Membership in The Advantage Group brings the members a number of advantages they are generally unable to obtain on their own. These advantages are earned through superior performance in terms of combined volume, growth and profitability. TAG's historic performance record, which is excellent, allows members to enjoy the most favorable agreements offered by carriers to their largest agents.
Members have access to many more carriers than a small to medium size stand-a-lone independent agency would be able to attract. TAG currently represents over 30 P&C insurance companies and a large number of life and benefits organizations.
Membership generally brings about significantly increased carrier clout and influence not available to most individual agencies. By aggregating member volumes, TAG becomes one of the largest agencies representing the carrier in the Washington marketplace. Our carriers have learned that "the whole of The Advantage Group is greater than the sum of its individual parts." In military terms TAG would be thought of as a "Force Multiplier."
Members are not required to change their business model to fit The Advantage Group. The group operates under a formal LLC Agreement supplemented by an Operating Procedures Guide approved by the members.
Membership provides a high level of camaraderie - perhaps better said community - with fellow members. In the mandatory monthly owner meetings, a management feature that makes TAG unique, there is close to 1,000 years of combined insurance experience around the table that helps bring clarity to issues and decisions. In a continually changing and complex insurance environment it is a comfort to have a close group of "business friends" who understand your business, share your concerns and problems, and most importantly will not compete against you. It is helpful to be able to talk about the issues of the day with your fellow members; all while maintaining your individual independence to run your day-to-day operations without a competitor or TAG looking over your shoulder.
Membership provides marketing assistance. Members willingly share successful techniques and strategies. When faced with the challenge of placing a class of business you are not familiar with you have a group of members who can advise how they have handled similar risks and the best markets to approach. The same holds true with internal agency management issues. Such advice and counsel exchange is almost a daily occurrence within TAG.
TAG membership provides the ability to position your agency as part of a much larger and sophisticated insurance organization than your competitor. You can tell customers and prospects that doing business with your agency gives them the best of all worlds. As a TAG member your agency combines all the capabilities of a large broker - the 17th largest in the Puget Sound area - with the personal attention and friendly service normally associated with a community based agency. TAG is ranked the 84th largest privately held broker (revenue) by the Insurance Journal and the 20th largest networked/aggregator group in the country.
Members benefit from professional management. TAG is managed day-to-day by an Executive Director with over 50 years insurance experience - 35 years with Safeco and 22 years serving as a senior field or Home Office executive. Management responsibility is shared with three TAG agency principals elected to staggered three year terms of office. None-the-less, most decisions are a group process and all members have an equal vote.
Finally, The Advantage Group is an alliance of Northwest agents as contrasted to an aggregator group with the Home Office located in another part of the country. At the moment the members are NW Washington centered. The group is focused, as much as this kind of thing is possible, on "owning our little corner of the world." By that we mean focusing significant volume on a group of core carriers so that we are very important to those companies. The idea is to position ourselves such that we have a strong relationship, both business and personal.
The Advantage Group (TAG) is managed and operated strictly for the benefit of the owner members.
TAG is a member owned holding company. Members completely own and operate their own agencies and share equal ownership of TAG.
There is a fee to become a member and a contribution to capital which provides ownership. Monthly expenses include an assessment which covers the Executive Director salary and expenses. There is a quarterly assessment for miscellaneous holding company expenses. Examples of these expenses are the monthly owners meeting, accounting, IT and legal as necessary.
The Advantage Group is a "pass through" organization. All revenue earned, including contingencies and incentives are split based on percentage of member production with the carrier, everything goes to the members. All revenues earned internally by the member agency stay with the agency - there is no commission sharing with TAG.
The Advantage Group is receptive to new members that are highly successful on their own and do not necessarily need to partner or join together with a group. The group has no aspirations, per se, to be the biggest in terms of membership numbers. The quality of the members who are asked to join is very important. The new member due diligence process can be lengthy.
The Advantage Group and its members have achieved special designations with several our insurance carriers and associations over the years:
