NU To Honor 'Agency Of The Year'

NU Online News Service, Feb. 24, 4:24 p.m.EST?For the second consecutive year, NationalUnderwriter is sponsoring an award program that will recognizefive independent agencies for doing an outstanding job helpingtheir commercial lines clients identify, limit and insure theirexposures in this increasingly hard market.

NU invites those agency principals who serve as truerisk managers for their commercial clients to enter thisprestigious award program.

Do you provide loss control services to help keep exposuresunder control? Do you offer a wide variety of standard, surplus andspecialty market solutions to insure against unforeseen orunavoidable claims? Do you include innovative alternativerisk-transfer options, employee benefit programs andclaims-processing support as part of your repertoire?

If so, you could be the grand prize winning agency, or one offour others receiving honorable mentions.

A principal from the winning agency and one guest will receivefree roundtrip airfare, three-night hotel accommodations, andcomplimentary registration to attend the annual conference of theIndependent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, to be heldin Las Vegas from Sept. 21-24. (A principal from the winning agencymust be available to receive the award in person during the IIABAconference.)

The winning agency will be profiled in a cover story in theSept. 22 edition of NU. Each of the four agenciesreceiving an honorable mention will be profiled in that issue aswell.

The winning agency will receive their award during the IIABAconference, and all five agencies will be honored at a reception inLas Vegas before the conference concludes.

Size makes no difference in this award program. Last year'swinner--Higginbotham & Associates in Fort Worth,Texas--produced $168 million in premium volume. The four honorablementions produced $200 million, $75 million, $26 million and $12million, respectively. What matters is how the agency performs itsjob, and what it does out of the ordinary for clients. (Take a lookat the Sept. 23, 2002 edition of NU to get an idea of whatlast year's winners did to earn their awards.)

Those entering must be a principal from a U.S. independentagency. They must fill out all of the information in theapplication posted on NU's Web site. They must include acopy of the agency's promotional brochure, a sample proposal for anew or renewal commercial account, as well as letters of referencefrom commercial clients. (All proprietary material submitted willbe kept strictly confidential. This material is being collected forjudging purposes only.)

In addition, all entries must include an essay, in no more than1,000 words, on: "How My Agency Serves As The Risk Manager For MyClients." (Further details on the essay are included in the onlineentry form.)

To enter, go to www.NationalUnderwriter.com,and click on the "NU Commercial Insurance Agency of the Year" icon.Entries must be mailed by June 2, 2003 to: National Underwriter,43-47 Newark Street, Hoboken, N.J. 07030, Attention: SamFriedman/Agent Award Program.

Good luck!