Industry News

With the increase in hurricanes expected this season, experts say small business owners and property owners need to assess how well they are prepared for losses from major storms. Colorado State University forecasters have increased their predictions for this hurricane season to include 15 named storms, eight of which will become hurricanes.

READ: Forecasters Revise Hurricane Predictions Upward

To prepare, small business owners and property owners should ensure they have adequate insurance coverage and employ tactics to protect offices, homes, factories, and warehouses from wind, rain, and flooding. Business owners also should keep company information secure and protect employees. In addition, being prepared means a contingency plan is in place for running a business if its premises are destroyed or inaccessible, say experts.

PIA National is now accepting nominations for its four prestigious national awards: the Company Award of Excellence, Company Representative of the Year, Managing General Agency of the Year and Excellence in Social Media awards. Award nomination deadline is Monday, July 17, 2017.

The PIA National Company Award of Excellence honors an insurance company that demonstrates a commitment to the American Agency System and seeks to further the interests of professional independent insurance agents by creating a better business environment. PIA places a very high value on its relationships with its carrier partners.

PIA members as well as PIA state and regional affiliates may make nominations for this award.

The PIA National Company Representative of the Year Award recognizes the professionalism and unique contributions of an outstanding company representative. Nominees are judged on their professional education, experience and ability; their contributions to the American Agency System in general and PIA in particular; their support of individual, independent insurance agents; their involvement in community affairs; and their performance as an industry spokesperson.

Nominations for this award are made solely by PIA state and regional affiliates. However, national-only members may submit nominations for the Company Representative of the Year Award.

The PIA National Managing General Agency of the Year Award is given annually to recognize the outstanding achievement of a managing general agency in furthering the interests of agents, along with a commitment to the agency system and successful efforts to create a better business environment for professional insurance agents.

Nominations for this award are made by individual PIA members as well as PIA state and regional affiliate associations.

The PIA National Excellence in Social Media Award honors a PIA member agency that uses non-traditional communication tools to effectively further the goals of the organization. An agency may use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs and other social media outlets to creatively promote programs, build upon an existing brand and introduce products and services to an expandable customer base.

Nominations for this award are made by individual PIA members as well as PIA state and regional affiliate associations. The eighth annual Excellence in Social Media Award is sponsored by the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR).

All four awards will be presented during a luncheon ceremony on September 15, 2017, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, held in conjunction with PIA’s 2017 Fall Governance Meetings.

Nomination forms are available at /awards

For questions or additional information on the awards, contact Sade Hale at awards@pianet.org or (703) 518-1350.

PIA National is now accepting nominations for its four prestigious national awards: the Company Award of Excellence, Company Representative of the Year, Managing General Agency of the Year and Excellence in Social Media awards. Award nomination deadline is Monday, July 17, 2017.

All four awards will be presented during a luncheon ceremony on September 15, 2017, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, held in conjunction with PIA’s 2017 Fall Governance Meetings.

Nomination forms are available at /awards

For questions or additional information on the awards, contact Sade Hale at awards@pianet.org or (703) 518-1350.

PIA National is now accepting nominations for its four prestigious national awards: the Company Award of Excellence, Company Representative of the Year, Managing General Agency of the Year and Excellence in Social Media awards. Award nomination deadline is Monday, July 17, 2017.

The PIA National Company Award of Excellence honors an insurance company that demonstrates a commitment to the American Agency System and seeks to further the interests of professional independent insurance agents by creating a better business environment. PIA places a very high value on its relationships with its carrier partners.

PIA members as well as PIA state and regional affiliates may make nominations for this award.

The PIA National Company Representative of the Year Award recognizes the professionalism and unique contributions of an outstanding company representative. Nominees are judged on their professional education, experience and ability; their contributions to the American Agency System in general and PIA in particular; their support of individual, independent insurance agents; their involvement in community affairs; and their performance as an industry spokesperson.

Nominations for this award are made solely by PIA state and regional affiliates. However, national-only members may submit nominations for the Company Representative of the Year Award.

The PIA National Managing General Agency of the Year Award is given annually to recognize the outstanding achievement of a managing general agency in furthering the interests of agents, along with a commitment to the agency system and successful efforts to create a better business environment for professional insurance agents.

Nominations for this award are made by individual PIA members as well as PIA state and regional affiliate associations.

The PIA National Excellence in Social Media Award honors a PIA member agency that uses non-traditional communication tools to effectively further the goals of the organization. An agency may use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs and other social media outlets to creatively promote programs, build upon an existing brand and introduce products and services to an expandable customer base.

Nominations for this award are made by individual PIA members as well as PIA state and regional affiliate associations. The eighth annual Excellence in Social Media Award is sponsored by the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR).

All four awards will be presented during a luncheon ceremony on September 15, 2017, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, held in conjunction with PIA’s 2017 Fall Governance Meetings.

Nomination forms are available at /awards

For questions or additional information on the awards, contact Sade Hale at awards@pianet.org

PIA National Vice President/Treasurer Keith Savino thinks there are several agency technology “sacred cows” that would best be made into burgers. In an article in PC360, Savino asserts that small to midsized agencies could — if they embraced new tools — compete toe-to-toe with the larger players in their markets. He says that process involves putting five sacred cows out to pasture once and for all. Read Keith Savino’s article here.

