As the owner of an independent insurance agency, you likely intend to sell your agency at some point in the future. Retirement, a change in career, or the desire to move into a less demanding role within the business are the most common reasons owners contact Springtree Group about selling their agencies. In order to avoid glitches in the process, you should have an independent insurance agency due diligence plan in place as a seller.
Considering the current pandemic, we believe every agency owner should always remain prepared for sale. If you know you are planning to list your agency within the next two years, we strongly urge you to prepare your business for sale immediately.
Rather than waiting until your agency is losing business, you have run out of available capital, or a health development nudges you toward early retirement, ensure that your agency is ready when the moment is right. While there are always motivated buyers in the insurance market, they will only place a top bid on an agency that is poised for seamless integration.
The following strategies are ideal for any insurance agency; however, they are vitally important during the preparation phase.
- Ensure that your agency is not constrained by liens or debts
- Maintain impeccable financial records
- Create or refine comprehensive operations procedures
- Create a confidential summary of your book of business that, at a minimum, includes:
- Accounts listed (blind) by line of business
- Accounts arranged by commission revenue and premium
- Loss ratio reports and commission statements, supported by documentation from carriers
- Client (blind) and carrier reports on your book
Most agency sales that fail, even once owners have done the due diligence, do so because of funding issues. To avoid this complication, Springtree Group aggressively manages the funding process and our lending partners, as well as financially vetting potential buyers.
Everyone at STG respects your time and confidentiality. We understand that your team’s knowledge of an impending sale too early on can cause work-flow interruptions, so we caution agency owners to opt for discretion and not rock the boat too far ahead of the actual transition event.
Springtree Group relies primarily on the 6000 contracted buyers in our buying group for controlled management of transactions. Rather than attracting concern with a flurry of rushed activity, the prepared seller can continue running the business as usual while Springtree Group’s in-house teams handle the vetting of buyers and the minutiae of the transaction.
Springtree Group proudly serve clients throughout North and South America, Africa, the Bahamas, and the EU. We have buyers within our network who are funded and prepared to purchase healthy, independent insurance agencies anyplace in the USA. Contact us today to begin the process of presenting your agency to our group. To learn more about our extensive list of services, visit our website at www.SpringtreeGroup.com or email us today at service@SpringtreeGroup.com.
