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 expected they will reveal that we've just completed our seventh-straight quarter of double-digit commercial pricing declines. While that might be great news for insurance buyers, it is extremely painful for insurance brokers, whose compensation is normally based on a percentage of those declining commissions.
Like in the 1990s, dire predictions about the future of the insurance brokerage business are beginning to take hold. Financial hardships, free-falling valuations and massive consolidations on a scale and pace never before seen are being forecast.
It is reminiscent of 1995, when the Texas insurance commissioner made headlines by proclaiming insurance brokers the “buggy-whip makers” of the late 20th century.
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