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N A T I O N A L L E G I S L A T I V E C O N F E R E N C E
Congressman McHenry to Address Young Agents, InsurPac

First-term Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) will speak to young independent agents and brokers from nearly all 50 states, along with the state and national InsurPac leaders, at the Big "I" 29th annual National Legislative Conference. McHenry will address the Young Agent-InsurPac Luncheon Wednesday, April 20.

The National Legislative Conference is the insurance industry’s best-attended, most effective legislative meeting. This year’s event will take place April 20 through 22 at the Grand Hyatt Washington with more than 1,000 independent agents and brokers expected to attend.

"Congressman McHenry is a very welcomed, fresh, new face in Congress. Not only does his record of service in the North Carolina legislature demonstrate his ability to get things done, but his staunch commitment to the people of North Carolina and the people of America is very impressive," says Charles E. Symington Jr., Big "I" senior vice president of government affairs and federal relations. "To have the youngest member of the House at our legislative meeting will present our young agents and state InsurPac chairpersons a great opportunity to hear from one of the brightest, most successful up-and-coming political figures in Congress about the importance of the political process and the role they can and must play in it to strengthen and secure their future and the future of their employees and colleagues."

In 2000, McHenry accepted the position of Coalition Director in the Bush for President campaign. Following the inauguration, President George W. Bush appointed McHenry special assistant to the Secretary of the United States Department of Labor.

A licensed real estate broker and agent, McHenry is the owner of McHenry Real Estate, a property procurement and management firm. Before his election to the House of Representatives, McHenry represented North Carolina House District 109, encompassing part of his native Gaston County. | T O P |

T R U S T E D C H O I C E ®
Ways to Participate in Trusted Choice® Month—Part II

There are many ways your agency can tie-in with the Trusted Choice® Month activities. In last week's IN&V, Trusted Choice® showed you how to run a local ad campaign that complements the national cable TV ad flight that will run May 9 through May 22.

In addition to running your own local advertising campaign, here are several easy activities you can undertake to benefit from the heightened level of awareness the brand will garner during Trusted Choice® Month:

· Prominently feature the Trusted Choice® logo throughout your agency by:

1. Putting logos on the front door and in the lobby;

2. Adding the logo and a Trusted Choice® explanation on your Web site;

3. Sending a mailing to customers informing them about your affiliation with Trusted Choice®. Be sure to include the Pledge of Performance;

4. Distributing the Pledge to staff so that it’s in front of them as they talk with clients and prospects;

5. Including the Pledge in proposals and in client and prospect mailings; and

6. Having staff include the logo in e-mail signatures.

· Distribute to local media the drop-in press release and supporting public relations materials on a small business survey that the Trusted Choice® program will send to you in May. Doing so will earn "free media" for your Trusted Choice® agency.

· Talk to your staff about Trusted Choice® to ensure they understand the brand and can talk about it with customers.

· Find out what your company partners or state associations are doing to support Trusted Choice®.

You will not want to miss this exciting opportunity to be part of the largest promotional event in the brand program’s history. Start planning now to be a part of Trusted Choice® Month so your agency will reap the rewards.

To join Trusted Choice®, go to www.TrustedChoice.comand click on "Agents/Brokers." At the pop-up screen that appears next, enter your agency ZIP code under the "Join the Movement!" header. For more information about Trusted Choice® Month, contact Jeff Myers at 800-221-7917; jeff.myers@iiaba.net. | T O P |

A crash agency management program that tries to make up for a multitude of past mistakes has the potential to do as much or more damage than doing nothing. Your agency did not create its current situation overnight, so don’t try and correct everything overnight. Remember: do not try and implement everything at once. Take the time to do a complete review of your current situation, and compare it to the Best Practices findings. Your review may reveal your agency is already equal to or exceeding the benchmarks of the best agencies in some areas, while falling well short in others.

A comprehensive review is the necessary first step. Beyond the review, no one practice is necessarily a prerequisite to the others. Based on the results from your initial review, determine which practices hold the greatest potential to significantly improving your agency’s performance. Then, utilize the proper tool or tools developed for that specific practice to get the improvement process started for your operation. Once you have improvement well underway in one area, you can move on to your next priority, then the next. After a period of time pursuing steady progress, you will eventually find all of the top practices are taking hold in your agency and you can then focus less on radical change and more on ongoing, continuous improvement.

To help with your initial review, utilize the Best Practices Agency Self-Diagnostic Tool. The tool will help you evaluate your agency’s key external influences (the current business climate in your area), management issues, key operations and performance issues. These evaluations, when compared with statistical benchmarks included in the latest annual update to the Best Practices Study, will allow you to clearly see the performance gaps between where your agency currently operates and where it could be if utilizing the best practices of the best agencies.

