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... transaction plan is of paramount importance. Planning your work then working your plan helps you accomplish more in a day. A solid renewal control process will help you control your work rather than it controlling you! Here are some recommended steps for implementing a comprehensive renewal flow plan: RENEWALS 1) Get the renewal control list. This list should be prepared from the information contained in invoices. The agency's bookkeeper or accounting personnel can prepare this report three to four months in advance of the renewal month. The list should be produced by date and in alphabetical order. If you work in a team, the list can be generated by producer code and in chronological order. 2) Update. Review the list and make direct notations on it with information about modified expiration dates, coverage types, and ... far more complex. Without a solid plan of action with specifically defined mechanisms, renewals can easily take control of a CSR's time. When this happens, service suffers. True risk management - providing total financial protection for clients - requires time and careful attention to details. This sort of quality care leads to excellent retention rates. You've heard it before: It costs far less to keep an existing account than it costs to get a new one. So, implementing a careful renewal transaction plan is of paramount importance. Planning your work then working your plan helps you accomplish more in a day. A solid renewal control process will help you control your work rather than it controlling you! Here are some recommended steps for implementing a comprehensive renewal flow plan: RENEWALS 1) Get the renewal control ...

...ntain close liaison with public accountants, state examiners, and Internal Rev...

... telephone/equipment rental/data processing/depreciation on fixed assets-Personnel factor. Insurance-Premium factor for E&O and personnel factor for office package with Group insurance and Workers Compensation handled as part of compensation costs. Legal fees-Allocate directly for specific purposes or use commission factor for general legal costs. Accountant fees-Commission factor for financial statement preparation and tax returns, billing factor in agencies using accounting firm for bookkeeping or batch processing. Taxes/licenses-Commission factor for general taxes and personnel factor for licenses, with payroll taxes being handled as part of compensation costs. Dues, subscriptions and contributions-Commission factor. Supplies/printing-Commission or account factor. Postage-Account factor. Outside services-Allocate directly or use commission or personnel factor, depending on which seems to be the most appropriate. Education-Allocate directly as compensation costs or use personnel factor ... enough to ask for them. Carriers that previously had been giving an extra five points on business taken from another company are now giving agencies an extra 15 points on their entire book. These extra commission dollars have gone a long way to offset the reduced income resulting from soft-market premium levels. But even the largest agencies have a finite amount of premium dollars to spread around. And constantly switching of accounts from company to company is expensive and sometimes not in the customer's best interest. Unless you can keep expenses at or near current levels, profitability will eventually start to erode. This scenario makes the budgeting process all the more painful. Growth has to come from actual new accounts, either produced internally or acquired from someone else. It's essential that the cost of putting these new accounts on the ...

... agency's financial management is inadequate, however, years may pass before the problems becomes evident-and it may be too late to fix them. Let's look back at the evolution of today's agency financial management. As you do this, think about your own agency and the role of your financial manager. Evolution of the Financial Manager In the not-so-distant past, an insurance agency's finances may have been managed by a bookkeeper sitting in a dark back office sweating over an account current ledger (wearing green eyeshades, of course) . Life was stressful for that bookkeeper because all the columns on his ledger had to balance, and much of his work had to be done manually. Before the advent of spreadsheets, financial projections or forecasts could be done, but this was slow and tedious. When agency automation was ... : Last name: Email: Are you sure you want to deactivate your CompleteMarkets Company Profile Deactivate Cancel Loading.. About Us Services Jobs PR Newsletters Employees Articles Blog Photos Group Connections Reviews IMMS Library Immerse yourself in our stacks. Take some time and browse through our library. We have thousands of articles, checklists, tip sheets, sales letters, and more! Communications Marketing Customer Service Planning Finance/Accounting Risk Management Human Resources Selling Legal and E&O Technology Life/Financial Services Glossaries Management Resources & Links Categories Popular Recent All Back Best Practices Of Financial Management 4/30/2013 12:00:00 AM by CompleteMarkets Editor , Angela Bemiss This content has not been rated yet. In today's insurance environment, a successful insurance agent or broker must have good sales management, good operations ...

...y, agency owners, managers, and bookkeepers not communicating effectively with...area of expertise. I've found that accountants who specialize in annual tax re...

