“The McLean Insurance Agency is approaching $20 million in premium, hardly the size of an agency in “need” of help.  In 2002, however, Doug Megill, president of McLean Insurance, saw the benefits of joining The Iroquois Group.  “We are an aggressive agency and we wanted to access additional markets without making huge volume commitments.  Joining Iroquois allowed us to take advantage of additional opportunities for growth,” said Megill.  Iroquois provided Travelers Personal Lines and Hartford Commercial Lines to McLean and they kept growing.  Then in 2004,  Iroquois Regional Manager, Carl Lofhjelm explained how a Market Alliance using McLean’s $186,000 book with Zurich could grow McLean’s profits even faster.  McLean hadn’t been receiving contingency income from Zurich, but through the Market Alliance they received a check earlier this year for $5,764 in contingency commissions.  “We are very pleased with how well Carl and Iroquois have taken care of us,” said Megill. 

Steve Harris, immediate past president of the Big I of Virginia, is also president of Richardson-Harris-Boatwright Insurance Agency of Powhatan, VA.  “We joined Iroquois back in 1991,” said Harris, “and we remain a real Iroquois booster.”  In 2003, Harris and Iroquois Regional Manager, Lindy Bane saw an opportunity for Richardson-Harris-Boatwright to improve their contingency income from a $350,000 book they had directly with W.R. Berkley.  “We were concerned that Berkley would increase their volume requirements for contingencies and we knew that Iroquois had the size and the low loss ratio to keep those contingency dollars coming,” said Harris.   “We had already formed Iroquois Market Alliances with Travelers and Zurich books so I was very comfortable with the concept.”  Harris coded the Berkley book through Iroquois under a Market Alliance and received a contingency payout of $9,311 for 2004 as a result.

Sergey Tsvilikhovskiy of I & T Insurance Agency in Huntingdon, PA is not your typical Iroquois agent.   Sergey is a young Lithuanian who has only been in the for a few years.  After working for Allstate, Sergey and an associate wanted to open their own agency.  Sergey contacted Iroquois Mid-Atlantic Regional Manager, Charlie Ward.  “They needed help and I took a liking to them,” said Charlie. “I gave them the Iroquois pitch and they were sold on our program.” I & T joined Iroquois in March 2005.  They began with Iroquois’ "Easy Access" markets and were subsequently appointed with MetLife.  With Iroquois’ help, they are building a steady business. 

Sergey is equally complimentary of his relationship with Charlie Ward.  “I must say that Charlie played a key role in our agency,” said Sergey. “He taught us many things about this industry.  From the beginning he was there to answer all of our questions, and helped to navigate us through the hard process of working with insurance companies.  I hope that I&T insurance agency and Iroquois Mid-Atlantic’s relationship will prosper even more in the New Year, and may the New Year bring us only positive and happy news.”

Riverside Insurance Agency was a $3 million agency with an existing $180,000 Hanover book when they joined The Iroquois Group in early 2004.  The size of the Hanover book precluded Riverside from collecting contingency income from it, despite having a low loss ratio.   “I decided to do a Market Alliance with Iroquois to take advantage of their profit sharing potential with Hanover,” said Jim Jones, Riverside’s president.  “My experience was combined with that of Iroquois’ other agents and last spring I received a check for $5,044 in contingency income, which I never would have received from Hanover directly.  And, I didn’t have to give up ownership of my book to get it.  That put a real smile on my face.  Iroquois is very careful about consistently maintaining profitable business for its carrier partners, and now I see why.” 

Larry Sanders of E. L. Sanders Insurance runs a $14 million agency in LaPlata, MD.  “One of the main reasons we joined Iroquois was for the opportunity to receive profit sharing income that we weren’t collecting at the time,” said Sanders.  “We had a book with The Hartford that was very profitable but too small to qualify for profit sharing on a direct basis.  By putting this book through Iroquois via a Market Alliance, we were able to maintain our current relationships with Hartford and receive profit sharing at the end of our first year.  That was four years ago, and we are currently planning to do a second Market Alliance with our Zurich book.”