Age of Indiependence: What Big Changes Today can Mean for Your Agency Valuation Tomorrow

In this episode of the Agency Intelligence podcast miniseries, Age of Independence, host Katlyn Eggar interviews Carey Wallace, the CEO of Intell Agents. Carey talks about understanding the functions of utilizing data in our agency valuation and the measurements and methods that impact the value of your agency. Episode Highlights: Katlyn introduces Carey Wallace. (1:53) Carey mentions that she’s been in the insurance industry for over 12 years and her background is in finance. (8:33) Carey shares that they built a consulting, valuation, perpetuation planning services, and data analytics team in order to leverage the data and start to help agents understand what's inside their agency and what they can learn from each other. (10:41) Carey mentions that at present, 50% of the agency owners are at or near retirement. (13:15) Carey shares that Intell Agents started around two years ago in Ohio, and they have over 20,000 agencies in their ecosystem. (14:11) Carey mentions that the main priority in their industry is hiring. (15:37) Katlyn shares that one of the big culture shocks for captive agents, when they go independent, is working with multiple carriers that pay different amounts based on the line of business. (19:25) Katlyn mentions that a pilot program is a method that your agency can adopt, to begin a new change. (23:01) Carey shares that the consistency in the revenue, and the future revenue that is going to be generated and maintained, will impact the value of your agency. (24:56) Carey mentions that the reason why private equity is so interested in their industry is because of their consistency in the renewal income. (26:46) Carey mentions that it’s significant to get familiar with what the benchmarks are to understand your agency. (33:03) Carey shares that she firmly believes, that the current technology inside the independent insurance agents is widely underused. (33:11) Carey thinks that the pandemic has created a gap between those that have already leveraged technology and data, and those that are not. (36:12) Katlyn thinks that in the present independent world, we’re seeing a shift towards a greater demand, to have systems and processes in your agency to drive organic growth. (39:55) Carey mentions that predictive benchmarks such as productivity, are elements that you should be aware of, to know exactly what's happening and make shifts in order to change the outcome. (53:20) Key Quotes: “I am not an insurance agent. I've never sold a policy in my life. I've probably never planned to sell a policy in my life, but I love insurance because I love small businesses. I love helping small business owners win.” - Carey Wallace “As an industry, we are inundated with all these different solutions, but there is no roadmap to tell you how to get there, and in my mind, data in what you're trying to do in your agency is the starting point to drive you to the things that would make the most sense.” - Carey Wallace Resources Mentioned: Agency Intelligence Katlyn Eggar LinkedIn Carey Wallace LinkedIn Intell Agents Advertisers: Podium Agency Va