Leaving SIAA?

[LocalInsGal]

Hi All, I'm a current member of SIAA, and I'm researching how to leave the organization. They were helpful the first year I was in business, but now that I have been in business for several years, I am paying a very large amount in fees to them each month and getting very little profit sharing in return. Have any of you left SIAA? How was the experience? I am currently looking for a good business lawyer to look over the contract; I do wish I could go back my younger self and rethink signing this thing!

[lonestar]

Check with your attorney, as the answer to your question will no doubt be written into the contract you signed with SIAA. Too bad you are not happy with SIAA. From what I have heard from other agents looking at the various aggregators, SIAA is held in higher regard than the others, especially when compared to Goosehead. Goosehead will micro-manage the agents to death.

[LocalInsGal]

Hi Lonestar, thank you for the reply. I am having an attorney look over the contract, which I must say heavily favors SIAA & the master agency. I believe an agency's experience with SIAA may strongly be affected by their master agency. I have read many times on this forum that an agency's fee were more than offset by the amount of supplemental income. That has not been the case for any year that I have been with SIAA, every year I have paid more in fees than what I received in extra income. I have found another cluster with much lower fees, higher amounts of supplemental income & a 90 day cancellation with no cancellation fee. The commission schedules also match what I am currently receiving with SIAA. I'm really looking to know if anyone has had experience leaving & how that went? Did you have to fight to be let out of the contract? Did your book move without issue?

[Scooter33]

You pretty much have to give up your first born to get out of a SIAA contract, very tough. I had an lawyer review and they told me it was one of the most one sideded contracts he has ever seen in his 25 year career.

This is the way I see it with SiAA. You get screwed multiple times by them... When you join, by the ridicules "joining fee", on going monthly by paying them 10% and finally when you sell your book, since they want 30-25%. Oh, and how about their early termination fee.

I wish you luck, but I think it will be tough to get out.

[txagentrep]

The issues here are three fold.

One you signed the contract good or bad, now it's done.
Two they helped you grow to a level that it is a significant book worth owning.
Three if you can buy an agency and replace the access and appointments and then have the future growth it then simply becomes a math quiz on ROI and what you expect the future hopefully larger agency and cash flows will be vs the costs of getting out.

The aggregator I work with is harder to qualify to get into unlike SIAA but no exit fees and simply a flat fee so you get the upside of growth / success.

So maybe look to payout the partner (SIAA) and enjoy the future growth.

[tmanning]

We have an affiliate who successfully transferred from SIAA to PIIB, it was took a lot of work and time, however it was worth it in the end. We have another agency going through the same process in the next few months. It causes some heartache and some upfront fees to exit, however you the money you will save in the end definitely makes it worth it. We always advise agencies to ask about the exit terms of an aggregator contract. Good luck.