How Renaissance is Different from Other Agency Networks or Aggregators

Image illustrating the difference between one agency group and another.

Joining an insurance agency network comes with a substantial amount of perks – but with so many options to consider, how can you select one that’s right for you?

The value of an agency network is determined by exactly what its members receive in return for joining – and Renaissance’s offerings extend far beyond what agency principals might expect.

Most agency networks offer expanded market access and increased profit sharing. While those benefits are certainly valuable to any agency, they’re just part of the substantial value proposition that Renaissance delivers.

Renaissance helps our member agencies to grow faster and smarter, with a full suite of services designed to support their processes and accelerate deal flow. This leads to improved profits and increased valuation of the business you’ve worked so hard to build.

Membership is all-inclusive, meaning that our member agencies enjoy access to all of these services at no additional cost. Since our members still retain 100% ownership and ability to make their own decisions, they decide which of these services give them the largest competitive advantage. Our data shows that the more agencies leverage our services, the greater their overall growth becomes.

There are three specific areas in which Renaissance helps agencies: Premium Growth, Revenue Growth and Improved Operational Efficiency and Expense Management.

Let’s dive into how each of these works.

Download our free e-book here: The Independent Agent’s Playbook for Success – How to Solve Your Agency’s Five Biggest Challenges 

Growing Your Premium

Renaissance’s services make it simpler for members to unlock premium growth opportunities and develop action plans to capitalize on them. That’s one reason why our members grow at 2-4 times the rate of your standard independent agency.

Here’s a look at how we empower our members.

Agency Growth Advisors: Your Key to Accelerating Growth

Each member agency is assigned a dedicated Growth Advisor, who creates a customized strategy to help maximize your business growth. Comprehensive analysis of your agency provides insights into which Renaissance member benefits can be put to your maximum advantage: Your Growth Advisor acts as an extension of your team, helping your agency fully utilize the services that will best benefit your business.

Specifically, our Growth Advisors help to boost your agency’s capabilities in:

  • Retention, increasing your overall retention rates and keeping existing clients;
  • Cross-Sell/Account Rounding, increasing the number of policies per customer;
  • Close Ratios, increasing your percentage of new customers; and
  • Lead Generation, unlocking more new, viable business opportunities.

To accomplish this, the Growth Advisors review your agency’s data to find new revenue streams for your business and develop strategic initiatives to make them a reality.

Technology & Analytics that Work for You

To ensure that up-to-date information is made available to drive calculated growth decisions, members are offered access to intuitive, easy-to-use agency-management tools. These include:

  • Data dashboards for integrated and precise tracking of insights to discover new business opportunities every day;
  • Daily reporting tools to drive initiatives that can create growth in your business;
  • Portico, a submission system that integrates a small-commercial comparative rater, dramatically streamlining the submission process

Expanded Market Access Provides Better Service

As an independent agent, finding the right insurance carriers to serve your customers’ needs is an ongoing challenge. Renaissance members have access to more than 40 standard carriers, more than a dozen specialty brokers, and a full-time staff of experienced placement specialists that make the process work better for everyone – especially your clients.

Having this expertise on your side helps drive new account placement (particularly in Commercial Lines), assists with out-of-state placements, and eliminates minimum premium goals with carriers.

Enhanced market access gives Renaissance members several key benefits: Having more markets means you have more choices and allows you to provide better value for your clients. A greater number of willing insurer partners also means improved close ratios for your producers, increased revenue, customer satisfaction and, in turn, better retention. All of this results in accelerated growth for your agency.

You’ll also get support to help you make the most of this expanded access:

  • Commercial Lines Placement Specialists help member agencies find the best markets for commercial lines submissions and assist your agency from quote to bind to renewal. Most of our specialists have worked on both the agency and carrier sides of the business and have a wealth of knowledge about underwriting appetites and niches. They also know exactly who to call to help get your submission through the pipeline.
  • Personal Lines Placement Specialists serve as an extension of your Account Management/CSR teams and can help your agency find markets for hard-to-place business or provide exceptional service to valuable clients. High-net-worth accounts can be complex, and our experienced specialists are here to help.
  • Workers’ Compensation Specialists provide account-level consulting to both member agencies and their clients, helping to decrease experience mods, rein in costs and ensure compliance with federal and local statutes.

