We wanted to know all their pain points. What do independent agents consider their biggest challenges? How did they feel about the professional relationships they maintain with their current carriers? What carriers were on their approved list? Were they satisfied with how insurers were treating them? Did they have ready access to the forms they need to serve clients? What were their top-rated carriers, by each line of business? Aside from price, what indications of quality did they value most in a carrier?

What were their perpetuation plans, if they had one at all, and when did they plan to retire?

Collaborative effort

Upon deciding on a basic framework for what we wanted to know, we contacted the best people for conducting research. NU has enjoyed a long and fruitful editorial relationship with Flaspöhler, part of NMG Consulting; for nearly a decade, we've collaborated on our Agent Study and Risk Manager Survey, two separate studies that examine how agents and risk managers, respectively, rate the carriers with which they do business.

We then approached our colleagues at the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA), to see whether they would be interested in partnering with us and Flaspöhler on this ambitious project. During those conversations, together we envisioned the most comprehensive study of America's independent agents that had ever been done, one that would canvas PIA's national membership as well as our readers.

I'm happy to report that the study results are everything we imagined, and we present them to you this month in a whopping 10-page section of charts and graphs that provide unparalleled perspective on independent agents in the U.S.

The majority of respondents, unsurprisingly, were 50 and older, with the highest percentage in the 50-to-59 age range. Most respondents identified themselves as either an agency principal or owner (owners, for the most part). Mostly retail agencies were represented, as opposed to retail brokers/firms and specialty wholesale agency brokers/firms.

Carriers, take note: Only about 1 in 4 respondents (27.2 percent) say their relationship with their carriers has improved in the past three years —and about 1 in 5 (21.7 percent) say that relationship has declined. Just over half (51.2 percent) say it has stayed the same. When asked whether staff/producer training was something agencies wanted from their carrier partners, 34 percent rated it as "very important." Timely information on product changes (69.5 percent) was also rated as very important.

If you completed our survey, you know that a good deal of the questions provided space for agents to share their thoughts on the topic discussed. Some of the statements you shared with us are peppered throughout the survey results; even more of them will be included in our online presentation of the data set.

I'd like to thank PIA National, especially Mike Becker, executive vice president and CEO, and Ted Besesparis, senior vice president of communications, as well as Rick Flaspöhler and NMG Consulting, for their partnership and their amazing effort in bringing this dream to life. Enjoy.