I wouldn't say most IMOs are at those levels. Especially the ones that spread their business around to 10+ companies.
Do they exist, yes, but only the most elite of IMOs hit those contract levels.
Rule of thumb, if you call an IMO, and the owner always answers, they 're likely not at that level.
Really. You'd have to put just about all your business with one company to play at that level. So a producer shouldn't be worried about getting locked down as all they'd need to do is find one company to take them on at that level.
There's a guy in North Jersey who has gotten rich having built a large captive agency (50% contracts, "free" leads, good training). All they sell is Columbian! Columbian seems to have a good support system for those who can commit to and produce for them on an agency level.
Point is if worse comes to worse, you could always get rich partnering with Columbian as it doesn't seem EFES, FEX, Ben Boman, Todd King, Doug, Dave, Spur, etc. have too many agents locked down with them.