The Art of the Win-Win

Over the next year, you are going to hear me refer to our mission. And IIABA’s mission is very clear: To provide members with a sustainable competitive advantage. It is a statement that I take very seriously and it will be part of every discussion and decision that our board makes going forward.

One key way we support this mission is by building business relationships with insurance companies that serve our distribution system. In order for these relationships to work, we need products that create winners in all kinds of directions. These strong relationships enable us to work collaboratively with those carriers to bring products to our members that are designed for success; a win for the agency by providing it with products to sell to its customers, a win for state associations that help promote the products, a win for the national association—and a win for the insurance company.

I learned firsthand how important these products are to members when I served on IIABA’s for-profit board of directors in the late 1990s. That group works in partnership with our Big “I” state associations to offer members many products and services, including our renowned agency E&O program. I hope you and your staff are familiar with more of the products and services we bring to you to help meet your needs other than just E&O, as important as that is.

An excellent example of our commitment to be responsive to what you need involves RLI and personal umbrella policies. IIABA and 50 of our state associations endorse RLI, and we just renewed our national contracts. One of the member requests I recall from my time on the for-profit board was for a personal umbrella policy that would work with different underlying insurers. We needed a company partner with an A+ rating, a broad appetite, competitive pricing and streamlined processing for hard-to-place, stand-alone umbrella policies. We were fortunate to find a partner in RLI. They listened to our needs and concerns and worked hard to develop a product that made sense for all.

But in order for it to be successful, we needed more. We needed a partner that would continue to listen. Your national staff and the volunteer leaders who serve on the for-profit board work closely with carriers like RLI to constantly improve their products and services. The most recent example is RLI’s expanded offering of $1 million of excess uninsured and uninsured motorist coverage. This enhancement was the direct result of insights learned from “failure to offer coverage” claims under our national agency E&O program. This new offering is something of value your personal lines staff can discuss with clients.

These relationships help us in other ways, too. Most of us say that we belong to our association for the following reasons: legislative and business advocacy, branding our distribution channel to better position our agency, help in identifying opportunities and threats, education and E&O. By using the products and services provided through the association, it also helps us fund these important activities and allows us to do more to create that sustainable competitive advantage. It was eye-opening to me when I learned that only about 25% of our annual association revenue comes from membership dues. In fact in 2010, nearly two-thirds of our budget came from revenue generated by members’ use of products and services from companies like RLI for umbrella coverages, Swiss Re/Westport for E&O and Selective Insurance for flood coverage. In other words, without these programs and services, our annual membership dues would have to be as much as twice as great in order to provide the same level of service to members.

The Big “I” has tremendous name recognition due to its support and advocacy for its members. IIABA, the state associations and our agencies benefit in all kinds of ways when, as members, we each use the products and services brought to us by our state association and the national Big “I.”

I want everyone to get the most out of their membership in the Big “I.” We have so much available, and all we offer does double duty—it helps our agency while also generating revenue that defrays costs of our advocacy and other benefits of membership. I hope that you take the time to learn more about what is available to you by checking into what’s available from your state association and also by visiting www.independentagent.com/advantage to see more about what our national Big “I” provides to you.

—Michael Donohoe, Big “I” chairman