Partnering with the Best Entrepreneurs in Our Industry is Key to Our Collective Success
I’ve spent my entire career in insurance, and my heart lies in our industry for a variety of reasons. It’s dynamism, it’s diversity – but most importantly, it’s people. Our sector is filled with entrepreneurs. Driven folks with a passion for their work, committed stewards of their clients, deep knowledge of their industry, and the grit and determination to succeed.
Entrepreneurs tend to have a deep understanding of the exact ingredients that their companies need to grow, profit, and succeed. But in the current market, it can be hard for leaders to wave the magic wand and actualize these goals quickly, especially for smaller businesses. The secret here can seem counterintuitive – leaning into partnership and leveraging the expertise of peers can be the most impactful method for the growth and success of entrepreneur-led companies.
In building Keystone Agency Partners (KAP), we designed our business model around supporting the most entrepreneurial members of the insurance community – independent agents. The US has a long and proud history of independent insurance agents, deeply rooted in their hometowns and dedicated not only to ensuring that their businesses thrive, but also to the communities they serve. For so many independent agents, going to work every day isn’t just about the business of selling insurance – it’s about providing employment and safeguarding their communities for the future.
Recognizing that independent agents are unique in the way they operate, at KAP we designed a new partnership model for our brokerage platform that we have termed “Connected Autonomy.” This model was borne out of our team’s deep understanding of the entrepreneurial spirit – the passion, the independence, the knowledge, and the willingness to take risks that come with being a successful independent agent.
The traditional model of partnership “support” just isn’t the best fit for folks that match this entrepreneurial profile. As we say often at KAP, our ideal agency partner isn’t looking to sell. They are fiercely independent and have their sights set on future growth in a competitive market. They are providing top of the line service to their customers and have every intention of staying operationally involved with their agency into the future.
We believe that critical to the success of the relationship between brokerage and agency entrepreneur – is a mutual understanding of where each partner’s strengths truly lie. At KAP, we have no intention of dampening that independent agency spirit. By contrast, we want to set that spirit alight by shouldering the burden of operational and process-driven elements of the work as well as leveraging the valuable synergies that a consolidated platform yields.
We’re growing fast at KAP and believe it’s down to the careful thinking we’ve done about the importance of respecting and nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit of our platform partners. With an 100% partner retention rate and a meaningful presence across 17 states since launching in 2020, we’re proud of what we’ve achieved on behalf of our partners. So if you’re determined to thrive and not looking to sell – and find the prospect of partnering with a brokerage difficult to get your head around right now – we’d like to hear from you!
Jeff Turner
CEO | Keystone Agency Partners