Renaissance  members have access to more than 45 standard carriers and over 100 markets in total. Learn here how your agency can greatly expand your placement options. 

Marketing Experts Elevate Your Agency’s Profile

Properly marketing your agency can be a challenging, time-consuming endeavor, and most agencies don’t have the in-house expertise to do it effectively.

With fierce competition from direct writers with billion-dollar marketing budgets, agents need a marketing partner that works to help them reach more prospects as well as improve communication with their current customers.

That’s why our members receive access to powerful marketing services that boost your agency’s branding and digital presence. These include:

  • Maestro:  An e-mail marketing tool that interfaces with your agency’s data and automatically sends customer welcome kits, cross-selling campaigns, renewal reminders, claims check-ins and win-back requests.
  • Website Development: We work with trusted vendors to design and build custom, affordable websites for our agency members. A dedicated project manager serves as your point person for all website services.
  • Branding: Need a makeover? Renaissance offers agency logo design and branding kits from an award-winning designer.
  • Social Media: Our on-staff marketing experts are available to help your agency get started and to share best practices.

Growing Your Revenue: Steps to Further Success

Everyone loves additional revenue, but unlocking new opportunities to make those gains isn’t always easy. Here are some ways in which Renaissance helps our members find new opportunities to grow:

Relationship Management with Carriers

Renaissance members enjoy the benefit of a dedicated Carrier Relationship Management team focused on facilitating and maintaining the agency’s connections with a variety of insurers, as well as maximizing our members’ compensation.

This service helps free up time for agency principals and management to spend more time on revenue-generating and growth-focused activities.  Additionally, Renaissance eliminates the minimum premium volume and policy-in-force thresholds that independent agencies often face with their insurance carriers.

All of this is achieved without jeopardizing any pre-existing relationships your agency may have with other insurers.

Maximizing Your Agency’s Revenue

Renaissance helps our members earn more revenue on the premium they’re already writing by negotiating better deals with our partner carriers. Our member agencies enjoy fixed overrides on all new and renewal business with override-paying carriers, and earn profit-sharing and growth bonuses.

Our GRO (Generating Revenue Opportunities) Team works with your agency to identify these accounts and find new markets for them – and we never recommend making any changes unless it’s in the best interest of your agency and your client.

As a fully independent member, the decision is always up to you.

Improving Your Operational Efficiency and Expense Management

Staff Savings

Renaissance members have the ability to shift non-revenue-generating functions, including such tasks as billing, invoicing, commission reconciliation, marketing services and more,  to our specialists. This not only reduces staff expenses for the member agency, but also frees up time for agency staffers to shift to client-focused, revenue-generating tasks that drive growth.

IT Help Desk & Training

Renaissance offers dedicated on-site and virtual training services for all supported systems, and also provides help desk support to keep our technology tools working for your benefit.

Vendor Discounts

Renaissance members receive discounted services from trusted providers of agency management systems, outsourcing services, agency E&O insurance, loss runs, consulting services, graphic design, and much more. Savings on these services — and others — help reduce expenses and make your business more efficient.

Get More of What Your Agency Deserves.

Why join an agency group that only helps increase profit sharing and market access when you can join one that also helps increase agency revenue and valuation?

Membership with Renaissance Alliance equips your agency with more tools and capabilities than other agency groups, in addition to the standard expanded market access and increased profit sharing. Explore how we can help ensure your agency’s future through organic growth.

Review our member benefits and find out how joining Renaissance provides you substantial benefits and a trusted partner.

About Renaissance

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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NON-DISCLOSURE TERMS AND CONDITIONS

These Non-Disclosure Terms and Conditions (“Agreement”) govern the provision of information by Renaissance Alliance Insurance Services, LLC (“Renaissance”) to a prospective agency member (“Recipient”). Renaissance and Recipient Renaissance and Recipient are hereinafter referred to together as the “Parties,” and each may be referred to separately as a “Party.”

