Latest Agencies Headlines
All the headlines from our Agencies Topic Page, ordered by recency.
2017 Agency Salary Survey: Salaries and Total Compensation Up
Feb 20 2017 // Salaries for insurance agency management, owners, principals and producers were up in 2016. Total compensation for support staff also increased, although not by as much as they did the year before. That’s according...
Winning the War on Talent: The Value of Soft Benefits in Compensation
Feb 20 2017 // Insurance agencies that stress “soft” benefits have the upper hand in recruiting workers in today’s competitive job market. Employees are increasingly seeking out “soft” benefits in addition...
The Year After Google Compare
Feb 20 2017 // Google’s entry into insurance lead generation and aggregation worried agents and carriers. Would Google disrupt the industry as they have so many other industries? Would they short circuit research-driven consumers...
Grinnell Mutual Grows from Complacent to Dynamic
Feb 20 2017 // A mutual insurer created more than 100 years ago to reinsure farm mutual insurance companies in Iowa has grown faster in the past five years than it did during the previous 10 decades, its president and CEO says. Organized...
XS Brokers Insurance Agency Inc. Opens Second Massachusetts Office
Feb 17 2017 // XS Brokers Insurance Agency Inc., a Northeast wholesale and managing general agent (MGA) brokerage headquartered in Quincy, Mass., has announced the opening of a new office in Worcester, Mass. The firm now has four East...
Ratings Agencies Uphold Their Ratings on AIG
Feb 17 2017 // Despite American International Group’s poor 2016 fourth quarter earnings performance, Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s both have affirmed the insurer’s ratings, with a few qualifiers slipped...
Agency Organic Growth Slowed in 2016: Reagan
Feb 15 2017 // Organic revenue growth among insurance agencies and brokerage firms fell in 2016 to 4.2 percent– its lowest annual rate since 2011. The year ended on a positive note, however, as fourth-quarter organic growth...
Good and Bad of Private Equity Investment in Insurance Agencies
Feb 13 2017 // It takes a lot of capital for an insurance agency to grow, acquire, merge or partner with another agency, and increasingly, private equity firms are stepping up to the plate to supply that funding. Although the number of...
Arthur J. Gallagher Acquires Lewis & Associates in California
Feb 8 2017 // Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired Lewis & Associates Insurance Brokers Inc. in Visalia, Calif. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. James Smallwood, Kevin Veitia and their associates will continue to operate...
Why the Insurance Industry Supports and Hires Veterans
Feb 8 2017 // Many property/casualty insurance carriers have focused their charitable efforts on veterans, and they’ve done so for a number of good reasons. One important reason for adopting veterans causes was explained by Glenn...
RIC Insurance Names Campbell Senior E&S Broker in California
Feb 7 2017 // RIC Insurance General Agency has named Travis Campbell as a senior broker to expand its excess and surplus division. Campbell will be working primarily with retail insurance agents in the California counties of Orange, San...
People
Feb 6 2017 // Hub International Northeast (Hub Northeast), a subsidiary of Hub International Limited, has promoted executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO), Michael Sabanos, to the newly created position of chief...
Is Private Equity Investment in Insurance Agencies Always a Good Thing?
Feb 6 2017 // It takes a lot of capital for an insurance agency to grow, acquire, merge or partner with another agency, and increasingly, private equity firms are stepping up to the plate to supply that funding. Although the number of...
People
Feb 6 2017 // International insurance brokerage and risk management services firm Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., based in Itasca, Ill., has promoted James W. Durkin Jr. and William F. Ziebell in its employee benefit division. Durkin,...
The Competitive Advantage: The Importance of Proper Accounting in Insurance Agencies
Feb 6 2017 // Independent insurance agencies’ accounting methods and contractual and legal requirements are unique, especially considering how lax enforcement is when all 50 states and the federal government have long-standing...
Insurance Agency M&As Reached Near Record in 2016: OPTIS
Feb 6 2017 // Mergers and acquisitions of insurance agencies last year were the second-highest ever, according to OPTIS Partners’ annual report. The OPTIS database recorded 449 deals in the U.S. and Canada in 2016, a slight dip...
Top Agency/Broker Acquirers of 2016
Feb 6 2017 // The following information from InsuranceJournal.com and other sources reflects only transactions reported publicly. One of the most active recent acquirers of agencies and brokerages is Michigan-based Acrisure. The firm,...
M&A Activity Continues at Industrious Pace: MarshBerry
Feb 6 2017 // Merger & acquisition activity in the insurance distribution space continued at an industrious pace throughout 2016, with 443 closed transactions. This was down from 456 in 2015, but still higher than previous years on...
5 Things to Consider When Writing Nonprofit Social Service Organizations
Feb 6 2017 // Nonprofit organizations come in all shapes and sizes. They are a loyal bunch, often sticking with their valued agents and brokers for years, say two insurance specialists. Sheila Shaw, senior vice president, and Brad...
Tow Truck Market Gets Hit Hard as Carriers Exit Market
Feb 6 2017 // Tow truck drivers operate in a dangerous world. Every day they face angry drivers while repossessing vehicles, dangerous driving and road conditions, near misses while operating heavy equipment, and close calls on U.S....
