The insurance agency network
Iroquois adds value to your agency.
Iroquois® is a network of more than 2,500 independent agencies in 48 states writing over $2.4 Billion in premium with affiliated Carrier-Partners. Agencies with premium from $2 million to more than $200 million join Iroquois to grow revenue, profits and agency value, without sacrificing independence.
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The founding of The Iroquois Group® began in 1977 when Paul Branch, owner of a successful agency in a small town in western New York, sought to bring agencies together to improve their carrier access, compensation, and competitive position. Fiercely independent, Paul envisioned an organization of many Member Agencies that could leverage their combined size while increasing and strengthening their individual independence. Branch named his new organization after the Iroquois Confederacy and began to attract other agencies, first in western New York, and then throughout the Northeast.
Forty-five years later, Iroquois® has more than 2,500 Member Agencies in 48 states. Although national in scope, Iroquois has always operated at a local level due to the importance of state and regional relationships. Managing Partners oversee both Member and carrier relationships in 6 regions.
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Paul Branch
Paul Branch was the third generation in his family’s insurance agency. He noticed that even though the business his agency wrote for his carriers was unusually profitable, the profit sharing he earned from these carriers was minimal. He decided to test whether forming a company uniting profitable independent agencies would allow them as a group to develop stronger relationships with their carriers and earn more revenue.
In the four decades since Iroquois was founded, it has stayed true to the principles that Paul believed would help insurance agencies reach their potential and thrive rather than just survive. Mr. Branch died in 2010, but his ideas and enthusiastic, thoughtful and caring brand of management continues today at his company.
Iroquois is still in the Branch family — now helmed by Paul’s daughter, Laurie Branch, who has taken steps to ensure Iroquois remains in the family for generations to come. Thanks to an ever-expanding group of talented managers dedicated to building on Paul’s dream, Iroquois is as vital and revolutionary as it was forty years ago. Today, The Iroquois Group has a larger office space — but it’s just down the road from their original headquarters.
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Iroquois Confederacy
The company name was well chosen since the Iroquois Confederacy, or League of Five Nations, was one of the oldest democracies in the world. Scholars believe that as early as the twelfth century, five small Indian tribes in what is now New York State – the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca – formed an association or confederacy in an attempt to stop bloodshed between the tribes and to protect themselves from larger outside threats. The Iroquois League later influenced the Founding Fathers as they developed the U.S. Constitution. The founders of The Iroquois Group strongly believed that the purpose and strategy of the Iroquois League could be translated to independent agencies.
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Six Regions
Because of the many regional differences in the insurance industry, Iroquois has formed six regional subsidiary companies, each focusing on one geographic region of the country. Each region is run by a Managing Partner who knows the local marketplace, the insurance carriers operating there, and the challenges and opportunities facing local agencies. Regional Managers report to Managing Partners and interact daily with Member Agencies and Carrier-Partners.
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Flexibility & Personal Touch
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Iroquois attracts independent agents with total premium from a few million to more than $200 million. It can accommodate such diversity through a very flexible approach that allows each Member to choose the markets, benefits and services that best meet their needs. Iroquois’ field staff of more than forty Managing Partners and Regional Managers ensures that each Member receives a personal touch. Members are supported by a Regional Manager, who is truly a Trusted Advisor. Iroquois Regional Managers are experienced insurance professionals who bring a wealth of knowledge in their agency dealings and who work with each Member to customize the Iroquois markets, resources, and services that best meet their needs.
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Regional Managers
Iroquois’ Regional Managers (RMs) are a key differentiator between Iroquois and other national and regional insurance networks. The Regional Managers are well versed on each agency they manage and are committed to partnering with their carrier counterparts to deliver results.
Regional Managers use an analytical process to help Members optimize their market selection. They then work closely with the Carrier-Partner Marketing Reps to ensure profitability, production, and retention goals are achieved together.
RMs offer Members over a dozen proven revenue-enhancing strategies from which to choose. They also provide Best Practices information and an array of other Iroquois benefits and strategies.
The Regional Manager’s role is to offer his or her Members options and incentives, but they leave the decisions on which options and incentives to pursue up to the Member.
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Building Revenue, Profits & Agency Value
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Staying Independent
Iroquois recognizes that independent agencies value their independence! Iroquois does not take an equity position in a Member’s agency and Members continue to have carriers they work with outside of their Iroquois relationship. By increasing agency revenues, profits and value, Iroquois helps agencies secure their financial future so they can stay independent.
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Market Optimization
Many agents feel that having more carrier plaques on the wall means more opportunity, but Best Practices data shows that the fastest growing and most profitable agencies have fewer carrier relationships than average agencies. By carefully selecting a core group of carriers, Best Practices agencies build stronger relationships with their underwriters and greater knowledge of the target business within their appetite, which, in turn, helps them write and retain more business and build larger and more stable revenue streams.
Our goal at Iroquois is to help our Members find the right mix of carriers to write and retain more business at higher profit margins. Not too many, not too few: just the right ones. Iroquois can help Members analyze their markets and develop a plan to optimize them. Accessing new markets through Iroquois often means lower production requirements and better compensation than from directly appointed carriers. And Iroquois can provide assistance and incentives to help Members optimize their markets.
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Better Bonus or Contingency Income
There are three ways that Iroquois helps provide its Members with a greater and more consistent contingency or bonus revenue stream. First, Iroquois begins sharing contingency or bonus revenue at lower volume thresholds than under direct carrier appointments by beginning at $50,000 for most personal lines carriers and at $100,000 for most commercial lines carriers. That means more of an agency’s books of business can earn bonus revenue through Iroquois than if they were to take on the carrier directly and new carrier relationships start earning bonus revenue faster.
Second, most carriers pay higher bonus revenue as a percent of earned premium based on three factors: the loss ratio, the degree to which the book is growing, and the overall size of the book. These payout factors are often presented in a grid format. Iroquois has the benefit of scale with its core carrier partners, so reaching the uppermost limits of carrier bonus grids is the norm and not the exception. And depending upon how much volume Members write with Iroquois-affiliated carriers, Members can earn 100% of profit sharing revenue.
Third, most carriers stop paying bonus revenue once loss ratios reach 52% to 54%. Depending upon how much business a Member writes with Iroquois-affiliated carriers, they could earn as much as 60% of the bonus revenue with a loss ratio as high as 70%. By allowing higher loss ratios to qualify for bonus revenue, Iroquois increases the odds that more members will earn bonus revenue each year.
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