Why I built BookInForce

I'm Mark Merrill—an educator and researcher by training, and a life and annuity agent by recent calling. I came to insurance the way I come to everything: by studying it closely. The first thing I found was a broken process.

When you sit with someone's in-force policies, the value already there—coverage that should be reviewed, protection quietly lapsing, commissions never reconciled—is buried under hours of manual work almost no one has time to do. So I did what researchers do: I built the tool I wished existed. That became BookInForce.

My background isn't insurance; it's leadership and learning. I hold an earned doctorate and a master's in organizational leadership, I've spent my career as an educator, and I currently lead a large congregation and serve as president of a college. For BookInForce, that means a bias toward rigor, clarity, and education—the conviction that people decide better when the information in front of them is honest and well-organized.

BookInForce exists to monitor policy and compensation data for your review—for the agency, and for the families they serve. It's early, it's founder-led, and it's being built alongside the first agencies willing to shape it. If that's you, I'd like to hear from you.