Husband has to sell his insurance book of biz?

Normally a book of business sells for one and half to two and half times the annualized commissions. In my opinion in your case it will probably be closer to the only one time the rate of commission or even less because the clients are new and there is no loyalty, i.e. it is just about the same as buying leads.

If you own the book (of course make sure that that is the case before you do anything), I would try to get a contract with another company and do a book rollover and keep your business. Why are you willing to give up so easily? When I first started my scratch agency, I could not even get a company to give me a contract ostensibly because I was a woman and a minority. I had to broker business for years (i.e. splitting commissions with another agent who had the contract) until I was able to find a company willing to give me a contract. Yet I did not give up. If your husband could sell $200,000 in his first year, he should be able to sell at least another $100,000 in his second year which is very good for a new agent. Don't give up! There are companies out there looking to appoint new agents. Depending on your area, I would check with Erie, Travelers, Firemen's Fund, etc. Of course there are a couple of other options--merging with another agent and then rolling over the book to the companies written by the other agent or obtaining a position as a sales producer at another agency and rolling over the book there. Of course you need to make sure that either the contract with the agent that you merge with or with whom he goes to work for will let him still retain ownership of his book so that if he decides to go solo again he can have that option.

I hope this helps. Good Luck!

There are a lot of factors that need to be considered to value a given book of business. First, the premium is not as important as the commissions earned. The price you will receive will be based on a multiple of the anticipated commissions. That multiple can range from 1 to 2 times commission.The multiple is going to reflect what the buyer expects to receive in commissions after the sale. The buyer's valuation will take into account: How much of the business will be retained if your husband is no longer the agent? As your husband has only written the insurance for one year it is a negative. The quality of the book of business. Is it a book of non standard auto or a book of upscale homeowners insurance?) Does the book of business consist of accounts with multiple policies for each customer or is it a random group of policies? The buying agent will have a better chance of retaining the customers if they have two or more policies. Another measure of quality would be the loss ratio of the book. Has it been profitable? Is the book concentrated with one company? Or is the business spread out over several companies? Does the buying agent represent the same companies so that the business can be "rolled" into that agent's existing book of business or will the buying agent have to remarket each account. Obviously you are going to get the best price when all of the above factors are beneficial to the buyer.