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... liked acknowledgment-so every month, I'd send him a letter telling him what a great job he did and how much I appreciated his efforts. Those notes of appreciation paid off when Avis made a run at him with an absolutely fantastic monetary offer. For this person, corporate appreciation meant more than the money, and he turned Avis down. This experience confirmed once and for all my belief that if I take care of my employees, they'll not only get the job done, but be less likely to leave. Although business spends ... a telephone. Yet most employers are still resistant to providing individual access. What if they play around on it? ' they ask. So what! ' I reply. Any time they spend on the Internet is time that they're learning, and I've yet to meet an employee that works every minute of every day. Establish individual E-mail accounts. This costs virtually nothing and is a tremendous morale booster. I recently found a major association in our industry that still utilized a central E-mail address for everyone. The employees had no ... classes. Formal learning sessions are proving to be highly efficient and cost-effective for training and earning CE credits. Put your employees in your contact-management system. As you already do with your clients (I hope), use your database to help you remember birthdays, special events, anniversaries, and other appropriate moments of contact. Have employee pages on your Web site. Make each employee responsible for content about themselves, their families, their hobbies, and their interests. This gives your clients a chance to know your employees better. ...

... ) routine that defines their being. However, as with every emotional event in our lives, a business transition is easiest to accomplish when you make it part of an ongoing process and plan. FINANCIAL PLANNING An agency perpetuation plan allows you to plan the finances and corporate structure of the business for the easiest perpetuation with the best tax implications for both the buyer and the seller. Working with your consultant, accountant, and/or tax attorney, you can realign the form of company you operate to make the financial burden on ... the book of business of the retiring agent. This made for a transparent movement of business over time because the retiring agent's accounts would eventually experience retention loss while the new agency's business was all theirs. You can implement a wide variety of financial and organizational activities to meet the buyer's and seller's needs. MANAGEMENT SUCCESSION PLANNING Do you remember all the mistakes and missteps you made while you were learning how to manage your agency? Do you want the next generation of owners to go through that experience, too? To avoid this situation ... agency's strategic and tactical plans, it will lose its emotional edge. The greatest problem that people have with succession and perpetuation is that they don't want to think about breaking the business (and personal) routine that defines their being. However, as with every emotional event in our lives, a business transition is easiest to accomplish when you make it part of an ongoing process and plan. FINANCIAL PLANNING An agency perpetuation plan allows you to plan the finances and corporate structure of the business for the easiest perpetuation with the best tax ...

... satisfying the customer. Although most companies recognize the value of developing long-term customer relationships, by and large the emphasis has been primarily one of personal effort (often voluntary, unattached to incentive, lacking training or support) on the part of the employee. A cohesive corporate policy and a strong commitment have been missing. Education is the key to not only understanding the how' of the details but also the why. Our service behavior will change when our fundamental belief system changes. We must believe in customer satisfaction. We need to ... exists only when it's being delivered. Service, it seems, is in the mind of the customer. Obviously, the best way to begin is to find out what the customer thinks and feels about your existing service and use that as a benchmark for improvement. Meet with other CSRs to determine what they think is important to customers and what they need to know to do their jobs better. From this brainstorming session, design a survey to distribute to customers. Customer feedback is useful not only for making improvements, but also ... providing performance feedback. When designing the survey, it's crucial to include at least one open-ended question, to eliminate the possibility that the only items included on the survey are those certain to elicit a positive response. It's important to invite customer communication at every possible turn. Telephone surveys, mail surveys, statement stuffers, suggestion boxes, focus groups, and interactive video are all effective ways to get feedback. Provide a space on forms sent to customers to list compliments and complaints. Make sure to devise a method of learning why ...

... maps out a plan for the continuation of a business in the event that a major stockholder passes away or becomes disabled. The agreement most often involves Life insurance. Two basic types of these agreements include stock-redemption plans and cross-purchase plans. In a stock-redemption plan, the corporation agrees to purchase stock in the event of a shareholder's death. The agreement is funded by Life insurance on the shareholder. The corporation becomes the owner and the beneficiary of the policy, which is considered a corporate asset. In a cross-purchase plan, shareholders ( ... with our Business Life insurance program. We can advise you on the types of Life and Disability insurance it takes to successfully plan for a continued, healthy future of your business. The experts in our Life department will analyze your business and provide the best policies to meet your needs in the most economical manner. Salary continuation plans in the event you're disabled..buy-sell agreements that ensure a smooth buyout of a deceased shareholder's stock..Key-Person insurance on the lives of those executives whose replacement would be costly and difficult..and much more. We have the expertise to ... i.e., pure protection, cash-value build-up, and so on) . Some business plans also call for Disability Income protection, and of course for Group insurance. Buy-Sell Agreement: A legal agreement that maps out a plan for the continuation of a business in the event that a major stockholder passes away or becomes disabled. The agreement most often involves Life insurance. Two basic types of these agreements include stock-redemption plans and cross-purchase plans. In a stock-redemption plan, the corporation agrees to purchase stock in the event of a shareholder's death ...

... right foundation for the proposed plan. Certainly if yours is one of the more than 40% of independent agencies in this country that do not even have a buy-sell agreement, decide what you want to have included and get one drawn up. Sole proprietors or one-owner corporations need such a document just as much as multiple-owner agencies do. What will happen to the agency, your clients, and your employees if you die without having made any arrangements? Find another agent or a key employee to agree to take over the ownership and ... and the opportunity to show value added' is perhaps greater than it currently is in the Property/Casualty arena. Most of the agencies that are profitable today are so because the principals are creative, driven, and willing to try something new. They will undoubtedly meet the marketing challenge head-on and find a way to continue to grow in whatever marketplace they find themselves in. But they're often so busy focusing on achieving growth and success that they fail to pay the necessary amount of attention to a potentially more serious problem, the ... they acknowledge it or not, by ignoring this issue until it's too late the principals in more than half of this country's independent agencies have in fact passed up their option to perpetuate internally. The internal perpetuation of an independent insurance agency does not happen in a single event. It's a process that must take place over a long period of time. A buy-sell agreement that plans for the buyout of an ownership interest in the event of death, disability, or retirement is not a perpetuation plan. It might suffice for estate-planning purposes ...

... has to take into account all of the stakeholders and not just the shareholders. The individual has to create a balance among these groups, despite the fact that, collectively, they might have conflicting objectives. Leaders must pay attention to the goals and purposes of the corporation and ask the question, ‘To whom is the business responsible? ' Many executives might say the shareholders — and no one else … but that overlooks other stakeholders, including employees, customers, and the community." Those powerful words ... wait until we need a friend, it might be too late to make one. Although greedy and dishonest behavior will always be with us, these can become rare — if we all commit ourselves to working for the greater good. There's more to leadership than first meets the eye. Jack Burke is the author of Relationship Aspect Marketing and Creating Customer Connection, editor of ProgramBusinessNews, and president of Sound Marketing. For more information, visit the Sound Marketing Web site at http://www.soundmarketing.com , e-mail mailto:[email ... ] , or call (800) 451-8273. Login or Register (for FREE) to gain access to thousands of other great articles. Need more reasons to join? Need insurance for you, your business or your family? Get quality appointments - Save yourself a whole lot of time & money when you use our directory of carriers, wholesalers and service providers. Negotiate lucrative contracts with carriers and wholesalers. Net result. More revenue for your agency! Clients & Prospects will research you, your co-workers and your agency here. ...

...ealth of Massachusetts with full corporate power and authority to own its asse...arties hereto and, in the case of a corporate party, its successors and assign...

... , what they would be paid to do the work that they were doing if they were not owners), they can then divide up the return on ownership (when there is any) . If the firm is structured as a partnership or as an S' corporation, the profits can be divided up according to ownership interest. Agencies operating as C' corporations, however, need to be careful about the allocation. If you take large bonuses at year-end that coincidentally leave a minimal corporate profit and/or if these bonuses ... and agency performance. The people who produce the most and contribute the most to the overall success of the agency will be rewarded appropriately at the end of the year. Many tax advisors recommend that this bonus plan be included in the minutes at the Board of Directors meeting at the beginning of the year to avoid the impression that the amount of salary and bonus is based simply on the amount that the shareholder-employees wish to withdraw from the corporation for a given year. Firms that choose to look at agency ownership as an asset that ... Employee-Payment for value of units and for excess of market value over option price is taxed as ordinary income and is subject to withholding. Agency-Deduction in amount of employee's taxable income at payment. GOLDEN PARACHUTE Compensation arrangement for non-owner producer or employee to receive severance benefits in the event that the agency is sold. This is often part of the employment contract and the payments are based on the size of the book of business, ending salary, and/or longevity. TAX TREATMENT: Employee- Earned income. Agency- Deductible as compensation ...

...mitation the following: 2.1.1 Corporate Administration. Oversee office man...pute Resolution') which is hereby incorporated by reference. 10. MISCELLANEOU...

... they've compiled. Again, these can be rewritten into a press release from your agency. Hertz, the car rental leader, gets millions of dollars of free publicity every year when it issues its annual Cost of Car Ownership Study. Although this benefits every Hertz location, corporate or franchised, the smart operators contact the local media and offer statements that enable the media to personalize the story with a local slant. You could be doing this with every release issued by each of your companies. A national release from a company stands a ... accounts. Workers' Compensation, the Americans With Disabilities Act, and Employer Trip Reduction Programs (carpooling mandates) are but a few of the current hot topics. Arrange a seminar for clients and prospects to enlighten them on these topics and how your agency can help meet their insurance requirements. Your local IIAA or PIA chapters can usually help you find speakers or material for such presentations. But don't stop with just the seminar. Put out a press release and invite the media to attend. They may or may not attend, ... an investigation into public relations theory than a how-to manual. However, in Insurance Agency Promotion and Advertising, ' George and Jeffrey Nordhaus offer a list of possible press-release subjects, including: Accident Prevention Anniversaries (Business) Anything Unusual (Hobbies, Human Interest, Office Events, Trips) Automation Advances Awards Company Appointments Community Service Convention Attendance Disabled Workers Fire Prevention Foreign Trainees Honors Insurance Laws & Regulations Local Disaster programs Mergers New Anything (Address, Employees, Officers, Offices, Techniques) Promotions Public Service Work Rate Revisions Remodeling ...