September 2026
A buyer is going to take your book apart. Doing it yourself first, two or three years early, is the highest-return work available to an owner thinking about an exit, because everything they will find is still fixable.
The six numbers a buyer looks at first
1. Revenue, and how much of it recurs. Commission from renewals is worth more than commission from new business. Contingency is worth less than both, because it is volatile and may not survive the sale.
2. Retention, by premium and by policy count. These differ, and the gap tells a buyer whether you are losing small accounts or large ones. A demonstrably sticky book is worth more than a larger volatile one.
3. Mix. Commercial weighting raises the multiple. Personal lines is priced with channel pressure in mind.
4. Carrier concentration. A book where one carrier holds half the premium is a book with a single point of failure, and it is priced accordingly.
5. Revenue per employee, and per producer. A proxy for whether the agency is efficient or merely busy.
6. Dependence on the owner. How much of the book renews because of you personally? This is the largest discount a buyer applies and the slowest thing to fix.
Book Check computes the middle four on your numbers in about a minute, and shows the arithmetic for each.
The things that turn up in diligence
Fix these early; they cost real money at the table.
- Data quality. A management system with inconsistent records makes every claim about the book harder to verify, and unverifiable claims get discounted.
- Undocumented procedures. If how the agency runs lives in your head, the buyer is purchasing something that leaves with you.
- E and O history. Open claims, gaps in coverage, or a pattern of complaints.
- Producer agreements. Unclear book ownership with your own producers is a problem the buyer inherits, and they will price it.
- Network or cluster agreements. Right of first refusal, exit costs, appointments that do not transfer. What to check.
- Leases and licenses that do not survive a change of control.
Fix the transferability first
If you only do one thing with the time you have, move relationships from yourself to your staff. Have somebody else attend renewals. Let a service manager own the top twenty accounts. Make the introduction at the client's office rather than at closing.
It takes two to three years to do properly and it moves the number more than anything else on this page.
Get an independent valuation
Before you talk to a buyer, and from somebody whose fee does not depend on the outcome. Most owners carry a number in their head that is either well above or well below reality, and both errors cost. Perpetuation covers the routes and the timing.
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