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March 17, 2010

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In this Issue

•  Survey Results: 84% Lost a Piece of Business to a National Payroll Company 
•  IIABA Statement on Senator's Financial Reform Plan Vows to Protect Agents, Consumers  
•  New Course Approval Numbers Add Up to CE Credit for IIABNY 2010 E&O Seminars 
•  Big 'I' Health Care Reform Update: Is this 'Climatic Week'? 
•  Former IIABNY Pres. Frank Riedman Passes Away 
•  Insurance Info., Online Transactions Draw Consumers When Building Web Presence 
•  U.S. Insurance Industry Regains Financial Ground in '09, according to Publisher
 

 Hot Links  Local Events | Education Calendar | E&O Reports | Capitol Reports | The Situation Room | Technology
Word on the Street Podcast | Ask Tim Podcast

Survey Results: 84% Lost a Piece of Business to a National Payroll Company
In a poll during the March 16 Introduction to PMC Insurance Webinar, 84 percent of attendees indicated they had lost a piece of workers’ compensation business to a national payroll company! In a similar poll during the Dec. 2 Introduction to E-chx Webinar, 72 percent answered they lost an account to a national payroll company. These astounding numbers show the importance of an integrated workers' compensation and payroll product for IIABNY members. 

IIABNY’s newly endorsed workers’ compensation wholesaler,  PMC Insurance, marries up perfectly with  E-chx, the association’s newly endorsed payroll provider to create an approach driven by you, the broker, to support your accounts that are looking for an integrated payroll and workers’ compensation product. These two new products can help combat some of the competition from national payroll companies, while also growing your book of business and creating a new revenue stream. 

Missed the Webinars? Archived versions of the  Intro to E-chx  and  Intro to PMC Insurance  Webinars, as well as the  PowerPoint slides  from the PMC Webinar, are now available on the IIABNY Web site. 

To learn more about these programs, contact the companies directly. 

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IIABA Statement on Senator's Financial Reform Plan Vows to Protect Agents, Consumers
IIABA released the following statement yesterday from Charles Symington, Big "I" senior vice president of government affairs, regarding Sen. Christopher Dodd’s (D-Conn.) proposed overhaul of the U.S. financial regulatory system: 

"The Big ‘I’ applauds Chairman Chris Dodd for his efforts to put forth legislation in an attempt to improve financial regulation and we appreciate his recognition that day-to-day insurance regulation should remain in the hands of the states. However, it is important to note that the property/casualty market poses virtually no systemic risk and we hope that the final version of this legislation will take this into account.

"Additionally, while we understand the desire for an insurance information office at the federal level, we are concerned that the bill’s current language could inadvertently subject insurance agents to mandatory data requests from the federal government. We look forward to working with Chairman Dodd and other members of the committee to modify this language to ensure that it does not harm small businesses."

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New Course Approval Numbers Add Up to CE Credits for IIABNY 2010 E&O Seminars
The 2010 IIABNY Errors & Omissions "live" seminar presented by attorneys Jim Keidel and Chris Weldon of Keidel, Weldon & Cunningham, LLP, is approved for four continuing education credits for all licenses. The "Live" version of the seminar will be presented in Buffalo – May 11, Rochester – May 12 (new this year), Syracuse – May 13, Islandia – May 25, New York City – May 26 and Tarrytown – May 27.

The 2010 Annual E&O Video Seminar will be broadcast to 15 locations across the state on June 9 and is approved for three CE credits for all licenses.

Many members have inquired if the annual E&O seminars are "new" courses, and the answer is YES! Each year we create and submit new CE outlines to the state Insurance Department, and the courses have new course approval numbers. Therefore, you can take the E&O loss control seminars every year and qualify for CE credits.

IIABNY members whose E&O coverage is written by Swiss Re/Westport Insurance Corp. or Fireman’s Fund through IAAC may qualify for a premium reduction on their 2011 renewal if the required agency staff attends a designated E&O seminar in the 2010 calendar year. Review the attendance requirements for the number/agency positions based on the staff size of the agency. On-line registration is now available. 

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced on Friday that they were planning to bring the health care reform legislation up for final House votes by the end of this week (March 19). In order to help coach his increasingly nervous team, President Obama decided to delay his trip to Indonesia by at least three days.

Democratic Leaders on Sunday’s talk shows were optimistic that they would pass the measure by the end of the week or the weekend. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated that "this is the climatic week for health care reform." At this time, Democrats themselves aren’t even sure they have the votes to succeed, with Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) saying on Sunday that "we don’t have them as of this morning, but we’ve been working this thing all weekend." Clyburn went on to say that he is confident in finding the votes later in the week. 

To read the full weekly update dated March 12, 2010, go to the main IIABNY  health care reform page.

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	Norma and Frank J. Riedman Jr.

Former IIABNY Pres. Frank Riedman Passes Away
Frank J. Riedman Jr., CPCU, of Livonia and Rochester, who served as IIABNY president from 1984 to 1985 and was an advocate of merging IIABNY and the Professional Insurance Agents of New York, passed away March 11. During his tenure as IIABNY president, Riedman played a leading role in addressing the municipal insurance crisis at the time. He oversaw IIABNY’s efforts in securing major changes to the New York Auto Insurance Plan, including the establishment of the plan’s Limited Assignment Distribution program. And, he was a key figure in the early planning stages of a statewide, multi-association campaign to maintain a "level-playing field" relative to bank involvement in insurance. The effort led to the establishment of the Bank Regulation: Agents’ Committee Effort or BRACE coalition.

