Fair Compensation for Commercial P&C Producer?

JMCS

New Member
1
Hello,

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Any and all input will be greatly appreciated.

So...I am a producer for an independent agency. I have been in insurance business for about 3 years now and I am loving it!! I started off my insurance career with this agency in somewhat of a CSR role servicing books for very successful producers. This was great as it taught me a lot about the industry and how my agency operates. My previous work experience was in a much more active and fast paced workplace compared to being behind a desk:SLEEP: so after about 4 months of this CSR role and countless hours of study and preparation I was ready to hit the streets running! I started my role as a producer and have had great success up until now.

My agency has recently went through some changes after losing a few producers. These producers all had decent size books of business which have been split and given to me and another new producer to service (annual account review, audit review, handle general coverage issues, etc.). We both have CSR's that handle a lot of the service work but there are still some issues that come up that require my attention. This inheritance of accounts has really cut into my production time which leads me to the main reason for this post.

Lets say a producers commission agreement is 50% of new business commission and 35% of renewal commissions with no base. For easy math we will say that the average commission from company is 10% resulting in a total agency commission of $300,000 on a $3 million book of business therefore making producers renewal income around $105,000/yr.

Now lets look at it this way...Agency says that they are only going to pay producer 1/2 of renewal commission(17.5%) on all inherited renewal business(which in most cases have lacked any attention for a great deal of time leaving agency very likely to lose if excessive attention/time isn't given by current producer trying to salvage relationship). Now a producer that handles a $3 million book of business ($2 million is inherited) will be compensated as follows: $1 million book = $100,000 agency commission, $35,000 producer renewal income + $2 million inherited book = $200,000 agency commission, $35,000 producer renewal commission = Total producer renewal income $70,000.

This is clearly a dramatic difference in income and to me seems a bit unfair. I was on track to have a pretty good year of production(around $400K) but as I mentioned previously have had a severe cut in time available to focus on new production due to taking on these accounts.

My questions to other producers out there, how would you feel about this? Are my expectations to high? Should I just appreciate the additional income(not that i don't, I just feel that it is a little unfair and not what I agreed to in my initial compensation agreement) and move on? And to the agency owners that are reading this, what are your feelings? How would you handle this situation with one of your producers?

Thank you to anyone that takes the time to read this and offer an appropriate opinion! It is appreciated.
 
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