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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 ...

... 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 ... : 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 Agency Financial Management 101 4/30/2013 10:43:49 PM by CompleteMarkets Editor , Catherine 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 ...

... 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 ...

... , the agency becomes undercapitalized. Concerned? This document by Chris Burand gives you the accounting details that will help you to sleep better at night. An article I authored regarding the importance of annual accountants' reviews sparked a lot of e-mails from agents sharing their experiences about having their agencies audited. Stories ranged from one agency that discovered an employee was embezzling funds, to another that learned their long-time bookkeeper (who happened to be a partner) was totally incompetent at keeping books. Others shared simple but large mistakes, some were in the agency's favor and some against it. In every case, correcting the problem greatly benefited the agency. Some agents reported that nothing was found, but the audits helped them sleep better. I also noted in the same article that many agency owners mistakenly believe ... : 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 Avoid These Common Accounting Mistakes 4/30/2013 12:00:00 AM by CompleteMarkets Editor , Chris Burand 1 Verified Reviews - 5 of 5.0 1 2 3 4 5 Some agents make a conscious decision to pay more in taxes in order to build ...

... ? 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: ...

... 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 ... , it came with the automatic computation and printing of account currents and many other financial reports. The average agency had increased in size, and the financial manager might now be an accountant. Life was still stressful because he was most frequently responsible for the new computer system. He knew very little about computer software and hardware, but he was the logical choice for this responsibility, since anyone who understands debits and credits must understand computers-right? Need for Savvy Financial Management In recent years, the world of the insurance agency has changed dramatically, and the need for effective financial management has increased. Much of the accounting is done automatically by the computer, with the remainder handled by the accounting staff. The computer system is frequently managed by an Information Systems Manager. The financial manager may have responsibility ...