In any business, it's critical to know your audience. Gaining adeep understanding of those to whom we deliver news and insight isparamount in serving them as well as possible.

Some time ago, I was pondering how we could better get to knowthe independent agents who consume so much of our content, and whorepresent the lion's share of our audience. Such insight, Ireasoned, would also be of great value to the carrier executiveswho read NU in print and on PropertyCasualty360.com.

See: PIA Independent Agent Study

I wanted a deep, personal look at America's independent agents.What were their books of business like? What's their split betweencommercial and personal lines? Were they really selling more Lifeand Health products these days, to round out their book and pull innew revenue? What were their total revenues? What were theirexpansion plans, and how were they planning on garnering newbusiness?

We wanted to know all their pain points. What do independentagents consider their biggest challenges? How did they feelabout the professional relationships they maintain with theircurrent carriers? What carriers were on their approved list? Werethey satisfied with how insurers were treating them? Did they haveready access to the forms they need to serve clients? What weretheir top-rated carriers, by each line of business? Aside fromprice, what indications of quality did they value most in acarrier?

What were their perpetuation plans, if they had one at all, andwhen did they plan to retire?

Collaborative effort

Upon deciding on a basic framework for what we wanted to know,we contacted the best people for conducting research. NUhas enjoyed a long and fruitful editorial relationship withFlaspöhler, part of NMG Consulting; for nearly a decade, we'vecollaborated on our Agent Study and Risk Manager Survey, twoseparate studies that examine how agents and risk managers,respectively, rate the carriers with which they do business.

We then approached our colleagues at the National Association ofProfessional Insurance Agents (PIA), to see whether they would beinterested in partnering with us and Flaspöhler on this ambitiousproject. During those conversations, together we envisioned themost comprehensive study of America's independent agents that hadever been done, one that would canvas PIA's national membership aswell as our readers.

I'm happy to report that the study results are everything weimagined, and we present them to you this month in a whopping10-page section of charts and graphs thatprovide unparalleled perspective on independent agents in theU.S.

The majority of respondents, unsurprisingly, were 50 and older,with the highest percentage in the 50-to-59 age range. Mostrespondents identified themselves as either an agency principal orowner (owners, for the most part). Mostly retail agencies wererepresented, as opposed to retail brokers/firms and specialtywholesale agency brokers/firms.

Carriers, take note: Only about 1 in 4 respondents (27.2percent) say their relationship with their carriers hasimproved in the past three years —and about 1 in 5 (21.7 percent)say that relationship has declined. Just over half (51.2 percent)say it has stayed the same. When asked whether staff/producertraining was something agencies wanted from their carrier partners,34 percent rated it as "very important." Timely information onproduct changes (69.5 percent) was also rated as veryimportant.

If you completed our survey, you know that a good deal of thequestions provided space for agents to share their thoughts on thetopic discussed. Some of the statements you shared with us arepeppered throughout the survey results; even more of them will beincluded in our online presentation of the data set.

I'd like to thank PIA National, especially Mike Becker,executive vice president and CEO, and Ted Besesparis, senior vicepresident of communications, as well as Rick Flaspöhler and NMGConsulting, for their partnership and their amazing effort inbringing this dream to life. Enjoy.