September 2026
Nobody joins a network planning to leave, which is exactly why the exit clause is the least-read paragraph in the agreement and the one that decides what membership actually cost you.
Ask to read it at the first meeting. Not because you expect to leave, but because a network confident in the clause will hand it over without a conversation, and one that is not will manage the request. That reaction is data.
The six things to look for
1. Notice period. Ninety days is common and workable. Longer than a year, or a window that only opens on an anniversary, means a decision in March cannot be acted on until the following year.
2. What happens to appointments. Direct appointments in your name should stay yours, subject to the carrier. Sub-codes under the network's appointment are the network's. Ask carrier by carrier and get the answer in writing. Why the difference matters.
3. What leaving costs. Look for exit fees, a continuing commission share on business written during membership, and buy-out provisions. A continuing share is the one to watch: it means you keep paying for something you no longer receive.
4. Non-solicit and non-compete. A clause restricting you from approaching your own clients is the most serious thing you can sign in this context. Check whether it covers clients you brought with you as well as ones written during membership, and check how long it runs.
5. Data. Can you export complete policy and client records, at any time, without permission, in a usable format? If this is not explicit, assume it is a problem.
6. Right of first refusal. Does the network get to match any offer if you sell? This is not automatically bad, and it does affect what your agency is worth to a third-party buyer who now knows their offer may be used as a stalking horse.
The clause nobody writes down
Switching costs. If joining required moving your management system, rebranding, or routing service through the network, then leaving means undoing all of it. The agreement says you may leave freely and the practical answer is eighteen months of disruption.
When you evaluate a network, count what you would have to rebuild. A network that leaves your operation alone has given you a genuinely free exit; one that absorbs it has written an exit clause without using the word.
How to read the answer
You are testing two things: whether the terms are reasonable, and whether you can find out what they are before committing. The second matters more. A reasonable clause you had to fight to read sits inside a relationship where you will have to fight to read the next thing too.
Our exit terms are published rather than described, and what has not been settled is visibly absent rather than papered over.
Related reading