Three Ways Your Accounting Practices Affect the Value of Your Insurance Agency
In an all too common and unfortunate situation, agency principals are often suddenly forced to step away from their agency due to death or disability. In this unplanned and unexpected scenario, there is no “break-glass-in-case-of-emergency” option, and it can be incredibly disruptive for the ongoing agency operations. At this critical moment, the CSRs and producers […]
2024 State of Independent Insurance Agency Valuations
IA Valuations recently held a webinar discussing 2024 Independent Agency M&A Trends and Predictions. IA Valuations’ CEO, Jeff Smith, and Director of Business Planning and Valuations, Craig Niess, hosted three panelists: Mike Wagar from Westfield Bank, Dan Girardi from Keystone Agency Partners, and Rob Smith from Fideles Advisors. These panelists were selected due to their […]
Help! I’m Not Getting Profit-Sharing This Year. What Effect Will It Have on My Agency Value?
Unfortunately, you may be one of the many agencies not receiving profit-sharing due to the inflated loss ratios caused by the hard market. While this will have an impact on your value, the good news is the hard market is likely temporary and should not have a profound impact on the value of your agency […]
Help! I’m 65 and Want to Sell My Insurance Agency
The highly anticipated day has finally come: you are getting ready to retire. After spending 30+ years working in your insurance agency, you have made the difficult decision that it is time to sell the agency and step down. Hopefully, you have been running your business over the years as if you were going to […]
New Year, New Opportunity to Focus on the Top 5 Areas that will Improve the Value of Your Agency
As the calendar turns from 2023 to 2024, many of us choose to partake in the age-old tradition of creating New Year’s Resolutions. In honor of that tradition, we have created the top 5 opportunities to improve your agency value as you solidify your plans and goals for 2024. 1. Revenue Growth YOY revenue growth […]
The McKinsey Report – 10 Years Later… What Actually Happened
It has been 10 years since McKinsey published The Agent of the Future: The Evolution of Property and Casualty Insurance Distribution Report. In that report, McKinsey predicted a bleak future for the local insurance agent, which translated into another doom and gloom message for independent insurance agents (IAs). As soon as the report was published, […]
Understanding How Revenue Per Employee Affects Your Agency Valuation
Staffing your agency with an effective, experienced, and professional staff is one of the most important components of maintaining and growing your agency value. It is a key risk factor in completing an agency valuation, and typically the first question a prospective buyer will inquire about when considering an acquisition. To better understand the impact […]
Being in the Driver’s Seat
As an agency owner, when it comes time to sell your agency or internally perpetuate, you want to be in the driver’s seat during the process. Now, what exactly does “being in the driver’s seat” mean as an owner? Simply put, you are in control during the sale, you know your numbers, you’ve done the […]
Narrowly- Vs. Broadly-Held Stock Ownership and the Impact on Agency Value
We have found that many agencies are on one side of the spectrum or the other when it comes to stock ownership. Whether they operate with narrowly-held or broadly-held stock ownership can have quite the impact on their agency’s value. We hope to highlight the major differences between the two in this article. Narrowly-Held Stock […]
Red Flags that Weaken Agency Value
In the 200+ valuations that the IA Valuations team has performed, pinpointing and recognizing the red flags has become an essential step in the process to maximize an agency’s value. In general, agency owners are not aware of the internal factors that are stunting their growth and limiting overall value. In this article, we will […]