To learn more about the Agency Self-Diagnostic Tool, for a quick agency self-check form or to run an overall quick-check spreadsheet on how your basic agency numbers compare to those of the Best Practices agencies, click here. For more information about the Best Practices program, contact Madelyn Flannagan at 800-221-7917; madelyn.flannagan@iiaba.net. | T O P |

The soft market continues to impact the results of publicly traded insurance brokers. Organic revenue growth rates (revenue growth excluding the effect of acquisitions and currency fluctuations) continued to trend downward in the fourth quarter of 2004, reveals "Broker Insights," published by WFG Capital Advisors LP, a leading investment banking firm to the insurance industry and Big "I" Virtual University Expert.

Insurance agencies and brokerages’ owners and principals may wonder if the soft market, along with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s investigations, has caused acquisition activity to die down. Based on announcements by many of the publicly traded insurance brokers, it appears to be business as usual as they remain on the lookout for high-performing firms to acquire.

"Broker Insights" contains additional statistical information such as average price/revenue multiples paid for acquisitions by these firms. Owners and principals of insurance agencies and brokerages can use the organic revenue growth rates of the publicly held firms as a proxy for how the industry is doing and to compare how their firms are performing in relation. Insurance brokers, both large and small, face significant headwinds going into 2005, and no one is immune to the effects of the softening marketplace. Statistics on rate changes by various lines of business (i.e. commercial property, general liability, umbrella, etc.) are also included in "Broker Insights." To get a copy of the latest "Broker Insights," click here or call 717-780-7800. For more information about the Big "I" Virtual University, click here. | T O P |

One of the most common contractual requirements commercial insurers face is a requirement to waive a right of subrogation. Most often, these waivers are one-sided when it comes to general liability, but mutual with regard to property damage under lease agreements. They can also arise under business auto, workers’ compensation, marine, umbrella and other exposures. The Big "I" Virtual University explores some typical provisions and how they can be affected under various insurance policies. So far this year, the VU "Ask an Expert" service has received 15 questions relating to waivers of subrogation in everything from property insurance to workers’ compensation. The VU Experts also address subrogation waivers and how they are treated in various types of insurance policies.

Are you taking advantage of all the information you can find to do your job better every day by visiting VU? Big "I" members and their employees who do not have a Big "I" user ID and password can click on the Member Login icon at www.independentagent.com, then click on "Don’t Know Password." For more information on Big "I" membership, click here. For more information on the Big "I" Virtual University, click here.| T O P |

Predictions for 2005 suggest that we are still in a time of heightened Atlantic hurricane activity after the historically devastating season of 2004. There is an above-average chance of a major hurricane (Category 3, 4 or 5) making landfall in the United States. While it would be unusual to see anything like the past season, it is important to communicate to your customers that it only takes one storm to cause significant losses. In addition, make sure that you are part of the National Flood Insurance Program database to receive free leads generated by NFIP’s national marketing. To update your contact information with the NFIP Agent Referral Program, click here, download and complete the leads form and fax it to 321-978-0333. Your name will be available immediately in the call center database and should appear online within 30 days.

Once you’ve got your clients "thinking flood," turn to the Big "I" Flood Program for outstanding service and competitive commissions. New business quote requests for flood insurance that are submitted online through Big "I" Markets receive even higher commission on all new business policies. For more information on the Big "I" Flood program or personal rollover assistance, click here contact Linda Mackey at 800/221-7917; linda.mackey@iiaba.net. | T O P |

A G E N T S C O U N C I L F O R T E C H N O L O G Y
New Report Addresses Systems Security Issues

ACT worked for more than a year to develop guidance for agents in response to their concerns about security in the age of the Internet. In this new electronic world, a careful focus on security planning and implementation has become imperative for independent agents and brokers. Independent agencies and brokers are increasingly becoming paperless, relying on computers for their customer information, and communicating with their carriers and customers electronically.

"A virus that spreads throughout an agency’s systems can bring our work to a standstill and take considerable time and money to fix," says Brian Bartosh, president of the Top O’Michigan Insurance Agency in Alpena, Mich., and chair of the ACT Agency Security Issues Work Group. "A security breach exposing our customers’ personal information could expose an agency to significant potential liability and severely damage the agency’s reputation in its community—a reputation that the agency has spent years building."

The ACT guide takes the reader through "A Day in the Life of an Independent Agent" to provide a context for the security risks agencies are likely to face. The report also includes an extremely useful security self-assessment tool, a sample agency security policy and guidance on choosing an outside security consultant if desired. The last section of the tool provides recommendations to help an agency prepare in advance should a security breach occur, so that the agency does not have to resort to "ad hoc" action after the fact. To download "The Independent Agent’s Guide to Systems Security: What Every Agency Principal Needs to Know," click here. | T O P |