Riedman, joined the family business and rose to vice president at Rochester-based Riedman Insurance. He served on many boards including: President of the Monroe Community Hospital Foundation, Chairman of the Livingston County Water Authority, and a board member of Catholic Charities of Livingston County and the Rochester Area Community Foundation. At the foundation, Frank and Norma Riedman established three funds: a Charitable Checking Account, a Charitable Investor Fund, and an endowed Donor-Advised Fund. Their community and philanthropic causes also included Campers Today, Leaders Tomorrow, the Campaign for Camp Stella Maris and Daughters of the Blessed Trinity, Loretto School Campus in Ghana, West Africa.

Reidman is survived by his wife of 51 years, Norma; children Richard, Theresa Eckert, Jean Bolotin and Patricia Yeager. To send condolences or to share a memory, visit the Dougherty Funeral Home Web site. 

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Insurance Info., Online Transactions Draw Consumers When Building Web Presence
by Matthew Marko, marketing process manager for Progressive Insurance

Auto insurance is one of the most shopped-for products on the Internet, and interest is growing. Seventy-three percent of people use the Internet to search for insurance information, but 67 percent still prefer to buy from a local agent. Customers are clearly searching for an agency, but if they can’t find what they’re looking for online, they may go elsewhere – maybe even to a direct writer. There are several steps to building a quality Web site and making sure your agency doesn’t miss an online opportunity.

First, a quality site should reflect the agency’s brand, a unique brand that is clearly set apart from other agencies in the area. Logos, local office and team members’ faces and customer testimonials are more effective and unique than generic stock photography.

In addition, customers want to see all the ways they can interact with the agency. These may include real-time online quoting, a phone number, an address with a map, an e-mail address and/or a short contact form. Many companies offer a real-time online quoting banner agents can place on their site. Some comparative rating vendors offer tools to enable consumers to get multiple quotes online that then feed into the agency rater.

Customers want ways to make self-service changes. This can be as easy as providing a link to carriers’ online self-service sites or a form for customers to fill out that is automatically routed to the agency.

Next, make it easy for customers to find your agency online by incorporating search engine optimization. SEO is the technical term for moving a listing up the ladder on search engine sites like Google, Yahoo, Bing and others. The higher a listing appears on the page when someone inputs a search term, the more likely it is that link will be clicked.

A key element of Web site success is being able to measure who finds the site and how they use it. Google Analytics, a free service, can tells how people arrived to a site, what pages received the most attention, the key words people typed in search engines to find the site and other valuable information. A professional Web development partner can help link Google Analytics to the agency’s site, or agents can do it themselves by visiting www.google.com/analytics.

Once the site is up and running, update it regularly. No prospect or customer wants to visit an outdated Web site, and search engine rankings reward sites that are frequently updated. Try to post new content to the site at least once a month. Better yet, start a blog on the site to answer common insurance questions, describe the agency’s involvement in the community or share local news and events.

Finally, keeping the site personal and local is a good way to provide a hometown resource to neighbors and customers. An agency’s site should have links to other local businesses and organizations – this is a good way to show the areas the agency serves and demonstrate a commitment to the community.

Editor’s note: This article, which originally appeared in the March 11, 2010 issue of IIABA’s Insurance News & Views, is the first in a series about optimizing the independent agency’s Web presence. For information about using online social media tools effectively, read "Social Selling" in the March issue of IA magazine. To Former IIABNY Chair of the Board Sharon Emek, a partner with the CBS Coverage Group in New York City, is one of the agents featured in the article. The piece also quotes IIABNY at-large director Rick Morgan, who is chair of the Agents Council for Technology Web 2.0 Work Group and president of Rick Morgan Consulting in Broomfield, CO. To help build a strong foundation for your agency's online presence, members can take advantage of special pricing from AgentQuote, the IIABNY-endorsed Web site development service. 

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U.S. Insurance Industry Regains Financial Ground in ’09, according to Publisher
Property and casualty insurance industry net income nearly tripled in 2009, to $35 billion, according to the Highline Data Performance Monitor. The Performance Monitor, which aggregates key statutory financial data reported by individual insurance companies every quarter, also found that the life insurance industry saw net gain from operations more than triple to a five-year high of $76.2 billion, up from last year’s five-year low of $17.6 billion.

The steep rise in net gain from operations was due to a greater decrease in premiums written, 16 percent, than in benefits paid, 14 percent, over the course of the year. This also drove life insurers’ return on equity to a five-year high of 15.2 percent.

The absence of major catastrophes during the year gave property and casualty insurers their biggest decline in net losses incurred, 11.3 percent in the past 10 years.

These findings demonstrate that the industry as a whole has regained a considerable amount of ground lost during the economic crisis, but not all of it. Insurers entered 2010 in better shape than they did 2009, but were still behind where they were in recent years on many key measures.

• Despite their impressive gains in 2009, the $35 billion in net income for property and casualty insurers was still less than half that seen in 2006, $73.2 billion.
• The combined ratio for the property and casualty industry, while down to 101.3 percent from last year’s high of 105.1 percent, is still above the break even point. The combined ratio measures how well a company is performing its daily operations by combining the loss and expense ratios. Because the ratio was above 100 percent, the industry as a whole suffered an underwriting loss in 2009.
• Driven in part by the continued pressure on interest rates in equity markets, net investment income for life insurers hit a five-year low of $154.5 billion at year’s end. Net yield likewise hit a five-year low of 5.1 percent.

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