The famous Notre Dame football coach Frank Leahy coined thephrase, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." Longafter these inspirational words were first spoken, they continue tomotivate countless numbers of ordinary people to do extraordinarythings (not the least of which was a last-stand resurgence of theDelta Tau Chi fraternity in the classic movie, "Animal House!").This encouraging phrase must also apply to Florida's independentagents as they confront the realization of today's triple threat:Full-blown, politically made insurance "reforms," a prolonged softmarket, and the worse economy since the Great Depression.

While these conditions are daunting to many agency owners, thereare significant changes on the horizon that will soon make for adifferent day. Most notable is a wholesale change coming inFlorida's political landscape that simply has to be better than thepopulist crusade led against the insurance industry by Gov. CharlieCrist.

The dismal shape of Florida's private property insurance marketdemands this new reality. Once avoidable market outcomes have nowbeen realized in the form of a rapidly increasing Citizens Property InsuranceCorp. population and non-catastrophic losses pushing privatecarriers to the brink. Florida's surreal proliferation of publicadjusters who now hover over the property insurance carcass aresymptomatic of four years of political pandering and a complicitregulator.

Yes, change will come with a new governor, chief financialofficer, and legislators who will undoubtedly take a differentapproach to the concept of private property insurance in our state.This new cast of elected leaders will encounter rates that arerapidly rising due to a candle that has been burning at both ends —politically suppressed rates and unsustainable loss ratios.

The good news is they should be able to at least dampen theflames with a few common sense solutions: 1) re-establishing areplacement cost holdback provision; 2) creating a more reasonabledefinition of sinkhole activity; 3) applying real actuarial scienceto Florida's fraudulent mitigation credit system; and 4) returningCitizens to a market of last resort by charging rates reflective ofits exposure. Oh, and by the way, a positive result of thesechanges would be the non-proliferation of public adjusters!

Another different day is approaching rapidly for those agenciesthat have significant resources committed to health insurancedelivery. A disheartened view suggests this revenue line to beseverely threatened as "Obama Care" phases in and moreimplementation details are revealed about medical loss ratiocalculations and the makeup of state-based exchanges.

On the other hand, the "tough get going" approach recognizesboth hope in the electorate to preserve private health insuranceand a market mindset that persistently demonstrates the value oftrusted health insurance counsel. No matter the conditions, theneed for professionally trained health insurance agents willremain. These agents will adapt and work differently to serve theneeds of an altered client base; they will because they must.

Finally, a different day will ultimately come about in ournation's economy, and when it does, the soft P&C market — onlymade more so by declining payrolls — will subside. Indeed, highunemployment and fierce insurer competition for top-line resultshas made today's commercial producer wonder at times whether thesky is falling. Weary clients who have historically translated intodependable agency relationships have increasingly become fickleprice shoppers. This "blood in the water" environment has placed ahuge target on the back of once-comfortable incumbent agents whilegiving rise to sales tactics that test the limits of Florida'sunlawful inducement statute.

"Can-do" perseverance for commercial agencies during thiseconomic doldrum comes in the form of working smarter, learning tolive on less, and clearly demonstrating a service standard secondto none. Faithful producers are empathetic to their clients'plight, while at the same time confident and well-versed in thesolutions they propose. They are professionally trained and keenlyaware of their competition. They are nimble and have the ability toadapt. Failure to secure the account disappoints, but does notdiscourage.

Well, enough for the motivational speech! It just seems to methat a brighter side needs to be illuminated. So, times are tough.Okay, now what? The tough must get going!

Jeff Grady is president/CEO of the Florida Association of InsuranceAgents and serves on the Florida Underwriter Editorial AdvisoryBoard.