Avantages
The company is focused on your agency's growth and giving you as many resources as possible to succeed. Generous carrier portfolio and always growing. Marketing expense requirement is low. They handle a lot of the tedious aspects of agency management (onboarding, carrier appointments, E&O insurance, etc.) and hold your hand a lot more than you'll realize. Company provides direct support through Agent Managers and Agency Support Team. Most of the back-end service work that bogs down production for regular independent agents is handled for you. The company is constantly evolving for the better and makes multiple technology improvements throughout the year. Company culture emphasizes growth and sales success.
Inconvénients
Sales are self-driven based on relationship-building not paid leads, so if you or your employees aren't good at outside sales & are not personable, then revenues will struggle. Back-end service isn't perfect and it still requires the agent to handle some tasks & involvement, but C-level has shown constant commitment to improving. A little less autonomy than a traditional independent agency. Inability to sell book on open market - must be sold within the company, but there are always buyers available. Work/life balance is what you make it, with success requiring a lot of effort to establish and maintain relationships or excel at referrals.