While the industry has proven resilient over time, with nofinancially impaired surplus lines companies in the last nineyears, there are always challenges to address, including thedevastating impacts of recent natural catastrophes and generatingstable investment returns in a recovering economy. Perhaps thebiggest challenge for the industry, however, is for the E&Sprofessionals who work in it to effectively tell their story.

“Those of us who work in this industry know the value awholesaler brings to an insurance transaction,” says Matt Nichols,All Risks President and NAPSLO's 2012-2013 President. “Many retailagents also understand that value, but we still have a distance togo in helping the industry fully understand the ways in which awholesaler's expertise can help them strengthen clientrelationships.”

According to Kevin Westrope, President/CEO Westrope and NAPSLO's2013-2014 President, one of the association's key initiatives forthe coming year will be to more comprehensively incorporate thewholesale value message into all of the Association's communicationefforts. “NAPSLO member wholesalers are not just technical expertsbut are also innovators,” he says. “The Association is comprised ofprofessionals who conduct business with the very highest level ofintegrity and professionalism and we're proud of the value that webring to a transaction. We need to collectively and cooperativelyadvocate for the value of the wholesaler.”

NAPSLO members can expect that message to be part of all thatNAPSLO does in a more prominent way moving forward. NAPSLOExecutive Director Brady Kelley says that members should look fornot only design enhancements to NAPSLO's messaging but also morecontent emphasis on the wholesale distribution system's role andbenefits for the entire industry. The Association's brand identitywill evolve into a more simplified graphic that is a currentrepresentation of the streamlined solutions that NAPSLO offers itsmembers and that NAPSLO members offer their clients.

According to Davis Moore, President/CEO Worldwide Facilities,Inc. and NAPSLO Communications & Technology Committee Co-Chair,the Association's external messaging will evolve along with thelogo. “The NAPSLO team will work more proactively to incorporatethe wholesale value message into all communications,” says Moore.“Members should expect to see that emphasis in a variety of ways incoming months and years. The team will work diligently to make surethat the NAPSLO logo and brand promise is tied to solution-driveninnovation, integrity and responsiveness, which are also the keyattributes of the Association's members.”

Kelley says that NAPSLO will emphasize and support the wholesalevalue message in a variety of ways and channels including paidadvertising placements in relevant industry publications, submittededitorial to trade publications and greater leveraging of socialmedia. Those communications will be crafted to help improve retailagents' understanding of the value the wholesale distributionsystem adds to any transaction in the E&S market.

“I believe that the evolved NAPSLO logo, and the values that itwill represent and be linked with in the minds of retail agents,will be something members will want to be associated with in thefuture,” says Marshall Turner, President/CEO of Maxum Indemnity Co.and NAPSLO Communications & Technology Committee Co-Chair.“When member firms choose to incorporate the NAPSLO member sealinto their own communications, they will be sending a clear messageabout the level of integrity with which they operate and linkingtheir business to a message about the value of the wholesalesystem.”

Members should look to the NAPSLO website, www.napslo.org, forinformation about how to incorporate the NAPSLO member seal intotheir publications and website. Downloadable logo files and useguidelines will also be available on the NAPSLO site, and Kelleysays that members who would like assistance in determining how toincorporate the member seal into their communications can alsoexpect that support from the NAPSLO office.

NAPSLO member wholesalers routinely deal in business that iscomplex and nuanced and the result is that they are innovators. Thenew NAPSLO logo and member seal will be better tailored to reflectthat streamlined value that wholesalers offer to the industry.Kelley says that just as E&S professionals are constantlyadjusting and changing to provide expert solutions to theircustomers, NAPSLO is doing the same—and he expects the result to bea success for both members and the Association.