While a growing number of independent agencies are moving beyond the sale of insurance to become true risk managers for their clients, the road to implement a consultative brokerage approach can be a bumpy one, as Universal Insurance Services can testify first hand.

Indeed, it was the effort to overcome internal resistance and integrate risk management fully into its standard operating procedure that helped earn the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Universal an Honorable Mention in the 2006 National Underwriter Commercial Insurance Agency of the Year award program.

Universal recognized early on in its history that "resting on our laurels or the whims of the pricing cycle would not guarantee any long-term or lasting success," according to William Rothwell, the firm's president and managing partner. "We realized that we needed to move beyond the transaction-based commercial insurance marketplace."