What Shopping for a Home Reminded Me about Selling an Insurance Agency
At the “suggestion” of my wife, we recently started looking for a new house. Like most other home shoppers, I wound up on Zillow.com. If you have never used it, Zillow is a great website loaded with information and resources to aid in the process of buying a new home. While shopping for a home is exciting and fun, my experience drove home a few points that relate to selling an insurance agency.
Taxes When Selling an Insurance Agency
Our clients don’t like to talk about taxes and neither do we but, as Ben Franklin said, nothing is more certain in life than death and taxes. So we put together a little summary about the differences between stock and asset sales when selling an insurance agency and how the IRS treats various assets in the sale of a business.
Avoiding a Due Diligence Train Wreck When Selling an Insurance Agency
The due diligence process is a critical stage for either selling or acquiring an insurance agency or brokerage. M&A transaction “due diligence” is the process by which a buyer of … Continue reading
Agency Valuations – The Truth About EBITDA Multiples
I’ve come across a few articles posted by agency valuation consultants challenging the use of EBITDA multiples in valuations. It can be argued that EBITDA is not a measure of … Continue reading
How an M&A Advisor Earns Their Fee: A Tale of Two Deals
One of our clients this last year came to us after a failed transaction with a buyer that had approached them. This particular client had negotiated a 7-figure sale price with the buyer and started down the process of trying to get the deal done. To keep the story short, we’ll just say that six months later the deal was still dragging out and the buyer had attempted to renegotiate the terms for no fault of the seller. Reaching their wits end, the client went online to find someone to help, found our website and called us. …
Time is the Enemy of Deals
Over the past 10 years I’ve worked on hundreds of M&A transactions within the insurance industry and a major reason most deals fail to get across the finish line … Continue reading
NOW is the Time to Sell Your Independent Insurance Agency
I was recently interviewed for the Independent Agents Magazine for an upcoming article on perpetuation planning. I said something that I typically don’t say, which is that now (or at least within the next 18 months) is the optimum time to sell an agency. I believe that market values are as high as they will be for a decade and will crest within the next 18 months.
When it comes to selling your agency, are you fishing or being fished?
Truth be told, our biggest competition isn’t other M&A firms in our market area; its buyers that contact agency owners directly. From a marketing standpoint, I’m not afraid of this … Continue reading
Selling an Insurance Agency Based on Retention
A discussion on some reasons why I don’t think most agencies should be sold on a retention-basis.
Never a Fee to the Seller!
Thinking of selling your agency and received an ad promoting “Never a Fee to the Seller!”? You might want to take time and do your due diligence. This is a clever … Continue reading