!”