The split is the number everyone asks for first. Fair enough. It is also the easiest number to make look good.
A commercial producer comparing brokerage offers should care about the split, but not in isolation. In a lot of commercial agencies, something like 40% on new business and 25% on renewals is treated as normal. At Nomos, the model is 60% on new business and 50% on renewals. That difference is large enough that it deserves real math, not a recruiting slogan.
The split is only one line in the math
Most brokerage offers get discussed as if the house split is one simple number. It rarely is.
The actual schedule usually has several moving parts:
- new business at one rate
- renewals at a lower rate
- house leads treated differently from producer-sourced accounts
- expansion revenue treated as either new business or renewal
- producer-owned book, agency-owned book, or something deliberately vague
That tells you something, but not enough.
The most common pain point is not only that the new-business split is lower than producers want. It is that renewals can fall to a level where the producer keeps doing relationship work on a book that is compounding mostly for the house.
Why 40 / 25 feels normal
The traditional agency argument is straightforward: the firm provides appointments, service staff, accounting, E&O, management, technology and brand. So the house keeps the larger share, especially on renewals.
There is logic there. A producer should not expect to keep the full economics while someone else carries all the infrastructure.
The problem is that many producers are still doing a lot of the work:
- chasing renewal information
- keeping the client relationship warm
- pushing account managers
- helping with certificates and billing escalations
- rebuilding submissions when the file is thin
- remarketing when the incumbent carrier misses
If the producer is still heavily involved, a 25% renewal split starts to feel less like a service tradeoff and more like a permanent tax on the book.
What a good split has to include
A good commercial producer arrangement should be clear on five things.
1. New business
This is the cleanest number. If you write a new account, what percentage of the commission do you receive?
Ask whether the percentage applies to gross commission, net commission after fees, or some internal number the agency defines later. If the base is not clear, the percentage is not clear.
For comparison: a $50,000 revenue account pays $20,000 to the producer at a 40% new-business split. At 60%, it pays $30,000. That is a $10,000 difference on one account before you even get to renewals.
2. Renewals
Renewal treatment matters more as your book matures.
A 25% renewal split on that same $50,000 account pays $12,500 in year two. A 50% renewal split pays $25,000. Over several renewals, that gap is the difference between renting your production and building an asset.
Some agencies pay the same split on renewals. Some step it down. Some pay almost nothing unless you are heavily involved. None of those models is automatically wrong, but the rule should be written down and easy to model.
If you are moving a book, this is where the economics can change dramatically.
3. Service load
The split should be read next to the work you are expected to do.
If you handle certificates, billing questions, renewal chasing, application cleanup, endorsement follow-up and carrier admin yourself, your headline split is inflated. You are being paid more because you are doing more of the agency’s job.
That can be fine for some producers. It should not be accidental.
4. Market access
A high split does not help if you cannot place the accounts you are good at writing.
Ask for specifics:
- Which standard markets are live?
- Which wholesalers are approved?
- Who has binding authority?
- Can you access E&S quickly?
- Who helps structure hard-to-place submissions?
Market access is not a logo slide. It is whether your actual accounts can get quoted without a workaround.
5. Book ownership and exit
This is the part people avoid until it gets expensive.
If you bring business in, who owns the expiration? What happens if you leave? Is there a buyout? Does the agency have a right of first refusal? Are there non-solicits or non-competes? Does the rule differ for house leads versus producer-sourced accounts?
Do not accept “we can work that out later.” Later usually means after there is money on the table.
When a lower split can be better
This sounds counterintuitive, but it happens.
A producer on a lower split can earn more if the platform lets them write more business. That usually comes from three things:
- submissions going out faster
- fewer dead hours on admin
- better access to markets that actually quote the risk
If one model lets you write $400,000 of revenue and another lets you write $250,000, the split percentage is not the only deciding number.
The better question is: what does this platform do to my capacity?
That said, when the platform is real, the split difference matters. A 60 / 50 model is not a cosmetic improvement over 40 / 25. It changes the shape of the book.
When a high split is a warning sign
A very high split can be attractive. It can also mean the brokerage is not doing much.
Watch for:
- “You keep most of it” paired with no service team
- no clear renewal support
- weak placement help on complex commercial accounts
- no named account manager or assistant
- carrier access that depends on personal favours
- vague language around ownership
That is not a brokerage platform. It is a desk, an email address and a commission agreement.
A cleaner way to compare offers
Build the comparison around take-home and time.
For each brokerage, write down:
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| New-business split | Immediate upside on production; compare 40% vs 60% |
| Renewal split | Long-term book value; compare 25% vs 50% |
| Service responsibility | How much selling time you keep |
| Market access | Whether your target accounts can be placed |
| Submission support | How quickly accounts get quoted |
| Book ownership | What you are actually building |
| Exit terms | What happens if the fit changes |
Then model a realistic year: your current book, expected new business, retention, average commission rate and hours spent outside sales.
The best offer is not always the highest split. It is the one where the math still looks good after you include the work.
If one brokerage offers 40 / 25 and another offers 60 / 50, the higher offer still has to prove it can service, place and support the business. But if it can, the producer economics are not close.
The blunt test
Ask the brokerage this:
If I double my production, what breaks first?
If the answer is “nothing, we have service and placement capacity,” good. If the answer is a long explanation about being entrepreneurial, listen carefully. You may be buying yourself a second job.
