Agency Management

Over the past year, businesses and individuals have been faced with challenges they never before encountered. Economic conditions worsened. Job cuts hit closer to--and sometimes at--home.

Through these last six months, we've sat back and watched as major American companies, icons and brand-names like Washington Mutual, General Motors and Lehman Brothers, entered a downward spiral and filed bankruptcy.

Revenue growth and profitability are the two key drivers of value for independent agencies and brokerages--and in 2008, both were difficult to come by.

To state the obvious, the marketplace for agency sales has changed dramatically over the past nine months or so.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation last week extending the expiring National Flood Insurance Program yet again--this time until March 31, 2010.

Laura Toops, editor of American Agent & Broker, ponders the potential implications of Gallagher getting permission to accept controversial contingency fees again. See her blog at www.Agent-For-Change.com.