New PIA Executive Targets Small Agents, Captives For Growth

New PIA Executive Targets Small Agents, Captives For Growth

Leonard C. Brevik has spent his first few months in office setting the stage to expand the membership base of the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents, as well as develop new products and services, including improvements in technology.

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

“We really want to focus on desktop benefits services and products we can provide for our membership on a daily level,” said Mr. Brevik, who held a number of executive positions with the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America and its subsidiary organizations from 1989 to 2000, then headed a real estate firm.

He suggested that growth in PIA membership could come from captive agents dissatisfied with that system who want to strike out on their own as independent agents. “That migration is happening right 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 can really find a home in PIA, and that is one of the things we are going to focus on.”

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

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