The Parties acknowledge that Renaissance may disclose to Recipient certain of Renaissance’s confidential, sensitive and/or proprietary information including, but not limited to, business, financial or technical information, in connection with the potential establishment and/or conduct of a business relationship or transaction between the Parties (the “Transaction”). In connection therewith, for good and valuable consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which consideration are hereby acknowledged by Recipient, and as a condition of the provision of Confidential Information (as defined below) to Recipient, Recipient hereby agrees as follows:

  1. Confidential Information.Confidential Information” means any and all information provided by Renaissance to Recipient in any form, and at any time (including prior to or following the execution of this Agreement), including but not limited to any such information that (a) is related to Renaissance’s business, finances, financial information, pricing, business plans, profitability, projections, business or financial opportunities, investment strategies, other strategies, data, products, services, concepts, contacts, personnel, customers, vendors, prospects, intentions, formulas, methods, processes, practices, models, tools, computer programs, software, discoveries, inventions, know-how, negative know-how, business relationships, agreements (including this Agreement), intellectual property, trade secrets (whether or not patentable or copyrightable), trade secrets, or other confidential or proprietary information, (b) contains or is related to any communications, negotiations or proposals regarding the Transaction; (c) Recipient has either been informed, or reasonably should know, is confidential in nature; or (d) consists of or contains names, addresses or other information of any description relating to any of Renaissance’ member agencies or any of such member agencies’ customers or clients. Confidential Information shall also include any analyses, compilations, studies or other documents or materials prepared by Recipient or by any of its Representatives, that contain, rely upon, are derivative of or otherwise reflect any Confidential Information as described in the preceding sentence. The foregoing notwithstanding, Confidential Information shall not include any information which, at the time it is provided to Recipient; (i) is already known to Recipient, (ii) is then or later becomes available to the general public without violation of any requirement of confidentiality.
  1. Providing of Confidential Information. Renaissance may provide to Recipient any Confidential Information, in such manner and at such times as Renaissance may determine, to assist Recipient in evaluating, negotiating and carrying out the Transaction, but shall have no obligation to provide any, or any particular, Confidential Information to Recipient. Renaissance makes no, and disclaims any, representations or warranties regarding any Confidential Information it may provide, except as may be provided in any definitive documentation relating to a Transaction.
  1. Non-Use and Non-Disclosure; Representatives. Recipient agrees not to use any of Renaissance’s Confidential Information for any purpose other than for or in connection with the evaluation, negotiation, entering into or carrying out of a Transaction. Recipient agrees not to disclose any of Renaissance’s Confidential Information to any third party other than Recipient’s directors, officers, employees, affiliates, counsel, consultants, advisers, representatives and agents (collectively, “Representatives”) who have a reasonable need for the same in connection with the uses thereof permitted under this Agreement. Any such Representatives who are provided with any Confidential Information shall be instructed to maintain the same in confidence, and not to make any use or disclosure of the same other than as permitted under this Agreement. Recipient shall be responsible for any breach of this Agreement by any of its Representatives, to the same extent as though Recipient had committed such breach personally. Recipient agrees to use the same level of care in protecting the Confidential Information from unauthorized disclosure as it uses to protect its own confidential or proprietary information, and in any case will use no less than a commercially reasonable level of care in protecting all Confidential Information from unauthorized disclosure. The foregoing notwithstanding, Recipient shall be permitted to disclose so much of the Confidential Information as has been authorized for release by Renaissance in writing, to the persons and upon the conditions so authorized by Renaissance, in connection with the carrying out of the Transaction. Recipient shall not circumvent or seek to circumvent Renaissance’s negotiations with any third party, either by entering into discussions directly with such third party otherwise than on behalf of Renaissance, or otherwise. For purposes of this Section, each Party shall act in good faith and deal fairly with the other Party.
