Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator instructions) Our first question comes from Meyer Shields. Your line is open and please state your company name.
Meyer Shields – Stifel Nicolaus
Thanks. Hi, Stifel Nicolaus. Good morning all.
Mell Vaughan
Good morning.
Meyer Shields – Stifel Nicolaus
I guess two questions. One, how does the pending HRH – how does the pending Willis acquisition impact the efforts you are making to get higher commission rates to partially offset declining insurance rates?
Mell Vaughan
Meyer, this is Mell. We have not been trying up until this point to get higher commission rates. And as you know, we have commissions and contingents. And even though our income obviously goes up or down with rates, because we are 85% commissioned, we do not have an activity program – have not had an active program in place to go out and try to convert contingents to any other forms of income or to lobby for higher income from carriers. I'm not saying that we shouldn’t do that, we just haven’t done.
Mike Crowley
Meyer, this is Mike. What we have done on an individual account basis is, if we have an account where we are providing significant service and if our income either through reduced commissions because of the great work we've done for our client reducing their costs, put us in a position to where we do not feel that we can achieve our profit margins on that account. We are discussing on an individual basis our income with clients to make sure that we are not handling business on an unprofitable basis.
Mell Vaughan
Meyer, this is Mell again. That situation will change with the combination of the two companies because we will be committed in helping – in working, you know, we’ll be one company and we’ll be all working together to increase commissions and to be paid because we have a goal over the three-year period together of making up for any down – any of this $50 million in contingents that we may have to give up.
Meyer Shields – Stifel Nicolaus
Okay. That’s very helpful. And a second question if I can. Whenever you have a transaction like this, obviously there are going to be some just affected employees that leave for whatever reason. Can you give us any help in terms of understanding what your expectations are for that?
Mike Crowley
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