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Industry News

IIABA NEWS
Companies Honored with Best Practices Awards

Five insurance carriers recently received the prestigious “Best Practices Award of Excellence” at the 2008 Big “I” Legislative Conference & Convention. The awards were presented at the Young Agents Breakfast and Leadership Panel earlier this month.

Honorees included Central Insurance, EMC Insurance, MetLife Auto & Home, Travelers and Westfield. The awards recognize those companies that have made imaginative, outstanding and unique contributions in advocating Best Practices philosophies that enhance the independent agency system. The Big “I” Best Practices Program provides performance benchmarks and business strategies that serve as a guide to improving agency performance.

Central Insurance Companies’ support of the Best Practices program came as agents requested help to grow their personal lines books of business. The Best Practices studies and consultations with Reagan Consulting, Inc. were used to develop “Vibrant Personal Lines” meetings. Central conducts, (and as a result of the extremely positive feedback) will continue to conduct, Best Practices seminars to benefit the independent agency system.

“The philosophies of the program have been shared with agents via agency meetings and sessions designed to help agents grow their most valuable asset – their agency,” says Madelyn Flannagan, Big “I” vice president of education and research.

EMC Insurance Companies has fully embraced the Best Practices concepts and believes in its benefits. The joint agency/planning tool is used with key agents, and other tools are used to address specific agency situations. EMC Insurance Company purchased a complete Best Practices library set for all of their branch offices and conducted training in order for their representatives to understand the benefits of each tool. EMC Insurance supports local Big “I” state association Best Practices programs.

“EMC strives to help all their agents obtain best practices numbers and be the best of the best and their enthusiasm for the program is extremely beneficial. We appreciate all of their efforts,” Flannagan says.

MetLife has a long-standing commitment to promote Best Practices throughout their organization. MetLife conducts agent feedback sessions and uses that feedback to create maximum impact for the Best Practices resources. Their more than 150 filed associates focus on customer service, growth through account development, efficient workflows and share how select Best Practices tools can help improve overall agency operations.

“MetLife strongly believes utilizing the tools and information will strengthen their relationships with the independent agent partners,” Flannagan says. 

Travelers’ agency operations workshop and selling sessions are based on the Best Practices materials. In 2007, more than 200 programs were presented to thousands of agents, exposing them to methods that will allow Best Practices resources to help their agency grow and take back market share. Their joint planning programs uses the joint agency/company planning tool materials and these sessions have been conducted with more than 2,000 agencies nationwide. Travelers also purchases materials for select agencies. Travelers provides time and brainpower to help the programs continue to evolve through its participation on the Council for Best Practices.

“As a seven-time winner of the Best Practices Award, Travelers is to be commended for its continued support,” Flannagan says.

Westfield is also active on the Council for Best Practices and uses a number of Best Practices publications in its agency sales and perpetuation training programs.

“In fact, Westfield requested permission to expand upon the “Top Producers” program and used forms and spreadsheets that will were incorporated into an update as a release for the general public,” Flannagan says. Westfield also promotes the availability of the resources through its agent portal, Agents Web Passport.


TRUSTED CHOICE^®
New Consumer Interest Articles

Trusted Choice^® has five great new articles for members to use on Web sites and/or send to customers about often-overlooked insurance issues. These articles cover subjects including: insuring significant others, illegal music downloads, power surges, undervaluation and tree roots and sewer lines. Help make customers aware of the homeowners issues they may not know about.

To access these articles, simply visit www.TrustedChoice.com and log into the Agents/Brokers section. The articles can be found in the Public Relations section, under Public Relations Articles.|

You will need your agency username and password to access these areas of the secured “Agents/Brokers” section of www.TrustedChoice.com. If you do not have this login information, send an e-mail to Trusted.Choice@iiaba.net. For more information, contact Jenner Gohr at 800- 221-7917; jenner.gohr@iiaba.net.


InVEST
Register Now for the InVEST State Champions Workshop

Registration is now open for the next InVEST State Champions Workshop. To register for this three-day, comprehensive workshop click here. The workshop will take place June 30 to July 2 at the Westfield Companies. Join other insurance industry leaders in learning about InVEST and how it can promote workforce development for the industry by attracting and training the next generation of insurance professionals. The workshop will explore all the tools, resources and programs that make up the InVEST high school and community college curriculum. Learn how to address the overall challenges to attract young people to this exciting industry.  

In July 2007, InVEST held a three-day conference at the Westfield Companies in Westfield Center, Ohio. Approximately 100 insurance company representatives, agents, educators and state and national trade association staff from 22 states attended the event. Attendees participated in a comprehensive program that explored the myriad facets of the InVEST program and how it has been customized and successfully implemented throughout the country.

For more information about the InVEST State Champions Event, contact Bill Pierson, InVEST executive director by phone at 800-221-7917; bill.pierson@iiaba.net. 

A 501(c)3 educational trust, InVEST introduces high school and community college students to insurance and the more than 350 diverse careers available within the industry giving students a new outlook on the future. The program offers insurance agencies, brokers and carriers a diverse and talented group of entry-level recruits.


BIG “I” MARKETS^SM
Sales Tales from Big "I" Markets

Member agents who have registered for Big “I” Markets are having great success accessing specialty markets to increase their sales. Alison Barwick of John L. Kirby & Associates of Jacksonville, Fla., is just one example.

Barwick recently bound a Chubb Masterpiece^SM policy through the Affluent Homeowner Program for $15,000 in premium. Barwick was able to make the sale even though the premium was several thousand dollars higher than some other quotes the insured had received. How did she do it? According to Barwick, “the insured really wanted to keep everything under one package with one bill. They had been insured with a carrier that offered a package, but the carrier is pulling out of Florida, so being able to access the affluent package made it easy for me to place the business.”

The Prestige Portfolio^SM Affluent Package available with Fireman’s Fund also offers the same one bill benefit.

Agent Joe Yarbrough of the Yarbrough Agency in Marion, Ky. also was able to land a large account even though he did not have the lowest price to offer. Yarbrough recently wrote a community bank with Travelers for $34,000 in premium. Yarbrough said, “The $5 million of blanket earthquake coverage really set Travelers apart. In addition, the Travelers policy provides for blanket coverage of buildings and property across multiple locations and that helped close the sale, even though the policy renewal from the existing carrier was coming in with a lower premium thanks to the soft market.”

These success stories show you never know what might help close a sale, and it’s not always about price. Whether it’s coverages or the convenience of a package policy, when you are closing, remember to remind prospects how you are meeting their needs.


BIG “I” ADVANTAGE^SM
A Correction to the Big “I” Advantage Newsletter

The spring edition of the Big “I” Advantage Newsletter included a segment titled “Laughable Lawsuits” that made reference to the Stella awards. The Stella Awards are given to people who file questionable lawsuits, named after a woman named Stella Liebeck who in 1992 spilled a cup of hot McDonalds coffee onto her lap causing third degree burns. She sued McDonalds and was awarded $2.9 million in damages, subsequently reduced by the judge to $640,000, though a later secret settlement was reached between Liebeck and McDonalds.

It was brought to light that there are true and false Stella Awards circulating on the Internet. Unfortunately the editors of the Advantage Newsletter were not aware of the controversy over the “true” and “false” Stella awards and, as it turned out, the examples used in the segment were of the false variety. Therefore, a major serving of humble pie is in order, along with an apology and a commitment to be more diligent in verifying third-party sources from the Internet. Great effort has been made at making the Advantage Newsletter more informative and this is the first time since its inception that something like this has occurred. The Big “I” Advantage team is committed to making sure it is also the last.