New PIA Executive Targets Small Agents, Captives ForGrowth

Leonard C. Brevik has spent his first few months in officesetting the stage to expand the membership base of the NationalAssociation of Professional Insurance Agents, as well as developnew products and services, including improvements intechnology.

“I'm working now on replanting the PIA flag,” noted Mr. Brevik,named executive vice president of PIA National, as well as chiefexecutive officer of its for-profit subsidiary PIA Services Inc.back in April. He replaced Gary W. Eberhart, who resigned lastJuly.

“We really want to focus on desktop benefits services andproducts we can provide for our membership on a daily level,” saidMr. Brevik, who held a number of executive positions with theIndependent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America and itssubsidiary organizations from 1989 to 2000, then headed a realestate firm.

He suggested that growth in PIA membership could come fromcaptive agents dissatisfied with that system who want to strike outon their own as independent agents. “That migration is happeningright now, and we need to be able to say, 'Here is a home for you.'We see that as a great potential for growth for us,” he said.

He added that “there are also a lot of smaller agencies who canreally find a home in PIA, and that is one of the things we aregoing to focus on.”

On what PIA can offer these members, he said: “We are not solarge that people get lost in the shuffle and are just a number. Weare a personal association, on both the state level and thenational level, so agents who want to get involved with us can makea difference by being members of their state association orboard.”

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, June 18, 2004.Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serialpublication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as anindependent work may be held by the author.