Joining an insurance aggregator is one of the most significant business decisions an independent agent will make. The right aggregator unlocks carrier access, better commissions, and real business support. The wrong one traps you in a contract that limits your growth and makes leaving costly.
Before you sign anything, ask these 15 questions. The answers will tell you everything you need to know about whether an aggregator is a true partner or just a carrier access transaction.
Book Ownership and Exit Provisions
1. Who owns the book of business I build while a member?
This is the single most important question. Some aggregators treat your clients as their clients — the appointments are in their name, and when you leave, you leave without your renewals. Others provide full book ownership from day one.
What to look for: explicit language in the contract confirming that you own the policies you write and have the right to move them upon departure. "We believe in agent ownership" is not the same as a contractual guarantee.
IPA's answer: Agents own the book they build. This is a foundational principle of IPA's model — you're building an asset for yourself, not for us.
2. What happens to my book if I leave the aggregator?
Even if you "own" the book, what can you actually do with it? Ask whether you can take the clients to another aggregator or to direct appointments. Ask if there's a non-solicitation period, a buyout requirement, or a transfer fee.
The exit provision is where aggregator contracts often have sharp teeth that aren't visible in the marketing conversations.
3. Is there a minimum contract term or early termination penalty?
Some aggregators require 12–36 month commitments and charge penalties for early exit. Others are month-to-month. Understand exactly what you're committing to before you sign — and what it costs if circumstances change.
4. What are the notice requirements to exit, and what's the process?
How much notice is required before departure? 30 days? 90 days? 6 months? During the notice period, can you continue writing business and receiving commissions? What's the process for transitioning carrier appointments? Details matter here — a poorly managed exit can cost months of income.
Commission Structure and Economics
5. What commission rates do you pass through to agents?
Ask for specific commission rates by carrier and line of business, not just a general claim that their rates are "competitive" or "above market." The difference between 12% and 14% on a $500,000 homeowners book is $10,000 per year — compounding over five years.
Also ask whether the rates you see in the agreement are fixed or can change. Some aggregators reserve the right to renegotiate commission pass-through rates, which creates ongoing uncertainty.
6. Do you share profit sharing with member agents?
Aggregators earn profit sharing from carriers based on the aggregator's collective loss ratios. Better aggregators distribute a meaningful portion of this profit sharing to member agents. Ask what percentage of profit-sharing revenue is passed through and how the distribution is calculated.
Profit sharing can add 3–8% annually on top of base commissions for agents with good loss ratios — a meaningful amount that shouldn't be invisible to you.
7. Are there any fees — membership, monthly, or per-policy?
Some aggregators charge no fees (they make their margin in the commission split). Others charge monthly membership fees, startup fees, technology fees, or per-policy processing fees. Know the complete cost picture before you can evaluate whether the economics work for your book size and growth trajectory.
8. What are the minimum production requirements?
Some aggregators require minimum annual premium production to maintain membership — often $250,000–$500,000 per year. If you're in a growth phase or a smaller market, understand what happens if you fall short: are there fee adjustments, carrier access restrictions, or termination provisions?
Carrier Access
9. Exactly which carriers do you have appointments with?
Get the full list — not the headline number. Forty carriers means nothing if none of them write in your state or the lines you specialize in. Ask for the full roster and check it against the carriers that matter for your specific market and lines of business.
10. Are the carrier appointments in your name or mine?
This is the master code vs. direct appointment question. In a master code (also called sub-code) arrangement, the policy is written under the aggregator's master appointment. You don't have a direct relationship with the carrier. In a direct appointment model, you have your own appointment with the carrier — a harder credential to earn but more portable if you leave.
Most aggregators use master code arrangements. That's fine — understand what it means for your exit path and your ability to ever move to direct appointments.
See our full breakdown: Aggregator Models: Master Code vs Direct Appointments.
11. Can I get direct appointments with carriers over time?
Does the aggregator support and actively assist with transitioning agents to direct carrier appointments when their volume supports it? Or is keeping agents on master code in the aggregator's financial interest, creating a conflict? The best aggregators actively help agents earn direct appointments — because their model is built on agent success, not on dependency.
Contract Terms
12. Does joining your aggregator restrict me from other aggregator relationships?
Some aggregators require exclusivity — you can only access carriers through them and cannot simultaneously be a member of another aggregator. Others allow you to use multiple aggregators for different carriers or lines. Know the exclusivity terms before signing.
Support, Technology, and Growth
13. What training and business development support do you provide?
Beyond carrier access, what does the aggregator actively do to help you grow? Access to carrier training? Sales development resources? Marketing support? Regular check-ins from a designated representative who knows your business? Or is the relationship primarily transactional — carrier access in exchange for a commission split?
The quality of support often matters more to an agent's actual success than the carrier list.
14. What technology tools are included?
Comparative raters, carrier portals, agency management system integrations, and quoting tools — what's included, what's additional cost, and how well does it integrate with systems you already use?
15. What does the path to growth look like inside your network?
Where are agents who've been with you for 3–5 years? What does their progression look like? Are there examples of agents who came in writing $200,000 in annual premium and grew to $1M+? What did the aggregator specifically do to support that growth — beyond just providing carrier access?
Ask to speak with 2–3 current member agents. Any aggregator confident in their model will facilitate these conversations. Reluctance to provide references should raise questions.
How IPA Answers These Questions
We believe agents should enter any aggregator relationship fully informed. When you speak with IPA, we'll walk through every one of these questions directly — book ownership terms, commission pass-through rates, carrier access, exit provisions, and what we actually do to support agent growth.
We'd rather have an honest conversation that ends in a good fit than a sales conversation that creates the wrong partnership. If IPA isn't the right fit for your situation, we'll tell you that too.
Schedule a discovery call and we'll answer every question on this list — plus any others you bring.