Producer Agreements
Agency principals regularly contact IA&B to discuss a producer's departure from the agency. When the call comes, unfortunately, the producer usually has already left with detailed knowledge of the agency's accounts, often the expiration list itself, and begins immediately to solicit the agency's accounts. Too often, the agency had no protective provisions in place, leaving it with less leverage when entering a legal battle.
It is imperative for agencies to understand their rights under common and contract law so that they may better protect the agency's core asset, policy expirations. In order to do so, they MUST execute agreements with their producers - employees or independent contractors, when those individuals are hired… and everybody is happily working together.
IA&B has developed a resource that explains the different provisions that should be present in producer agreements and spells out the consequences of improperly drafted contracts.
The resource is broken down into several components, each of which has a role to play in the preservation of an agency owner's rights:
Trade secrets -- how the Uniform Trade Secrets Act can further protect an agency's customer list
Restrictive covenants -- establishes the distinction between non-piracy and non-compete
Compensation plan -- discusses different compensation methods and offers sample language for each option
Enforcement and damages -- how this provision can reinforce the enforceability of the non-piracy provision
Employee v. Independent Contractor -- the IRS criteria used to determine proper classification of the producer
Sample producer agreements - producer as employee or independent contractor
| Please note: The Producer Agreement Toolkit is only available to individuals designated as the Agency Adminstrator with IA&B. In most cases, the Agency Administrator in the agency is the Primary member of IA&B (generally the agency owner). Agency Administrators have exclusive access to tools management-level tools and can update agency data with IA&B. Additional Agency Administrators can be designated by the Primary member by contacting the IA&B Member Service Center at (800) 998-9644, locally (717) 795-9100, option 0. |
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This resource is only available to IA&B members and company partners.
