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... that could be used to meet my friend's challenge. On a practical level, however, they were overkill. The addition to his my friend's home is beautiful. He had found local craftsmen and artisans to build a den and master bedroom suite that would rival any such additions by the biggest, and best international contractor. My wheels were starting to turn. He could have found and could have afforded such a mega-contractor, but he didn't. He will end up with a better addition, more control over the process and results, and more personal satisfaction by completing this project with local talent — people who understand and appreciate a screen porch, coffee, a rocking chair, and a Lab. My mind was racing. The answer to his business dilemma was not in the pages of any ... . To convert his challenge to the vernacular - when you are up to your ass in alligators, it's tough to remember your original challenge is to drain the swamp. We were sitting on his back porch. My friend had to meet with a contractor to discuss a major addition to his home. I had time to do what I do best - not think but observe. His is a modest house sitting on a beautiful, tree filled lot. My only companion during his absence was his dog, Mollie Deux. She's a yellow Lab or maybe a Lab Lite — Lab genes in a Heinz 57 mix of blood. She certainly is well fit for his big yard. A Chihuahua would probably be snake food. Birds were singing and mosquito hawks were performing aerial acrobatics not 20 feet in ...

... recruit, screen, and monitor star producers. Adding a new producer often results in failure for both the agency and the employee because there was no formal program for attracting, hiring, training, managing, and retaining producers. If you're planning to hire a new producer, it's essential to determine why you need to fill the position, define personality traits you're seeking, decide how much you can afford to pay, and design the selection process to find the ideal candidate. This involves eight steps: STEP 1: DETERMINE IF YOU NEED A PRODUCER OR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Start by making sure that you need a new producer in the first place. Hiring an account executive instead might meet your needs just as well, with less expense and risk. Here's the difference between the two positions: Producer ... Originates and sells new accounts while working on their own renewals. Account Executive: Instead of producing new business, renews and services house accounts and accounts passed to them from other producers (and owners) . A producer's primary function is to originate and retain new business. On small Commercial and Personal Lines accounts the CSR should handle all issues and renewals. Medium-size Commercial accounts (more than $10,000 annual premium) and large, complex accounts should be serviced, renewed and remarketed by a producer or account executive. Your agency probably won't require a new producer if: Your total book of business is less than $400,000 to $500,000 in annual gross Commercial Lines commission. An agency of this size usually lacks the resources to compensate and support a new producer adequately ...

... the financial crisis of 2008 temporarily reduced agency values. Some, but not all, agencies eventually bounced back. Another financial crisis is certainly possible, and the effects cannot be fully predicted. Taxes can have a significant effect on agency value. Higher taxes mean a buyer will have fewer dollars left over to pay the seller. When sellers get to keep less money from what they bought they can't afford to pay as much for it in the first place. Regulatory change can also affect agency value. An extreme example would health care reform. Under the law as currently written, the future role and compensation expected to be received by agencies in the health care arena in the future is quite uncertain. The value of a typical agency's health care book of business has fallen as a result. ... closely held businesses. This chapter focuses strictly on special factors that can affect agency value, many of which are unique to insurance agencies. Agency owners should be aware that even the best CPA or business appraiser is unlikely to be aware of these factors unless you, the agency owner, make a point of explaining them. It's Not That Simple! We all know that although the value of a house is ultimately based on what the buyer and seller agree upon, we also know that a reasonable starting place is often the price for which similar homes in the neighborhood have recently sold. We also know a realtor can greatly simplify the process. This might seem difficult to some, especially those who have never bought or sold a house before, but it's child's play compared to valuing an agency ...

...rogram in an agency that has an affordable producer compensation margin of bet...

... if it was important. We have found that advertising price in letters is beneficial. Some folks disagree-agents feel stating an insurance premium is not professional. But when you are selling things that people are not familiar with, such as Life insurance, Umbrella policies, and Snowmobile coverage, prospects want to know if the premium is in their ball park. They don't care if it's the lowest price around-the affordability is what matters. You can give the world's greatest selling pitch on low-cost, high-value Term Life insurance, but if your prospects think they can't afford it, nothing is going to happen. NEWSLETTERS A newsletter is a good vehicle for staying in touch with your client. And many types are available (such as those offered by IMMS) that will fit your agency. It is important to ... advertising job, then starting it wastes the money you do have. Before undertaking a project, you should consider the job you want to accomplish, your resources, and any outside help you can get from companies. UNIQUE' IS THE KEY WORD No one, not even an insurance agent, gets excited about buying insurance. People get excited about buying new clothes, a car, or a house. Insurance is definitely not on the list. Since insurance is not something people want,the purpose of agency advertising is to make prospects and customers believe that they need you and your products, and that they should be in touch with you. How you reach that feeling and opinion among prospects and clients depends on your agency. If your competition is using all the normal methods of advertising ...

