In 2010, after owning and running insurance agencies for 20 years, Joe Totah, sold his agency and went into the online publishing business. He started AgencyEquity.com and acquired InsuranceNewsletters.com.
Something unexpected happened. “I didn’t see it growing so fast,” he admits. “Due to growth, I realized I had to focus on AgencyEquity.” Many years later, he sold the InsuranceNewsletters to focus on AgencyEquity.
In the 15 years of its existence, the site has become an essential resource for insurance agency principals. Some of the content available includes:
- Listings of agencies for sale and agencies in the market to acquire agencies or books of business
- He wrote the Guide to Starting an Independent Agency, the first to do so online.
- Listings of startup agency opportunities
- Listings of acquisition resources such as brokers, lenders, consultants, attorneys, and valuation specialists
- News and articles about agency networks, technology, the transition from captive to independent, and real-life stories of errors and omissions liability claims
- Agency infrastructure resources, including listings of marketing and technology vendors
- A directory of insurance agency Agency Clusters, Alliances, Networks Franchises and Aggregators
- A directory of carriers along with links to their agency appointment pages and agency directories
The site has welcomed well more than 3 million visitors who have viewed in excess of 12 million pages. More than 3,000 agencies have been listed for sale there. Its guide to starting an agency has been read more than 150,000 times. The site has clearly met and continues to meet needs that agencies cannot fill elsewhere.
Those needs have remained stable over the years, Totah says. The listings of insurance agencies for sale have always been popular. Captive agents, producers, and career-changers thinking about starting an agency have also made great use of the resources: “Other sections that did well was anything to do with ‘Starting an Insurance Agency’,” he said.
Articles that have had the most reads in recent years include:
- Insurance Agency Non-Compete & Non-Piracy Agreements (6826 reads)
- How to Get Appointed with Insurance Companies for an Independent Agency (5358 reads)
- Court Rules That a 1099 Insurance Agent is an Employee (3146 reads)
- Will this Lawsuit be the End of Captive Agencies? (3132 reads)
- Carrier Sues Agency and Wins a $1.25M Settlement (3081 reads)
Also popular are reports on actual errors and omissions lawsuits against agencies and articles about legal tangles agencies have had with carriers and other agents. Three of them – on a court ruling that a 1099 agent is an employee, another on the fate of captive agencies, and a third on a carrier suing an agency – have each received over 3,100 reads.
While the readers’ needs have not changed greatly since 2010, Totah says that advertising has evolved. “Different products are hot and cold at different times,” he says.
The area that has proven to be the hottest item for both readers and advertisers is staffing services. Totah cites two factors driving interest in staffing. “First, the COVID lockdowns proved staffing can work remotely. Secondly, we had a retirement exodus due to baby boomers retiring in big numbers and not having enough domestic staff to fill the gap. As a result, we have seen a boom of outsourced staffing firms specializing in insurance agencies.”
Most of these staffing firms, he says, use employees located overseas. Agencies can hire these employees at huge discounts. Others offer domestic employees. Together, they are filling staffing gaps that “these agencies would have no hope of finding in their local communities.”
The site will always be a work in progress. Totah says he’s planning to add new enhancements but there is no timeline for them yet.
It took years of hard work, but AgencyEquity has grown to be a key resource for insurance agencies. With a growing audience and new features to come, it is on the path to continued success.
