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Independence Guaranteed by TENT

  Monday, 7 July 2014

TEn Insurance Services, the network for independent commercial brokers, was proud to announce on the 4th July (Employee Ownership Day) that it will become majority owned by its employees, via an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) called TENT, by the end of the month.

TEn Insurance Services was incorporated in September 2004 and first started marketing its, then unique, network model in February 2005. Membership now (July 2014) stands in excess of 90 brokers, most of whom have been start-ups comprising of Account Execs coming out of small/medium sized brokers who had then been consolidated.

Comments TEn director James Sharp; “The TEn business model has worked our very well since the summer of 2004 when the details were thrashed out in various pubs and wine bars between London and Aylesbury.

The only flaw in the plan was no credible exit strategy for the founders. Of course, we all signed up to a shareholders agreement in 2005 that stated we would look to sell after 2010.

For some reason it never occurred to us that if were to build a network based upon start-up brokers and, having done so, we would then suddenly become concerned about our legacy and more than a bit fussy about who we passed it on to. There was a moral responsibility involved that we had not previously spotted.

It consequently became impossible to contemplate a trade sale without admitting to a large dollop of hypocrisy.

So, we are - all at the same time - a little bemused and rather proud of ourselves that we have ended up doing the ethical thing.”

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