Last month we wrote a blog about whether or not independent agents really need two trade associations. As I mentioned, it's far from a new issue; the debate has been raging since I've been writing about insurance.

Since then, I've been getting a steady stream of commentary in my email box from readers wanting to weigh in on the issue.

Testifying to the longevity of this issue was one reader who's been tracking it since the early 1990s. From Ted Lussem, Brooks-Lussem-Clem Insurance, Urbandale, Iowa:

Back in 1993 I put together what I called a monograph about the Independent Insurance Agents in Des Moines…One paragraph spoke to this double association nonsense: They were (are!) protecting their own “kingdoms.” Back then I owned my own agency and was vocal about the need to merge. In 1991 or 1992, when my research was being done, there was even a vote by the members of both associations that overwhelmingly supported a merger of these two organizations; more than 90 percent were in favor of the merger, as I recall. I am told that the by-laws of the PIA today will not even allow the discussion of a merger in the future. Since I am not a member of the PIA I don't know the validity of that statement however. Today, while still working part time for the firm I sold in 2000, I have little power of suggestion on this subject that anyone would listen to.