HPB Chosen for 2022 Best Practices Study Organized by the Big "I" and Reagan Consulting

HPB Insurance, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pinnacle Financial Partners, is part of an elite group of independent insurance agencies across the United States participating in the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA, or the Big “I”) “Best Practices” Study Group. It is the first time the agency has been selected.

Each year since 1993, the Big “I” and Reagan Consulting, an Atlanta-based management consulting firm, have joined forces to study the country’s leading agencies in six revenue categories. The agencies comprising the study groups are selected every third year through a comprehensive nomination and qualifying process and awarded a “Best Practices Agency” designation. The selected “Best Practices” agencies retain their status during the three-year cycle by submitting extensive financial and operational data for review each year. 

“We’re honored to have been selected to contribute to this important effort,” said HPB Principal Slade Lewis. “It’s not just a validation of the excellence we strive for here at HPB every day, though it is a great accolade. More importantly, it’s a valuable resource for all independent agencies, because the study provides critical performance benchmarks and best practices for the whole industry. I feel like we’re in great company on the list and we will continue to learn, as we do each year, from the reports generated by the study.”

More than 2,600 independent agencies throughout the U.S. were nominated to take part in the annual study, but only 282 agencies qualified for the honor. To be chosen, the agency had to be among the top-performing agencies in one of six revenue categories. 

Each agency was nominated by either a Big “I” affiliated state association or an insurance company and qualified based on its operational excellence.

The Best Practices Study was initiated by the Big “I” in 1993 as the foundation for efforts to improve agency performance. The annual survey and study of leading independent insurance agencies documents the business practices of the highest performing agencies and urges others to adopt similar practices.

HPB Insurance Group is a large independent agency, founded in High Point, NC around the turn of the 20th Century as a subsidiary of a community bank. Through both natural growth and acquisition, HPB has grown to be one of the largest agencies in the market. As an independent insurance agency, HPB offers individual and business clients a menu of coverages from financially sound carriers, advocacy at claims time, sound insurance advice, and exceptional customer service. In addition, HPB manages employee benefits for a number of leading employers in North Carolina.

Founded in 1896, the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (the Big “I”) is the nation’s oldest and largest national association of independent insurance agents and brokers, representing more than 25,000 agency locations united under the Trusted Choice brand. Trusted Choice independent agents offer consumers all types of insurance—property, casualty, life, health, employee benefit plans and retirement products—from a variety of insurance companies.

Reagan Consulting is a financial and management consulting firm specializing in services to the insurance distribution system.  Clients include the leading brokers, agents, and bank-insurance programs in the United States.  They provide thought leadership to the banking and insurance industries through perennial research, seminars, and other industry forums.

Pinnacle Financial Partners provides a full range of banking, investment, trust, mortgage and insurance products and services designed for businesses and their owners and individuals interested in a comprehensive relationship with their financial institution. The firm is the No. 1 bank in the Nashville-Murfreesboro-Franklin MSA, according to 2022 deposit data from the FDIC, is listed by Forbes among the top 25 banks in the nation and earned a spot on the 2022 list of 100 Best Companies to Work For® in the U.S., its sixth consecutive appearance. American Banker recognized Pinnacle as one of America’s Best Banks to Work For nine years in a row and No. 1 among banks with more than $11 billion in assets in 2021.

Pinnacle entered the North Carolina market in 2017 when it acquired BNC Bancorp, offering community bank service with the resources and sophistication of a larger firm. Pinnacle is ranked as the No. 1 workplace in the Triad, Triangle and Charlotte markets, as listed by the Triad Business Journal, Triangle Business Journal and Charlotte Observer.

The firm began operations in a single location in downtown Nashville, TN, in October 2000 and has since grown to approximately $40.1 billion in assets as of June 30, 2022. As the second-largest bank holding company headquartered in Tennessee, Pinnacle operates in 15 primarily urban markets across the Southeast.

Additional information concerning Pinnacle, which is included in the Nasdaq Financial-100 Index, can be accessed at www.pnfp.com.