The investigations launched by Eliot Spitzer beginning in 2004—and later followed by a slew of fact-finding missions undertaken by state insurance departments across the country—have been described as a “feeding frenzy.” Spitzer's actions included charges of bid rigging and fraud, and resulted in a 2005 settlement with Willis, Marsh and Aon that included a prohibition on accepting “gifts of material value” from insurers, stringent disclosure and transparency requirements, and restitution exceeding $1 billion.

“Even though there was this criminal activity that was limited to these huge mega brokers, somehow that was used to infer that all agents were receiving these secret payments, and that all agents were somehow deceiving their clients,” said Wesley Bissett, senior counsel for government affairs at the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America.

“Main Street got pegged with this whole issue when really it was a Wall Street issue,” said Spencer Houldin, president of Washington, Conn.-based Ericson Insurance Services. “It did go unnoticed with my consumers and really was unfair for us to even have been brought into it and have to live by some of the disclosure laws and regulations that came out of it, because it is just not an issue in the small independent agency.”