What Carriers Get Wrong About IMOs (And Vice Versa): A Consultant’s View from the Middle

Executive Summary

Carrier and IMO relationships are often described as strained, transactional, or misaligned. Yet after years of working between both sides, one conclusion becomes clear. Most friction is not driven by bad intent. It is driven by bad assumptions.

Carriers and IMOs believe they understand each other. In practice, both frequently misunderstand the forces shaping the other’s behavior. These misunderstandings create unnecessary tension, slow decision making, and limit growth.

This paper examines the most common misperceptions on both sides, explains why they persist, and outlines how alignment built on clarity rather than economics creates stronger, more durable distribution outcomes.

The Carrier View of IMOs: A Partial Truth

From the carrier perspective, IMOs are often viewed as fragmented, transactional, and overly focused on compensation. The prevailing narrative suggests that IMOs chase the highest payout, move business opportunistically, and lack the discipline required for long-term strategic growth.

This view is convenient. It is also incomplete.

Strong IMOs are not compensation driven. They are margin managed. They operate in an environment where advisor loyalty is fragile, product complexity continues to rise, and service failures surface immediately at the advisor level. Their primary responsibility is not pushing products. It is protecting trust.

When carriers adjust underwriting philosophies, service models, or compensation structures without clear context, the IMO absorbs the immediate impact. Advisors do not call the carrier. They call the IMO. What carriers often interpret as resistance is frequently risk management. IMOs are protecting advisor relationships they cannot afford to lose.

In that context, behavior that looks transactional is often defensive. It is not short-term thinking. It is survival within a highly competitive and relationship-driven ecosystem.

The IMO View of Carriers: Also Incomplete

IMOs, on the other hand, frequently perceive carriers as slow, bureaucratic, and disconnected from field reality. Carriers are seen as operating in spreadsheets while IMOs operate in real conversations with advisors and clients. Many IMOs believe carriers underestimate the influence IMOs have over advisor behavior and loyalty.

That perception is understandable. It is also incomplete.

Carriers are not slow because they lack urgency. They are slow because scale introduces constraints. Regulatory pressure, capital requirements, actuarial discipline, enterprise risk management, and brand exposure shape every decision. What feels like hesitation to an IMO is often a carrier balancing long-term solvency against short-term growth.

IMOs sometimes push for exceptions or accelerated change without fully appreciating the downstream risk carriers must own. The person across the table may agree completely and still be unable to move the organization quickly. That is not deception. It is organizational reality.

Two Definitions of Success

The core issue is not motivation. It is optimization.

Carriers and IMOs optimize for different outcomes.

Carriers optimize for durability. They care about risk, consistency, capital efficiency, and long-term viability.

IMOs optimize for relevance. They care about advisor trust, responsiveness, differentiation, and immediate problem solving.

Durability without relevance leads to stagnation. Relevance without durability leads to volatility. The distribution system requires both. Yet most conversations fail to acknowledge this tension honestly.

Instead of addressing competing priorities directly, both sides default to assumptions about intent. That erodes trust and narrows collaboration.

Misunderstanding Influence and Leadership

Another recurring mistake involves how both sides think about influence.

Carriers often assume influence flows top down through contracts, compensation, and incentives. IMOs know influence flows sideways through relationships, credibility, and problem solving. Advisors do not change behavior because of contracts alone. They change behavior because someone they trust helps them succeed.

When carriers attempt to manage IMOs rather than partner with them, they often lose leverage they never realized they needed.

Conversely, IMOs sometimes overestimate how much internal control carriers actually possess. Alignment at the relationship level does not always translate to immediate organizational movement. Internal consensus, governance, and risk controls matter more than most IMOs appreciate.

The Consultant’s View from the Middle

From the middle, the opportunity is obvious.

The most effective carrier-IMO relationships are not built on shared economics. They are built on shared clarity.

Clarity around roles.
Clarity around constraints.
Clarity around what success actually means beyond premium volume.

When both sides stop assuming motives and start understanding constraints, trust improves. When trust improves, performance follows.

Carriers do not need IMOs to be more compliant.
IMOs do not need carriers to be more flexible.

Both need to be more aligned on the problem they are solving together.

That alignment is practical, not philosophical. It shows up in how initiatives are designed, how changes are communicated, how expectations are set, and how success is measured.

Moving Forward Together

The future of effective distribution will belong to organizations that move past stereotypes and simplistic narratives. Carriers that treat IMOs as strategic partners rather than distribution utilities will unlock influence that cannot be bought through incentives alone. IMOs that understand carrier constraints will engage more effectively and avoid pushing for change that cannot be sustained.

The goal is not uniformity. It is orchestration.

When durability and relevance are acknowledged as complementary rather than competing forces, the entire ecosystem benefits. Advisors receive better support. Clients receive better outcomes. Growth becomes more predictable and sustainable.

From the middle, this is where real progress begins.

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