The Fourth Way

I just got back from the Strategic Insurance Agency Alliance’s semi annual meeting in Marco Island, Florida. 

During the meeting, I learned that SIAA now writes over $5 billion in premiums and has 4,300 Independent Insurance Agency members!  That is over 10% of all Independent Insurance Agencies, and we are creating more every day.  So far SIAA has helped start 2,200 brand new insurance agencies!  For the record, that is one in six of all independent insurance agencies in existence! 

And more agencies are joining SIAA each year than the year before.  This is happening year after year after year!

We learned that 10 of the 100 largest independent insurance agencies were SIAA Master Agencies!  SIAA is now the third largest producer of property and casualty insurance according to “The Insurance Journal.” 

Over the last 4 years of the economic recession the property and casualty industry grew by .2%.  SIAA meanwhile grew by 13.4%!  Last year we grew by 21%!  Simply amazing.  

Wow!  For someone in the business like me those are very impressive numbers.  But what do all these numbers mean? Malcom Gladwell’s iconic book “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” defines a tipping point as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.”

I think SIAA is very close to the tipping point.  When that happens insurance agencies will be defined in a whole new way.  One way is whether they are SIAA members or not. 

Recently, the CEO of one of the largest property casualty insurance companies in America was asked what he thought of SIAA.  He said, “SIAA is the fourth insurance distribution channel.  There are Direct Writers, Captive Agents, Independent Agents and SIAA.”

That is incredibly powerful!  Membership in SIAA confers tremendous market access, the best commission structure in the industry, unparalleled profit sharing and bonuses, dramatically increased agency value, lowered costs of doing business and a host of other things.  But it has become so large and so dominant in the market place that it is now being considered its own form of business.  

We seldom witness business revolution like this in a mature industry.  It’s fun to be a part of too!  If you’re curious to learn more feel free to connect with me.