Industry News

PIA National is pleased to announce that National General Insurance has joined The PIA Partnership. “We are extremely pleased that National General Insurance, a distinguished company with a solid track record of supporting the American agency system, has joined The PIA Partnership,” said Robert W. Hansen, Jr., PIA National President. “Their participation demonstrates National General’s ongoing commitment to the continuing success of professional independent agents across the country.”

“National General is excited and honored to be part of an organization as critical to our industry as PIA and we expect our membership in The PIA Partnership will further the great work already accomplished for PIA members and National General agencies and brokerages,” says Rick Pierce, Senior Vice President of Independent Agent Development for National General Insurance.

Current PIA Partnership companies include:  Central Insurance Company; Encompass Insurance; Erie Insurance; Liberty Mutual Insurance; MetLife Auto & Home; National General Insurance; Nationwide Independent (formerly Harleysville Insurance);  Progressive Insurance; Selective Insurance Group; State Auto Insurance Companies;  The Hanover Insurance Group; The Hartford; and The Motorists Insurance Group.

Pennsylvania insurance agent Don Ruschak still goes to work every day at the agency he created in 1957. The 85-year-old who opened Ruschak Associates Insurance & Real Estate nearly 60 years ago still wakes up each morning at 6AM and heads into the office. Even though Ruschak turned over his business to his sons years ago, he says he just can’t keep away.

“I love helping people, especially those who are going through a difficult time,” Ruschak told the Herald-Standard, which covers local news in Ruschak’s Charleroi, Pennsylvania hometown. “That’s what attracted me to the insurance business initially, and that’s what keeps me going today.”

“Age doesn’t hold me back,” he said. “I still go out and inspect homes, and I help with appraisals. Working helps me to stay youthful. I tell other seniors to keep working as long as they can. The longer you work, the better you feel.”

WASHINGTON — The Executive Board of NetVU, the Network of Vertafore Users, has voted to formally support the position of the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) regarding the Buy Button as conceived by PIA.

The Buy Button is the ability for agents to bind a policy in a once-and-done fashion, in real time in their agency systems, from among their appointed carriers, regardless of the point of engagement or policy sale. The technology exists to do this, but has yet to be used in this manner.

Currently, agents must leave their systems, or bridge to the carrier system, to bind a policy. The buy button will empower agents to bind coverage in real time for prospects or clients who call on the phone, walk into the agency, meet, or visit online.

“The goal of NetVU’s formal support of this initiative is to be able to provide consistent messaging to our members, carriers and vendors in support of making buy button functionality a reality for independent agents,” said NetVU Chairman of the Board Keith Savino.

In January 2016, PIA National initiated an industry-wide dialogue on the concept of independent agents offering real time binding of insurance policies, which could include a level of purchasing capability on their websites. PIA convened a meeting among all stakeholders—carriers, agents and technology vendors—held at the headquarters of ACORD, the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development, in Pearl River, New York, to discuss the topic.

In March 2016, PIA adopted a position in support of the buy button concept. That position was then endorsed by NetVU.

“This is all about empowering agents, carriers and consumers,” said PIA National Executive Vice President & CEO Mike Becker. “The buy button will create new opportunities to reach markets that currently go untapped for most agents. It will expand choices for consumers and build business for our carriers. PIA thanks our colleagues at NetVU for their support of PIA’s initiative.”

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 recent flooding in Houston could be considered a 1-in-100-year event, but that label is a misnomer in that it can mislead people into thinking that such flooding literally happens once every 100 years and that they will thus be safe for 99 years out of 100. The U.S. government has used the label to suggest that a flood of that severity has a 1 percent chance of happening in any given year, not that it could happen only once per century. However, the label does not take into account other conditions that can alter those probabilities, such as climate change, El Niño, and La Niña.

“That’s why the 100-year event is such a moving target, especially in an urban environment. Someone builds a couple of parking lots, and you just turned a 100-year event into a 70-year event because of the impervious surfaces,” says Chuck Watson, director of research and development at Enki Research. Weather Research Center founder Jill Hasling suggests that residents of places like Houston that get more than one flood per year buy flood insurance. “If you are not in the flood zone, buy it anyway; it will just be cheaper,” she said.

U.S. Justice Department Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin says Internet-connected and driverless cars could be targets for hackers, including hostile nations and terrorists, and he urged the automotive industry to ensure that such vehicles have built-in cybersecurity protection. The market for Internet-connected cars could reach a value of $42 billion by 2025, with more than 220 million vehicles on the roads. Toyota Motor Corp., Google, Ford Motor Co., and Baidu Inc. intend to introduce driverless cars in as soon as five years.

“There is no Internet-connected system where you can build a wall that’s high enough or deep enough to keep a dedicated nation-state adversary or a sophisticated criminal group out of the system,” said Carlin.

Questions about the auto industry’s responsiveness were raised last year when Fiat Chrysler waited 18 months to tell federal safety regulators about a security flaw in radios being installed in more than a million vehicles that security researchers exploited in July, seizing control of a Jeep just to show it could be done. The episode led to the recall of almost 1.5 million vehicles — the first auto recall prompted by cybersecurity concerns.

PIA recently commented on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) Cybersecurity Task Force’s Preliminary Working and Discussion Draft of its Insurance Data Security Model Law. PIA’s comments expressed reservations about the model law approach generally and expressed concern about the need for a model law that would be passed with the expectation of adoption in some form in each state, in light of the fact that state laws on this subject already exist in 47 jurisdictions. PIA is also aware of potential conflicts between the Preliminary Draft, existing state law, and existing federal law. PIA continues to monitor this important issue and intends to provide verbal feedback on the Preliminary Draft at the forthcoming NAIC National Meeting in New Orleans.

Is the Internet rising up in the small commercial marketplace—taking the place of agents? No.

What is actually true is that small business owners strongly prefer independent insurance agents as they make choices in today’s online world. But at the same time agents need to be more engaged online—using the Internet to demonstrate and reinforce the value they provide.

These are among the findings of recent research by The PIA Partnership, PIA’s national agency-company council. Read all about “Small Business Insurance & The Internet—The Voice of the Commercial Lines Customer” in this in-depth article in Rough Notes magazine.

Did you see the 2016 PIA National Guide to Member Benefits inserted into the January issue of PIA Connection? Below we’ve listed just a few of the PIA programs highlighted in the most recent Guide to Member Benefits.

DocIT for Agents: Save time and money by placing drivers with the right auto insurance carrier earlier in the quoting process using DocIT for Agents’ online database of driver violation data.

PIA Agency Marketing Guide: Our hands-on marketing tips from industry experts, published annually.

Floodbroker.com: A unique tool for the flood insurance industry that provides National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) information to PIA members’ clients and prospects to quickly and easily get a flood insurance quote.

Rough Notes Producer Online: Helps identify risk exposures and provides detailed coverage analysis. PIA members get a special rate.

Hartford Flood Insurance: Easy enrollment, dedicated local sales directors and book transfer/rollover team, training/CE, free certified zone determinations, 24/7 claims reporting and great commissions. Not comfortable with flood insurance? Try the “Flood Solutions” option.

The PIA Partnership: Our national company council continually conducts real life applicable research campaigns and makes the results available to PIA members as a dynamic, evolving process — not simply discussed and put on a shelf.

Employee Profiling from OMNIA: OMNIA's behavioral assessment programs give you the insight to take the guesswork out of personnel decisions. Whether you are hiring a new employee, deciding on future roles for current employees, team building or creating a succession plan for your business, Omnia can help.

Agency Revenue Tools: Boost personal lines sales by engaging in employee worksite marketing using your appointed markets at regular commission rates.