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A LOT has been written about merging cultures when merging companies. Most of what has been written has fallen on deaf ears. Merging cultures is difficult. Just think about your most recent holiday spent with a house full of relatives!Historians

ONCE the St. Paul/Travelers merger closes, there will be only six or traditional, national commercial carriers (give or take one, depending on how you count). Two years ago, I counted 11. This is a huge decrease in a short time, and the decline

WHAT IS your budget line item for "New Producer Expense"? Agencies have line items for charity, postage, autos and many other expenses. But few consider the cost of new producers. Any agency wishing to grow or perpetuate itself needs new producers.

WHAT JOB skills should an agency owner have? For some agencies, this is a moot point. The owner has grown the agency from scratch and has proven himself or herself time and time again. For many agencies, though, including those that are growing

E&O INSURANCE seems to be resisting the general softening-market trend. Prices for E&O coverage have increased significantly. A bigger problem for agencies is reduced underwriting tolerance for claims; carriers are less forgiving than they have been.

A RECENT U.S. Department of Labor report puts the national unemployment rate at 5.4% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Economy at a Glance, Sept. 24, 2004). This is considerably higher than the unemployment rate between 1998 and 2000, and yet agency

TWO DIFFERENT values are important to the owner of an expensive antique. If it is passed on as an inheritance, the IRS wants to know the fair market value; an insurance company, however, might want to know the item's replacement value. A slum

IN A RECENT class, I was contrasting insurance carrier stability with insolvency, pointing out that carriers can be quite unstable while being far from insolvent. Someone asked why any of this matters to agents, given the existence of state guaranty