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Industry and workload context
What current research says about placement pressure, heavier workloads, customer expectations, and the strength of the independent channel.
SteadyState Research | For Independent P&C Agencies
Independent Agency Operations Benchmark 2026
A practical, research-based look at where independent agencies lose capacity—and how better-prepared work can protect the expertise customers depend on.
The report brings together credible insurance-industry research and translates it into practical operating questions for independent P&C agencies, particularly agencies with 5–50 employees.
It examines the work surrounding new business, renewals, service, placement, email, handoffs, staffing, and the systems agencies already have.
21 pages · Free public access · No form required
SteadyState Research
Independent Agency Operations Benchmark
2026
STEADYSTATE AGENCY OPERATIONS
What the report covers
A clearer view of where agency capacity goes
The report is organized around the work that happens before experienced people can apply their judgment—the collecting, checking, entering, following up, routing, and status reconstruction that surrounds insurance work.
Workflow-level operating questions
Practical ways to examine new-business intake, renewals, endorsements, email, interruptions, handoffs, and staff capacity.
Measures agencies can use
Definitions for readiness, elapsed time, human touches, follow-up rounds, exceptions, ownership, aging, and first-review completeness.
A practical starting point
A 20-item Agency Operations Readiness Assessment and a focused 90-day approach for improving one meaningful workflow.
Four findings worth your attention
Industry pressure becomes agency work
The numbers matter most when an agency can see the internal work they create: additional research, remarketing, follow-up, explanation, handoffs, and interruptions.
70%
reported greater difficulty placing risk
Seventy percent of independent-agency professionals in Vertafore’s 2024 workforce study reported greater difficulty placing risk.
For an agency, that pressure can translate into more carrier research, declined submissions, remarketing, client communication, and exceptions requiring experienced attention.
Source: Vertafore, 2024 Insurance Agency Workforce Report.
58%
reported a heavier workload
The industry finding confirms the pressure many agency teams feel. But workload alone does not reveal whether the cause is higher volume, greater complexity, staffing changes, fragmented intake, repeated follow-up, or more effort per transaction.
The report shows how agencies can begin separating those causes.
Source: Vertafore, 2024 Insurance Agency Workforce Report.
5 in 6
want a live person for complex insurance transactions
Customers may value convenient options for routine activities while still wanting a knowledgeable person for complex, consequential, or emotionally difficult insurance conversations.
Better operations should protect that human service—not remove it.
Source: J.D. Power, 2025 Insurance Customer Retention Playbook.
87.7% commercial
39.5% personal
39.5% personal
was written by independent agencies in 2025
The independent channel is strong. The operating question is whether agencies can convert that position into sustainable growth while experienced people absorb placement work, follow-up, rework, and scattered information.
Source: Big “I”, 2026 Market Share Report.
The operating question behind the numbers
How much of your team’s day requires insurance expertise—and how much is spent getting work ready for it?
Agency work rarely fails in one dramatic moment. Capacity is more likely to disappear through small, familiar steps.
Scattered intakeInformation arrives across several channels.
Missing detailsStaff has to ask for what should have arrived.
Repeated entryThe same facts are entered more than once.
Unclear handoffsWork changes hands without a visible state.
Status searchesExperienced people are interrupted before a question is ready.
Each step may be reasonable by itself. Together, they can consume the same people whose knowledge, relationships, and judgment make the agency valuable.
The report helps leadership teams make that work visible—and choose one practical place to begin.
About the research
A synthesis of credible industry evidence
The Independent Agency Operations Benchmark 2026 is a SteadyState research synthesis. SteadyState did not conduct every underlying survey or study cited in the report.
We reviewed established insurance-industry research, retained the definitions and limitations that matter, and interpreted the findings through an agency-operations lens.
The full report includes source notes and a complete bibliography. Where dependable public agency-level benchmarks do not exist, the report recommends establishing a consistent internal baseline rather than borrowing an unsupported target.
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Why SteadyState published this report
Built around how agency work actually moves
SteadyState was founded by Kevin Koziol, who has been redesigning repetitive, information-heavy work since 1996—beginning with insurance form re-entry.
Across that work, the same pattern has remained visible: valuable people lose time when work reaches them incomplete, scattered, or unprepared.
The purpose of this report is not to prescribe one universal operating model. It is to give independent-agency leadership teams credible evidence, practical questions, and a clearer way to examine their own work.
SteadyState designs agency operations so exceptional service becomes the natural outcome.
Start with one workflow
Where is repetitive work consuming the most time in your agency?
You do not need to overhaul the agency or replace the systems you already have.
Start by identifying one workflow where information arrives incomplete, work changes hands repeatedly, status is difficult to see, or experienced people spend too much time preparing the work before they can act.
Choose a practical next step
The one-minute Agency Workflow Snapshot can help you choose that starting point.
Prefer to talk it through?
We can look at how one workflow moves through your agency today—where it waits, where information gets re-entered, and where staff are pulled into work that could have arrived better prepared.