Agency Operations

Virtually every industry has a model for comparing results to other businesses in the same field. For the independent agency system, that model is the Big “I” Best Practices program.

What does the future of insurance hold for we mere mortals? Your guess is as good as mine, but we need to imagine it. Technology and the world in general are changing quickly; insurance has historically been very slow to respond to change – but we can’t wait like we could in the past. Take…

According to the 2014 Future One Agency Universe Study, 14% of independent agencies do not have a perpetuation plan in place. But industry experts estimate the number is much higher.

Planning for succession can be very rewarding IF you have the right people behind you. It can be downright dangerous if you don’t. The emotional rewards of passing your agency to your next generation is very satisfying as long as that generation desires and shows talents to do the job. If not, you are committing…

If the retirement of an owner is not planned and prepared for, both the retiree and the business could find themselves in critical positions, floundering to achieve a balance from which each can continue their respective life cycle. A successful prepared retirement, whether it involves selling a business to an outside party or internally perpetuating…

Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE is a San Francisco-based professional speaker on the subjects of Change, Teamwork, Customer Service, Promoting Business, and Speaking Skills. She is the author of Get What You Want and Past President of the National Speakers Association. She can be contacted via email at [email protected] or by phone at 800/634-3035…visit her web…

What the heck does my company do if I die on the way to my next appointment? As the sole owner of my company, this created a dilemma. Having just completed our company’s perpetuation plan, hopefully I can share some lessons learned – what not to do when completing the task of creating a plan…

One of the stumbling blocks we sometimes encounter in establishing a perpetuation plan is an employee (or owner) who wishes to “Retire In Place.” Rather than disassociate from the agency, they will graciously stay on to “help with the transition.” How do you deal with an owner or a key employee who desires to stay…

Agencies who have Perpetuation Plans in place that will transition agency management and ownership from one generation to another often fail to properly implement the Transition Plan or do it in a way that actually hurts the perception of the agency. There is a way to complete the Perpetuation Plan with a Transition Plan that…

When the current owners wish to perpetuate the agency without severe financial impact to the new owners, they sometimes attempt to gift, discount or bequeath ownership interest instead of charging full value for the agency’s stock and, thereby causing a taxable event to the existing owners while forcing the new owners to pay for the…