One grim reality faces Americans today in a way not felt for generations--there are simply not enough jobs to go around.

As if 2008 was not tough enough, 2009 will likely present independent agency owners with challenges rarely seen before. Unpredictable market conditions in the property-casualty marketplace, on top of

Remember the golden years of the 1990s, when commercial insurance rates fell by only about 5 percent per year? Those were the days! When second-quarter statistics are released in about 30 days, it is

As we have pointed out in numerous National Underwriter articles over the years, internally perpetuated agency valuations typically lag those of third-party buyers by a wide margin. In other words,

Quick question: What is your agency worth? Well, it depends. Who is the buyer? Why would the buyer dictate the value of an insurance agency? How can an agency have different values depending on who

With the success of the Best Practices Study over the past decade or so, we all now have a very clear understanding of what "good" and "average" look like. Agency managers continually analyze and

Majority of independent agencies are being priced out of the acquisition

How many times have we considered what we'd do differently if we had it all to do over again? I was meeting recently with an agency owner in the midst of trying to undo some very ugly shareholder