Let your competitor pay higher commission splits to producers and soon you will have no competition. Often they may be employed as an independent contractor which means they are paying their own payroll taxes, too. So pay a producer only what you can afford or do not hire a new one, if you cannot afford a fair rate. Perks should be included in your analysis of what you can afford to pay a producer. The key is to find out which perks will motivate each individual producer and then include that in the overall compensation package.
Time off is often more important to people today than monetary incentives.
Typically producers should be owners only if they bring a unique talent or an entrepreneurial spirit to the table. Otherwise, you are adding minority owners to your firm, and that may create problems downstream if you want to sell or merge. The numbers The IIAA's recent agency universe study indicated that there are about 44,000 independent agencies in the United States. Since the U.S. has about 261 million people, this translates to one independent agency for every 5,932 people. Keep in mind that this is omitting the direct writer from the equation.