... to build future value, rather than reaping short-term gains through bonuses or taking out as much profit as possible (as many owners have in the past) . Failure to reinvest in your agency will leave a hollow shell by rapidly decreasing the firm's value. The agency owner's role in most medium to large-size firms should be strategic, rather than focused on day-to-day tasks. The employee handling the accounting/bookkeeping will perform all necessary functions, including preparing reports for management. The accounting manager's job description should include a checklist of the tasks that they're expected to perform (see below for sample) . Base all management decisions on how they will impact the value of the firm. This type of focus will help you choose the direction that will ultimately lead to more money for retirement from either an internal ... Oak This content has not been rated yet. AGENCY FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 101 by Bill Schoeffler and Catherine Oak Because most agency owners are former producers, they seldom have financial management expertise. This article focuses on the basic skills needed to keep your agency in good fiscal health. Introduction Owners who don't embrace financial management will tend to ignore the functions that they see as a burden or a necessary evil. Accounting and financial management in these agencies tend to suffer because of owner indifference, fear, and ignorance. Agencies have fewer dollars available today, owing to lower commissions a soft market, and increases in expenses. These pressures make financial management critical in order to provide the owners with the same personal income and value for their stock as in the past. All well-run agencies exhibit certain financial management characteristics ...

... ? You probably know the Return on Investment (ROI) on your last stock or mutual fund, but what about the ROI on your AMS? Does it really matter? Many agents don't know the answer to these questions; in many cases, they've never given it any thought. They dutifully bought a system because it was the right thing to do. Then they immediately turned it over to their bookkeeper or accounting department (since computers were for number crunchers') and blissfully went about the business of selling and servicing. Today, most agencies have a comprehensive automation system. They also have a high degree of automation knowledge, but are still not what you would call techies. For the most part, they have no idea if they're using their system to anywhere near its full capability. The ... Management System Utilization Survey that follows will allow you to measure your system usage and then take action to improve it. Although neither a complete survey of every possible function in every major agency management system, nor a measure of every type of software available to agents and brokers, the survey will open your eyes to forgotten uses of your AMS. Take the time now to print and complete this survey. Measuring your agency utilization is the first step toward improving it. The test can be completed in a few hours. Once you have completed and scored it, your strengths and weaknesses will be apparent. Several key people in your agency should complete their own copies of the survey, and then compare their answers to get an accurate overall picture. &# 160AGENCY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM UTILIZATION SURVEY DIRECTIONS: ...

... owed to the agency without alienating the insured. In this section, we will answer the following questions: Who should do the collecting? What are the steps to developing an effective collection system? When should you collect? Why must every agency set a goal concerning collections? OVERVIEW Who Should Do the collecting? One staff person should be responsible for the collection system. This person should be the bookkeeper, financial manager, or another individual in the accounting department. Do not involve the producer in collecting unpaid premiums. A producer cannot be the good guy' who develops a friendly relationship with the insured and then the bad guy' at collection time. What Are the Steps to Developing an Effective Collection System? 1. Appoint a responsible collection manager. 2. Establish a list of key ... : Last name: Email: Are you sure you want to deactivate your CompleteMarkets Company Profile Deactivate Cancel Loading.. About Us Services Jobs PR Newsletters Employees Articles Blog Photos Group Connections Reviews IMMS Library Immerse yourself in our stacks. Take some time and browse through our library. We have thousands of articles, checklists, tip sheets, sales letters, and more! Communications Marketing Customer Service Planning Finance/Accounting Risk Management Human Resources Selling Legal and E&O Technology Life/Financial Services Glossaries Management Resources & Links Categories Popular Recent All Back Collections 4/30/2013 10:38:09 PM by CompleteMarkets Editor This content has not been rated yet. COLLECTIONS The purpose of a collection system is to collect money owed to the agency without alienating the insured. In this section, we will ...

...arding the importance of annual accountants' reviews sparked a lot of... every agent I know using multiple accountants are finding they are act...

... can also be paid to produce new personal lines business in addition to commercial. If the internal operation is running smoothly, you might be able to pay 40% on new business and a decreasing percent of perhaps 20% the second year and 10% the third year. A changing commission scale may be difficult to administer, however, so make sure that you will not have to hire another bookkeeper to keep records before you implement such a program! It may be better to set it up at 50% for new business and forget about renewals. Company Support. In other instances, the relationship with one or two insurance carriers has been the deciding factor in personal lines profitability. If the company provides the agency with at least several of the following support features, the agency can do ... x No Thanks Loading.. Personal Lines Profit: There's More Than One Way To Do It 5/27/2014 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Carol Hammes This content has not been rated yet. It seems that everyone has a strong opinion on profit potential in personal lines. The larger agencies with most of their activity centered in larger commercial accounts are the ones that are having the hardest time demonstrating to themselves that it is financially advantageous to be in the personal lines business. Smaller, rural agencies seem to make some profit in personal lines but it is our observation that this is primarily because the owners spend more time with that business and end up receiving a proportionately lower hourly wage' than do the owners of larger agencies. It's the agencies in the $800,000 to $2 ...