What Is NUPP (Net Unvalidated Producer Payroll)?

A producer is "validated" when their book generates enough commission to cover their compensation. Until then, the agency is investing, and NUPP is how the industry sizes that investment: unvalidated producer pay, net of what those producers do bring in, expressed as a percentage of agency net revenue.

The 2025 Big I and Reagan Consulting Best Practices Study put NUPP at 2.0%, up slightly from 1.9% the prior year, alongside revenue per employee of $228,321. Read against the producer shortage, an estimated 400,000-worker deficit as senior agents retire, that 2.0% is the quiet battleground number: agencies that under-invest in unvalidated producers age out of growth, while over-investing without pipeline support burns capital on hires who take years to validate, at a documented replacement cost of 75% to 150% of salary when they wash out.

This is also why the buying decision for outsourced meetings sits at the agency level, not with individual producers: pipeline support is an agency investment that shortens time-to-validation, priced against the same budget line NUPP measures.