About Al Diamond:

Al Diamond has spoken to hundreds of agency groups over the past 23 years. For 30 years, he has been deeply involved in all facets of insurance agency and company operations including valuation, merger, acquisition and divestiture, perpetuation and strategic planning, organizational development, compensation and salary administration programs, administrative, financial operations, marketing, automation planning and ESOP issues. He is the pre-eminent resource for independent insurance agencies. Industry involvement includes:

• Former President of the American Association of Insurance Management Consultants (AAIMCO)
• Charter member of the Quality Insurance Congress
• Independent moderator for disputes arising from insurance agency operations 
• Qualified instructor for the Best Practices of Insurance Agencies programs of the Independent Insurance Agents of America (IIAA)
• Business Skills Department Head for the IIAA’s Virtual University
• Created a Masters Program in insurance agency management (MAM) certifying agency managers and professionally managed insurance agencies (ACE – Agency Certified in Excellence)
• His national newsletter for insurance agency principals and industry executives, THE PIPELINE, distributed to agents, associations, and carriers nationwide
• Chief Operating Officer of three insurance agencies 

VIRTUAL INSURANCE AGENCY – The VIA is the successor organization to successful clusters and can be created instead of clustering by forward thinking small and medium-sized agencies. This seminar will explain the pros and cons of an organization that operates as a large insurance business for economies of scale while permitting independent operation and profit generation by its component agency partners.

TIME MANAGEMENT FOR UNMANAGEABLE PEOPLE – Most agents we know are operating in a frenetic schedule in which they are always busy, but never seem to get much accomplished. This seminar teaches agents how to do more in less time with less effort and yield better results – every time.

INTERNAL PERPETUATION METHODS – There seems to be as many ways of perpetuating agencies as there are agencies. Al Diamond has been exposed to a great many methods used to minimize tax events, to establish a fair exchange between one generation and the next and to provide guarantees to the departing owners. This seminar will share many different methods. The longer sessions are conducted as a workshop that permits agencies to establish their perpetuation tools.

PRODUCER ACQUISITION AND COMPENSATION – The primary key to agency success in the future is the location, acquisition, compensation and management of good producers. Agencies tend to overpay more than underpay and have a history of hiring anyone who understands insurance. This seminar takes the agents through the entire process, step-by-step including locating candidates, interviewing, identifying compensation needs and available funding, and managing producers once hired.

PLANNING MARKETING CAMPAIGNS – Sending a letter to a group of prospects is not a marketing campaign. Al Diamond has developed an integrated 15 Step Marketing Program that will establish relationships between your agency and your specific prospects over a three year period that can yield a 40% closing rate on an entire prospect base if followed properly.

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT - A PRIMER – Quality is not a buzzword, it’s a philosophy of life! Al Diamond shows insurance agents how to instill that lifestyle into their agencies to make them stand out as the measure of excellence in the industry. Not only will your clients be happy to be insured by you, but your employees will be motivated and the carriers will view the agency as a target for the future.

SALARY ADMINISTRATION PROGRAMS – Every employee in an insurance agency is paid on an incentive basis – they just aren’t aware of it! This seminar will teach agents how to implement an ICP (Incentive Compensation Program) within their agency that attunes every employee to the growth and profit of the agency as a prerequisite to their compensation growth.

ACQUISITIONS - WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN AN ACQUISITION CANDIDATE -- Al Diamond will share the entire checklist it uses for acquisitions with the participants of this seminar. Participants will learn what to ask for and how to identify the "red flags" in agencies. Successful participants will learn that some agency deals are better avoided than acquired at any cost.

VALUING YOUR INSURANCE AGENCY - A WORKSHOP – This technical seminar will actually permit an agency to cast a valuation on their (or on any other valuation) using the same tools as the experts. The longer sessions are conducted as a workshop with agents actually walking through the process for their own agencies (no sharing of information between participants in the seminar).

AGENCY SURVIVAL STRATEGIES – We see less agencies in the business every year. This seminar shows agencies the three things they must do in order to survive into the 21^st Century and explains all of the choices within each including natural growth, acquisition, merger, and conversion to become a direct marketer or Internet marketer.

BEST PRACTICES PROGRAMS -- Al Diamond has been qualified by IIAA to instruct ALL Best Practices Programs designed by IIAA.  Most importantly, his team can assist any agency desiring to adopt ideas presented in these seminars in their implementation phase through direct consultation and telephone consultation.