AGENCY VALUATION ISSUES by Roy Phillips More and more banks are entering the insurance industry by buying agencies, leading owners to ponder how to properly determine their agency&...

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...

BEST MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS PRACTICES by Tom Doran Two in three transactions erode shareholder value rather than increase it. Given these odds, how can you succeed with an agency acqui...

COMPENSATION PROGRAMS THAT ATTRACT, RETAIN, AND MOTIVATE TOP PERFORMERS by Suzy Hammet Dont jump to the conclusion that you have to offer top-dollar salaries to attract the most ta...

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.

FUTURE SHOCK: THE NEED FOR AGENCY PERPETUATION by Carol Hammes Very few independent agencies in this country have a written perpetuation plan. In fact, most owners have not even pro...

MAXIMIZING OWNERSHIP RETURN by Carol Hammes During the past several years, a relatively conservative investor could have achieved an annual investment return of 25% or more in the stock market t...