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How Can Insurance Aggregators or Insurance Agency Networks Help You Drive More Revenue? 

An image of a school of fish, to represent strength in numbers.

If you own an independent insurance agency, chances are you’ve wondered what benefits you might gain by joining an insurance agency aggregator or an insurance agency network. 

First, let’s define exactly what insurance agency networks and insurance aggregators are, and why they could be the answer to gaining the resources you need to drive more revenue and boost your agency’s efficiency. 

What is an insurance aggregator? 

Simply put, an agency network and an insurance agency aggregator are very much the same thing.  Both are groups of independent insurance agencies that have banded together for mutual benefit, pooling their premiums to give the group stronger bargaining power with insurance carriers and provide each member agency more stability in their carrier contracts. 

Agency aggregators and agency networks also provide greater profit-sharing revenue and higher levels of commission than even a longtime agency might achieve on its own. 

Members of an insurance agency network can also gain carrier appointments and obtain insurance market access that they might otherwise not be able to secure. 

As part of a network, you’d also gain access to a community of fellow agency owners who face many of the same challenges that you do. Through networking opportunities facilitated by insurance agency aggregators, you’d have the chance to expand your circle of contacts and learn how other principals in your group have solved issues very similar to your own. 

Membership with a network provides you financial and intellectual strength in numbers, empowering your agency to achieve more revenue as part of a united group of peers focused on consistent, reliable growth. 

How can insurance agency networks give you more market access? 

Even the most experienced independent agent might struggle to get access to certain markets or carriers for a specific risk, due to carriers’ premium thresholds. 

Membership with an established aggregator can help you circumvent those limits and deliver the insurance market access you need. With an agency network, you can secure the markets required to provide your clients with a much broader variety of coverage solutions, improving both your close ratios and your retention in the process. 

Achieving insurance market access is especially important for independent agencies as opportunities in commercial lines have outpaced those in personal lines. With more market access on the commercial side, your agency can unlock new sources of revenue that might not previously have been available to you. 

Ponder for a moment which lines of insurance in which your agency would do more business, if you only had the insurance market access to compete. Membership with the right network could empower you to begin serving the types of clients you’ve always wanted to reach. 

Pivoting to commercial lines could also empower your staff to concentrate your efforts on clients with greater revenue potential, enabling your agency to become more efficient and potentially more profitable. 

How can insurance agency aggregators make your agency more efficient? 

Speaking of increased efficiency, the right network can also help you remove the burden of back-office work like billing and invoicing that often prove extremely time-consuming for agency staff. If you spend more working hours completing tedious tasks than you do on selling policies and serving clients, an insurance aggregator could be the answer. 

Yet not all agency networks or aggregators are created equal; not all groups will offer resources for offloading time-consuming busy work. However, those that do could prove well worth the investment – especially for those that would otherwise need to hire more staff to get the work done.  

An insurance aggregator that provides services devoted to handling such tasks can serve as an alternative to hiring and retaining additional staff, a process that remains highly challenging for agency principals. 

On the policy front, a network equipped with technology tools that show you various carriers’ appetites for a particular risk could save your agency valuable hours that you’d otherwise spend soliciting quotes – and an AI-powered tool that summarizes the finer points of various policies can make comparing policies a snap. 

In a market that only grows increasingly competitive, it’s in your best interest to seek an insurance agency aggregator that’s technology-enabled for you to gain the greatest advantage. 

What other benefits are there to joining insurance agency aggregators?  

With many agency aggregators, the benefits of joining begin and end with better profit sharing and insurance market access.  

If you’re thinking of joining one, however, it’s vital to expect more from your membership. 

A premier agency network would also supply you with: 

  • Placement services managed by experts in finding the best markets for every client, even hard-to-place Surplus Lines risks
  • Growth Advisors who work with you to identify new sources of revenue from your existing book of business 
  • Intuitive, easy-to-use technology tools designed to drive revenue, including dynamic book-of-business digital dashboards, a submission system with a small-commercial comparative rater, dedicated training services, and help desk support 
  • Agency marketing resources to help increase your engagement with prospects, elevate your agency’s profile, improve retention and cross-selling, and drive new business
  • Discounts on your agency management system, which in some cases can deliver enough savings to offset your membership fee 

If the agency aggregator you’re considering doesn’t provide these benefits, you’d be getting far less than what you’re paying for. 

What does it cost to join an insurance agency network? 

The costs for membership at various insurance aggregators will vary, as the benefits you’ll receive for your membership will nearly always be exclusive to that network. 

Here’s the thing, though: Membership with the “right” agency network will always make you feel like you’re getting more than you’re paying for.   

When deciding which network might be the best fit for you, first compile a list of both the issues you’d like to solve at your agency, and the capabilities you’d leverage to gain more revenue and boost your agency’s efficiency. Then, you’ll have a more informed sense of the benefits you seek – and which network can provide them to you for your membership. 

Perhaps most important, you should remain in control of your agency, and no one else. You’ve worked for years to build your book of business. Shouldn’t you remain captain of the ship? 

Look for an aggregator or network that allows you to retain full leadership of your agency – contract terms that allow you to remain 100% independent. 

Contact us today to discover how your agency can gain insurance market access, valued resources to improve your efficiency, and the tools to power consistent, reliable growth through membership with Renaissance.  

Link to Renaissance e-book.

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Renaissance provides market access, placement services, technology and resources for independent insurance agents that want to grow their business and maximize efficiency.

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