If you're a principal in a privately held insurance agency, establish a value creation quota for each shareholder. Here's how: A month before your next planning retreat, provide each shareholders with a statement showing the value of his or her share of the agency's stock. If you don't have an appraisal, simply use your best estimate.

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.

Insurance agents and brokers have good reason to feel slighted. Like being stuck outside the New Year's party without an invitation, agents have had many reasons for envy as investors in other sectors congratulated themselves for another incredible year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by a whopping 68% from 1996 to 1998, which was its strongest two-year performance since 1955. Even the insurance companies got invited to the party, with property and casualty insurers enjoying a 64% increase in value during the past two years.

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.

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.

Claims professionals have become aware of the increasing use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to re-solve insurance claims disputes.

About 95% of all cases are now resolved without a judge and jury. Insurance companies, once ready to battle most of their cases, are now immersed in a cost-conscious and cost-cutting business environment. Law firms also are feeling the impact of inflation and face the need of obtaining capital quickly. Clients also feel this need and press attorneys for quick action.

Headlines in trade magazines and major newspapers announce thrift charters being approved for insurance companies, agreements being reached between federal bank regulators and state insurance departments, and financial services reform. In many ways, banks continue to increased their involvement in the Property/Casualty insurance market.

Finance, it is often said, is the language of business. This may well be true, but there are a lot of us who don't understand the language and could be described as 'financially illiterate.' It doesn't have to be that way and you don't need an accounting background to become financially literate.

Imagine a forest ranger complaining of a forest having too many trees. Absurd, isn't it? And yet how often in your own job have you thought about how great work would be if you only didn't have to deal with customers? This business - and our jobs - depend on customers. They are not an annoyance; they are our employers!

To embrace — and benefit from — change, follow these guidelines.
Unrelenting and increasingly rapid change demands that the insurance industry rapidly uncover new ways to evaluate and respond to its marketplace.
I’ve worked with many highly successful insurance companies and agencies, helping them achieve higher levels of profitability through more sales, customer and employee loyalty, and retention. However, in many of these organizations, management remained blind to the dire need to change, despite its apparent desire to achieve higher profits. Managers can’t see the compelling need to change from the ways that allowed the organization to be successful in the first place.