Beware the "expert" who ignores the trust ratio, especially in five situations.

Many agency owners wonder how many times they have to spend $100,000, $150,000 or even $250,000 on producers that never make it before owners find ones that do. Learn teh steps to either give it up or do it right.

Every day brings new press releases of company layoffs and spending cuts. Learn what cuts are smart, and which are made without adequate forethought.

The last few years have been a bloodbath for agents, especially commercial agents. Prices have not been this soft since World War II. While the rest of the economy is just beginning to fear the possibility of

Focus, specialization and expertise in a specific area are keys to success. A November 2005 Best's Review article described how highly focused niche carriers outperform their larger and more diverse competitors

If you want to improve your agency's performance levels, you must first improve producer performance. Then you likely will find that your staff's performance also improves. Agencies with poor producer

From a profitability perspective, service centers are neutral. Whether profitability increases or decreases depends mostly on the quality of the service provided by the service center and how effectively the agency

These are unusual times for the insurance industry in many ways. Insurance company profits are down, yet the soft market is hanging on strong and prices are dropping. Insurance companies are suddenly realizing huge