(Hamilton, NJ. October 3, 2016)   Nottingham Insurance has been selected for the 15th year to be part of an elite group of independent insurance agencies around the United States participating in the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or the Big “I”) “Best Practices” Study Group.

Only 254 independent agencies throughout the U.S. qualified for inclusion in the 2016 Best Practices Study. An IIABA affiliated state association or an insurance company must first nominate the agency which then must qualify based on outstanding customer retention, growth, stability and financial management. More than 1,800 agencies were nominated this year.

The Best Practices Study was initiated by IIABA in 1993 as the foundation for efforts to improve agency performance. The annual study of leading independent insurance agencies, which is conducted for IIABA by Reagan Consulting of Atlanta, Ga., documents the business practices of these high-performance agencies and urges others to adopt similar practices.

Hundreds of workshops and seminars have been conducted at various producer association functions, company sponsored agency meetings and national automation users group conventions.

The IIABA and Reagan Consulting jointly maintain the Best Practices Gateway website (http://www.reaganconsulting.com/research/best-practices/) that provides executive summaries of the annual Best Practices Studies, the Best Practices Study Comparison Workbook tool and ordering information for Best Practices products. The Gateway, as well as the annual study, is made possible in part through the financial sponsorship of various insurance companies and industry organizations.

The 2016 Best Practices Study sponsors include: Agency Business Solutions and Amerisure Insurance, Applied Systems, Beyond Insurance, Central Insurance Companies, Chubb, CNA, EMC Insurance, ENCOMPASS, The Hanover Insurance Group, The Hartford, Imperial PFS, InsurBanc, Kemper, Liberty Mutual, MetLife, The Main Street America Group, Nationwide, Travelers, Vertafore and Westfield Insurance.

Nottingham Insurance was founded in 1917 and will be celebrating their 100th year in 2017 as a fourth generation, family-owned agency. They offer a wide range of insurance products including business insurance, personal/family insurance, health and group benefits insurance and life & estate planning services. Owners Jack and Greg Blair and Peter Toft have grown the agency into one of the premier insurance agencies in Central Jersey and Eastern PA, with offices in Hamilton Square, NJ and Yardley, PA.

Founded in 1896, IIABA is the nation’s oldest and largest national association of independent insurance agents and brokers, representing a network of more than 300,000 agents, brokers and their employees nationally. Its members are businesses that offer customers a choice of policies from a variety of insurance companies.

Independent agents and brokers offer all lines of insurance – property, casualty, life and health—as well as employee benefit plans and retirement precuts. Web address: www.independentagent.com.