| sold my book of business at the end of 2019 utilizing the services of Catherine at Oak & Associates. I was referred to her by my CIC mentor of 40 years. Catherine did a professional evaluation of my book of business down to the penny and was able to get a valuation for me that was way larger than what the buyers were offering. She took the time to gather all the necessary information from me, came up with ideas that I never thought of and made me understand my true value as well.
She is professional, has a deep understanding of our insurance industry, highly intelligent, responsive, caring, and a pleasure to work with and most importantly a skilled negotiator. I truly believe I would have gotten less than half using someone else or trying to negotiate on my own.
I highly recommend Catherine Oak and would welcome anyone to call me to discuss.
When I decided to sell my agency, I asked a few other agency managers who they would use for a consultant to help me through the process. All included Catherine Oak of Oak & Associates as being one of the top candidates. After talking with each of them, I felt it was a pretty easy decision to hire Catherine based upon her knowledge and experience in this arena.
Initially I wanted to attempt to cut expenses and was working hard to come up with the required information for the buyer on my own, with an assist from Catherine. I soon discovered that it was best left up to Catherine to organize all of the required data for submission. That way I could continue to concentrate on the business while she concentrated on the sale of it.
Catherine did a great job of organizing all of the required date needed for submission and went above and beyond to make sure that the details were taken care of as well. She was familiar with the process from the beginning to the end and that helped the process, the negotiations and the final result in a very positive way.
I highly recommend Catherine Oak of Oak & Associates for any of your consulting needs. Please let me know if you need to discuss further.
Catherine Oak was very instrumental in bringing the right buyer to me for our firm. For years we assumed perpetuation would be the answer. However, Catherine sat down with me and performed an in depth review of the pros and cons of Perpetuation vs Acquisition. The picture became very clear that Acquisition was the way to go for our agency.
Oak & Associates helped us clean up several issues which brought more value to our bottom line. With Catherine’s help and guidance along the way, the transition went very smoothly. She is a real pro, and knows the in’s and out’s of the Independent Agency System.
I would highly recommend Catherine Oak and Oak & Associates!
We’re very fortunate to have had the opportunity to have Catherine Oak of Oak & Associates assist us in the sale of our Insurance Brokerage. There are some rough waters out there when trying to navigate your way through the process and she guided us from beginning to end.
Her vast experience in Brokering Insurance Businesses, creating the necessary Valuation/profile ahead of the sale and acting as a Price Negotiator on our behalf was impressive. Key to our success was the portfolio of interested buyers she works with regularly and they also value her expertise which brought legitimacy to us as sellers.
Thank you Catherine for making this a very successful and financially beneficial event for us.
“Working with Catherine Oak has been a wonderful experience – and I highly recommend Catherine for valuation and as our front-end negotiator. We began to consider options to take our firm to the next level, and Catherine helped us plan the path for success. The end result was a very desirable multiple with a substantial addition in value added services, customer support, and leadership. We simply love our new direction. A $1mm+ revenue firm our size is not a large firm by any means, but Catherine went the extra mile to make sure the path forward was smooth and pain minimized. Merging or Acquiring an insurance firm is a huge life event, and I can think of no better partner to guide anyone forward than Catherine Oak and her team. Thank you Catherine!”
Catherine is very knowledgeable about the industry and business model topics. She engages with the audience for the purpose of teaching, interacting and development. Over a two-year span, she created seminars on critical industry and business-related issues addressing state of the state, trends, options, solutions, tools, sales and solutions. She was our Board of Directors’ unanimous choice to continue to invite back to speak to our association members.
Catherine has worked with a diverse set of personalities (real egos) in our agency. She has helped our agency in many capabilities. She has provided consultations in agency management, assisted in mergers and acted as our Sales Manager for a period of time. She continues to communicate with me years after our business dealings. She has a genuine interest in the well being of those to whom she offers her expertise. I consider her to be a person of ability and integrity.
Catherine has excellent skills. She listened to our concerns and looked for a partner that met our expectations. She has an excellent ability to communicate on challenging issues. She is very diplomatic with a good sense of humor and is a valuable addition to any team of business owners.
Catherine is wise and can see the big picture. She has performed fair market valuations for us and provided consulting advice over the years. She also assisted me in buying DHW and helped me personally through many hurdles we encountered. I highly recommend Catherine to any organization. Her ability to add value is superior.
Catherine is intelligent and a good communicator with a pleasant personality. She has been a merger and acquisition consultant for me on several deals.
Oak & Associates 