  1. No License; Return of Confidential Information. Recipient will not acquire any license or other rights whatsoever with respect to any of the Confidential Information by virtue of its disclosure to Recipient pursuant to this Agreement, or by virtue of any use thereof permitted hereunder. Recipient agrees to destroy or to return all Confidential Information to Renaissance, including both originals and all copies thereof (other than copies created as part of the routine backup of Recipient’s servers, or copies retained pursuant to a requirement of a governmental or regulatory authority, all of which retained copies shall be held confidential for so long as such materials are so retained), and to confirm the completion of such return or destruction to Renaissance in writing, promptly upon demand by Renaissance within the term of this Agreement. The term of this Agreement shall be for a period of five (5) years, commencing on the Effective Date set forth above. Either Party may terminate this Agreement at any time, upon written notice to the other Party, provided that the obligations of Recipient hereunder shall nevertheless survive for the period above stated, with respect to all Confidential Information provided prior to such termination.
  1. Orders Requiring Production. In the event Recipient receives a court subpoena, request for production of documents, court order or other requirement of a governmental agency to disclose any Confidential Information (a “Disclosure Requirement”), Recipient shall (unless prohibited by law) give prompt written notice to Renaissance thereof so that Renaissance may seek to challenge or limit the Disclosure Requirement. Recipient agrees to cooperate reasonably in any effort of Renaissance to limit or prevent any required disclosure of Confidential Information, provided that Recipient shall: (i) not be required to incur any expense in connection with such cooperation, and (ii) not be required to disobey any Disclosure Requirement. Recipient shall not be deemed in violation of this Agreement if it complies with any such Disclosure Requirement either after having provided Renaissance with notice thereof and a reasonable opportunity to contest the same, or if such notice is not permitted. Recipient agrees to (a) exercise reasonable efforts to disclose only the minimum amount of Confidential Information that Recipient is compelled to disclose, in the opinion of its legal counsel, and (b) request that confidential treatment (if legally permissible) will be accorded to the Confidential Information being disclosed.
  1. Injunctive Relief. Recipient acknowledges that the Confidential Information is confidential, and that disclosure or use of said information in violation of the terms of this Agreement would result in substantial and irreparable harm to Renaissance, the actual dollar amount of which damage would be impossible to determine. Accordingly, Recipient agrees that, in addition to any other remedies that may be available, in law, in equity or otherwise, Renaissance shall be entitled to seek injunctive relief against the actual or threatened breach of this Agreement or the continuation of any such breach by Recipient, without the necessity of proving actual damages and without posting bond. This provision shall not limit the right of Renaissance to seek actual damages or any other legal or equitable remedy for any breach hereof.
  1. Miscellaneous. This Agreement shall be construed in accordance with and governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to its conflicts of laws principles. Any action or proceeding against either Party relating in any way to this Agreement shall be brought and enforced only in the Federal (to the extent appropriate jurisdiction exists) and State courts located in Cook County in the State of Illinois, and the Parties irrevocably submit to the jurisdiction of such courts in respect of any such action or proceeding, and irrevocably waive any objection to venue in such courts, including but not limited to any objection that such venue is inconvenient. This Agreement embodies the entire agreement of the Parties with respect to the subject matter hereof, and supersedes all prior and contemporaneous agreements and understandings, oral or written. No amendment to this Agreement and no waiver of any provision hereunder shall be effective unless it is in writing and signed by an authorized officer of the Party against whom such amendment or waiver is asserted. No invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of this Agreement shall affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining portions hereof. This Agreement shall be binding upon, and shall inure to the benefit of, each of the Parties and their respective successors and assigns. There are no intended third-party beneficiaries of this Agreement. This Agreement does not in any way bind either Party to enter into or continue any type of business relationship with the other. Nothing in this Agreement shall prevent Renaissance from at any time disclosing any of its Confidential Information to others or negotiating with others for any purpose whatsoever. Nothing contained in this Agreement shall be construed to constitute the Parties as partners, joint venturers, co-owners or otherwise as participants in a joint or common undertaking. Recipient’s indication of assent to this Agreement via electronic means shall be equally binding and effective as an original signature hereon, and shall be deemed duly and effectively delivered if so transmitted or provided.