... to think of "vertically integrating" their clients by controlling all aspects of client needs. I'd venture to say that a concerted effort by a medium-sized agency to contact all of its Personal Lines customers for a needs analysis could boost premium volume by $1 million within 12 months. You'll also solidify your relationship and improve client retention — all of which means more revenue for the agency. Can you afford to ignore this potential? Can you afford to lose these home-based business clients when an aggressive competitor comes their way? Think about it. Jack Burke is the owner of (home-based) Sound Marketing, Inc., host/producer of Audio Insurance Outlook, editor of ProgramBusinessNews. and author of Relationship Aspect Marketing and Creating Customer Connections. He can be reached by phone at (800) ... magnitude of this transition to informality, consider that when I moved from New York to Southern California in 1982, I didn't even own a pair of jeans. Informal meant a sport coat and tie. Year by year, the warm weather and casual attitudes gradually loosened me up. The watershed event came in 1995. After much soul-searching, we moved our offices and studios into a wing of our house. The pool quickly became my "stress-buster" during the course of the day. The restorative factor of several 10-minute breaks to swim a few laps is better than a good night's sleep. Today I'd be hard-pressed to ever return to a normal office routine. So what does all this have to do with insurance? Recently our UPS driver arrived for the daily pickup looking as if he'd been ...

...food and utilities or tuition and housing fees. Before taking out an emerge...

... management tool for helping producers understand the economic drivers of the business and their contribution to agency profits. Understanding the costs associated with producing business permits you to make more intelligent business decisions about adding to the sales force. It also provides insight into the amount of service staff required to support a producer's book of business. Reviewing income and expense at the producer level enables you to know what you can afford to pay your producers, and allows you to measure the success of your compensation plan and make adjustments where necessary. Profitability can be measured by allocating sales and servicing costs to each producer. Many agencies do this to some extent, but most don't go far enough. It's generally easy to allocate direct expenses such as producer salary (or commission) and benefits, travel and entertainment, and ... as telephone, printing, data processing, rent, building utilities, professional fees, and so on are all necessary expenses to running the business. They should be allocated to individual producers based on a pro-rata basis. Furthermore, a representative share of salary and related costs for administrative support staff as well as customer service staff should be charged against each producer's profit center. With this profit center approach, house' business is also treated as a profit center. The house account will undoubtedly be more profitable than any producer profit center, simply because no compensation is being paid to a producer to handle the book. But other expenses do apply. The bottom line is that an individual producer should be charged' for expenses associated with his or her book-but not for expenses to service and support other agency ...

... in new production after a minimum goal is met. Many agencies today pay more commission for new versus renewal business. In addition to an effective compensation plan for producers, we recommend compensating CSRs for their production efforts over and above their salaries. Besides, CSRs handling the phone calls, mail, claims, and the renewals often do a good job in developing existing accounts. Owners realize they can't afford to pay producers for sales or service work done by CSRs. The key to compensating staff or producers is to base pay on the job performed. This is why many agencies have stopped paying Commercial producers for Personal Lines accounts and often have lowered the amount paid to producers for small Commercial Lines accounts. We recommend paying the service staff incentives for new business as a percentage of first-year commissions and ... lower than you expect! Ideally, you can use the performance of the best producer who has ever worked for the agency as a guideline for top producer performance. The average Property/Casualty commission per producer of firms in the database at Oak & Associates (Mill Valley, CA) ranges from $200,000 to $242,000, depending on agency size. These commissions include "house" accounts and direct-bill commissions, which aren't necessarily "handled" commissions. Well-run firms have $343,000 to $446,000 in commissions per producer. In surveys asking owners what size book they would expect experienced producers to handle after three years, the answer is $150,000 to $335,000 in commission. The range depends on the size of the firm. ...

... content has not been rated yet. DISABILITY/AUTO Dear (Customer Name): If your car is damaged in an accident, you have insurance to pay for the repairs. If your house is burglarized, you have insurance to pay for the stolen items. But what if you became disabled and were unable to work? Do you have insurance to protect your income? Most of us can't afford to pay our bills without a steady flow of income. But many people don't protect themselves from a financial disaster should they become sick. Some depend on their company plans. Unfortunately, many company plans pay for a short period or don't pay enough. You can't get by with $400 a month if your bills are $1 ,000 a month. That's why Disability Income coverage is ... x No Thanks Loading.. Disability/Auto 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor This content has not been rated yet. DISABILITY/AUTO Dear (Customer Name): If your car is damaged in an accident, you have insurance to pay for the repairs. If your house is burglarized, you have insurance to pay for the stolen items. But what if you became disabled and were unable to work? Do you have insurance to protect your income? Most of us can't afford to pay our bills without a steady flow of income. But many people don't protect themselves from a financial disaster should they become sick. Some depend on their company plans. Unfortunately, many company plans pay for a short period or don't pay enough. You can't get by with $400 a ...