Republican leaders are expected to bring legislation to the House floor this week that would repeal and replace pieces of Obamacare even as they work to gain needed support of key GOP holdouts. The bill, the American Health Care Act, could come to the floor as early as Thursday.

Republican leaders didn’t have the votes last week to pass the measure even after President Donald Trump attempted to entice conservatives opposing some of the bill’s measures. GOP leaders can afford to lose no more than 21 votes in the chamber, presuming all Democrats vote against the bill.

While seeking to boost support for the bill, Republican lawmakers also are moving ahead with additional legislation as part of their broader plan to put new health policy in place. These bills would need 60 votes to clear procedural hurdles in the Senate, whereas the American Health Care Act would need only a simple majority in the Senate.

READ: PIA Opposes Health Insurance Sales Across State Lines

The full House is expected to vote on the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act of 2017  H.R. 372, which would remove an exemption for health insurance companies under the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act, which exempts the business of insurance from federal antitrust laws to the extent it is regulated by a state. Insurance industry groups have argued that the measure would reduce competition, threaten state regulation of insurance and potentially harm health insurance markets.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said a second healthcare bill will be moved in tandem with the American Health Care Act, Ryan-led legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The second bill will include a provision allowing insurers to sell health insurance policies across state lines. The National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) opposes this provision because it would strip states of their regulatory authority over insurance and undermine the foundation on which state regulation of insurance is based.

Allowing health insurance to be effectively exempt from state regulation by permitting insurers to pick their own regulator in one state—and by so doing, evade the requirements of all 49 other states—would, by federal edict, eviscerate local control.

“All insurance is local,” said PIA National Executive Vice President & CEO Mike Becker. “Permitting the designation of any one state as regulator for all states would, in essence, impose a one-size-fits-all solution dictated by Washington, D.C.—which, ironically, has been one of the main criticisms of the ACA.”

Caution Against Continued Federal Encroachment Post-ACA

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Paul Ryan said a second healthcare bill will be moved in tandem with the American Health Care Act, Ryan-led legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The second bill will include a provision allowing insurers to sell health insurance policies across state lines. The National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) opposes this provision because it would strip states of their regulatory authority over insurance and undermine the foundation on which state regulation of insurance is based.

PIA is a steadfast supporter of the supervision and regulation of insurance by the states, and opposes all proposals to institute federal insurance regulation. State governors, legislators and regulators know best what will work in their unique markets, and what will not work. Allowing health insurance to be effectively exempt from state regulation by permitting insurers to pick their own regulator in one state—and by so doing, evade the requirements of all 49 other states—would, by federal edict, eviscerate local control.

“All insurance is local,” said PIA National Executive Vice President & CEO Mike Becker. “This is especially true of health insurance. Proposals that would preempt state authority and not allow states to form compacts among themselves effectively turn aside the collective expertise of the states. The path to constructing a replacement for the ACA should lead to more state control, not less. This proposal would transfer power from the states to the federal government.”

“Permitting the designation of any one state as regulator for all states would, in essence, impose a one-size-fits-all solution dictated by Washington, D.C.—which, ironically, has been one of the main criticisms of the ACA,” Becker said.

Founded in 1931, PIA is a national trade association that represents member insurance agents and their employees who sell and service all kinds of insurance but specialize in coverage of automobiles, homes and businesses. PIA members are Local Agents Serving Main Street America ^SM. PIA’s web address is www.pianet.com.

The March 2017 issue of Rough Notes magazine has a feature article on the Buy Button as conceived by PIA. PIA National Vice President/Treasurer Keith Savino, a managing partner of Warwick Resource Group LLC, who is a former ACORD board member and current past chairman of NetVU (Network of Vertafore Users), is interviewed in the article.

Savino advocates a concept called the Buy Button and is working with an initiative spearheaded by PIA, with initial support from ACORD, agency automation vendors, other agent associations, and insurers, all dedicated to providing independent agents access to a real-time binding process. PIA has launched a major initiative to promote the Buy Button.

“PIA National took a leadership role,” says association Executive Vice President and CEO Mike Becker. “Part of the impetus was PIA Partnership research showing that commercial lines customers who prefer to do business with independent agents nevertheless want their agents to be fully capable, digitally.” PIA adopted a position in support of the concept, which has been endorsed by the American Insurance Marketing & Sales (AIMS) Society and NetVU, among other organizations. Read the full article.

More than a year ago, PIA began talks with the National Underwriter about joining together to conduct the most comprehensive and exhaustive survey of America’s independent agency force that has ever been attempted to date.

Results of the National Underwriter/PIA Independent Agent Survey have now been released in the March 2017 issue of National Underwriter. Here is a link to the results as they appear in the magazine. On PC360.com online, selected results will be updated daily for the next two weeks. The findings provide revealing insight into the demographics, books of business and industry challenges of independent Property & Casualty insurance agents, as well as rankings of their most highly rated carriers.

“This data will be useful to PIA, in developing our own strategies to help our members succeed, and to carriers in their dealings with their appointed agencies,” said PIA National Executive Vice President & CEO Mike Becker. “The scope, breadth and depth of this study are truly significant,” Becker said. “Importantly, it probes just what agents need from their carriers to ensure mutual growth and profitability.”