Middleton Reports Average Group Life Commissions

By Trevor Thomas

December 11, 2002 at 07:00 PM

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NU Online News Service, Dec. 11, 5:19 p.m. – Group life and health commissions at independent agencies averaged between $1,886 to $2,389 per account in 2002, depending on agency size, finds a new survey by the Middleton Group, LaGrange, Ill., a management consulting firm.

For agencies with less than $600,000 in annual revenue, commissions per group life and health account averaged $1,936 per account and $183,935 per service employee.

For agencies in the $600,000-to-$1.5 million range, commissions were $1,886 per account and $286,596 per service employee.

Those in the $1.51 million-to-$4 million range averaged $2,369 and $294,018 per service employee, while those over $4 million averaged $1,906 and $265,131.

Middleton emphasizes that the figures are averages and that high-performing agencies can show significantly higher production.

"It must be emphasized, however, that most of these ?high performing' firms are specialty operations," Middleton says in its report. "They write only employee benefits business or professional liability or aviation coverages, for example."

Middleton notes that its definition of accounts refers to clients, not individual policies, while number of service employees includes customer service reps, inside account managers and executives, assistants specifically assigned to the department, marketing and claims personnel, supervisors and managers.

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