When Bob Dylan wrote the iconic 1960s song, "The Times They Are A-Changin'," he captured the social and political upheaval that characterized the times. Today, those lyrics would resonate with agents and brokers who have experienced dramatic changes in their revenue growth rates and profit margins over the last couple of years.
As the soft market continued (another 5.4 percent drop in commercial property and casualty pricing in 2009) and the economy weakened (gross domestic product fell 2.4 percent last year), agency organic growth has plummeted.
The double-digit growth rates reported in the "2007 Best Practices Study" are long gone, and it is expected that private broker organic growth rates in 2009 were flat to negative. The combination of economic decline and soft pricing is kryptonite to organic growth.
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