Buyout Fell Through... Should I Leave or Stay

[xrac]

It was in writing... I have too much respect for the man on a personal/friendship level to sue him. I don't see anyone getting ahead except some lawyers if it went that route.

You are a good man and I agree with your decision and reasoning.

 

[Sam Adams]

If he gave you a written agreement and then broke it then you should have a lawyer review the contract. The threat of a lawsuit should force him to some agreement where you could but some portion of the book. Who cares if he is a nice guy?? He broke the contract. He is not a man of his word! You want to be in the business and you had an agreement then you know what you need to do. You probably will never get another opportunity like this again.

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I disagree 100%. You respect him after his broke his business contract with you? You have a personal friendship and is a nice guy so you let him screw you over after working with him for the past 1 and 1/2. People screw friend and family over all the time in business. It doesn't make it right. You need to separate the two and enforce your contract.

 

[VolAgent]

If he gave you a written agreement and then broke it then you should have a lawyer review the contract. The threat of a lawsuit should force him to some agreement where you could but some portion of the book. Who cares if he is a nice guy?? He broke the contract. He is not a man of his word! You want to be in the business and you had an agreement then you know what you need to do. You probably will never get another opportunity like this again.

Insurance can be boiled down to one simple thing, a promise. The insurance company promises it will be there when the **** hits the proverbial fan. The agent promises that as a representative of the company he or she will be there to hold your hand and help you through the process.

If an agent cannot honor his promises, what good is he?

My grandfather always said, an insurance policy is only as good as the agent.

Never promise more than you can deliver and always deliver more than you promise.

 

[indienoise]

If you're making 48k plus commission on what sounds like a 250k-ish book, you're doing very well in terms of income.
However, "enough" will never be enough of you are truly an entrepreneur.
Based on your post, I'm not sure your intentions of "modernizing" have much traction, even if your intentions are good. SEO and fancy websites won't do you much good in the commercial world, unless you want to insure new ventures and businesses that routinely lapse. Read: lots of work for small premiums.
Personal lines is a better market to dive into SEO, IMO, but it is a long and slow process. You might want to take advantage of the time you're getting a salary to figure out your strategy.

 

[TravisT8016]

Looking at office leases tomorrow and sending in requested documents to SIAA and ISU Insurance Agency Network to try and get access to contracts. Any others I should be reaching out to?

 

[VolAgent]

I would look into PGI (Shawn Walker in particular) who's a contributor on these forums. I'm happy with SIAA, however I think PGI would have been a better fit in retrospect.

I would be curious to know why you feel that way. There were some serious issues with the PGI contract that I pointed out to Shawn. He seemed unaware, so perhaps just my opinion or something that just completely slipped by them.

 

[shawnmwalker]

VolAgent,

I took our conversation to heart. But would love to be reminded of the specifics of that conversation and the concerns you had with our contract. Can you please PM me your hang ups.

Please note we have 3 base contracts. They can all be tweaked....Not sure we got to a tweaking phase with VolAgent.

I have spoken with VolAgent. He seems like a Really great guy and agent.


As much as this pains me to say. So is Ins1877. I have spoken with him on multiple occasions and he seems like a great guy. I hope to get him high one day here in CO. (As in Climb a 14,000 ft MTN with him)

 

[VolAgent]

Thank you Shawn.

One thing I will add, there is no such thing as a perfect contract. Pick your poison, is what you receive worth the price of admission?

 

[VolAgent]

Volagent - I've spoken to Shawn a few times & I feel that based upon his transparency...I could have come to better terms with PGI vs SIAA. I can go on & on...but that's what I believe. And obviously he can't (and won't) disclose PGI terms via online forums.

He's always been a straight shooter when I've come to him for advice, even when it wasn't what I wanted to hear. This was far, far different then SIAA & how they communicate.

One thing I have learned is these groups are in business to make money & of course there must be measures to protect their interests. If I could have an easy way out w/ no real skin in the game, I could have used them to grow a ridiculous agency & turned around after 3 years & played them....and then become the master agency's competition overnight. I mean cmon. So of course it makes business sense to discourage (to some extent) THAT very scenario.

Try getting a bank to provide you with financing on a speculative commercial real estate development without an early payoff penalty.

I would agree with everything you said. I have never found Shawn to be less than honest. I did PM him my concerns, as best I could remember them. I know when we spoke on the phone some time ago, he seemed unaware of the issues I raised.

Also with SIAA, every master agency is definitely different. I have learned that from speaking with several around the country. There are some things I do wish were better with mine, but on the whole I will take it. We definitely get a better than standard contract. I know this both from other agents in other states and the recruiter. He told me when he went to training in NH after starting he was very confused at points. There were talking about parts of the country and he kept thinking, "Where is that, I never saw that." Came back home and realized it was left out of ours. Changes that favored the agent.

SIAA and the Master Agency are definitely in it to make money, but then so is Shawn and every other cluster, aggregator and MGA out there. I believe most do honestly want to help, but they also want to make money. After all, it isn't a charity.

Now I will pick on some of Shawn's guys. I can't remember who at this point, but they clearly had not read the contract in detail as there were points they were unaware of. Also, how were aware of one of the issues that I mentioned to Shawn. A bit sad they hadn't communicated it to him prior.

 

[TravisT8016]

VolAgent,

I took our conversation to heart. But would love to be reminded of the specifics of that conversation and the concerns you had with our contract. Can you please PM me your hang ups.

Please note we have 3 base contracts. They can all be tweaked....Not sure we got to a tweaking phase with VolAgent.

I have spoken with VolAgent. He seems like a Really great guy and agent.


As much as this pains me to say. So is Ins1877. I have spoken with him on multiple occasions and he seems like a great guy. I hope to get him high one day here in CO. (As in Climb a 14,000 ft MTN with him)

Shawn,

I've received my SIAA/MIAA contract and sent it to my lawyer today. I will be calling you first thing in the morning on my way into the office. Would love to have a second option. Your website doesn't even give me ANYTHING to go off of which is probably why you didn't make the short list initially with my on-line research....

...And I love Colorado, and 14'ers, and elk.

Found a "nice" lease space... as in clean and affordable. Hopefully only in it for a year... still nicer than any Statefarm dungeon I've been in.