“Our producer is retiring. We have to talk about how we allocate her book.”

That statement is an all-too-familiar one for leadership at many brokerages around the country today. As the industry faces consolidation and turnover on a massive scale, attrition is happening more frequently and agencies are being forced to make some difficult decisions. The challenge is particularly acute for brokerages with a large percentage of small company books of business.

It’s no secret that the economics of small business benefits puts financial pressures on a brokerage. Many brokerages service a mix of business that looks something like this: 30 percent small business, 50 percent mid-market, and 20 percent large business. But the mid-to-large size clients often drive the majority of a firm’s revenue and cash profits. At best, the smaller clients return a slim, single digit margin, and end up pulling down the firm’s bottom line.