Agents Urged: Take Part In The Scrap Over U.S. Regulation

NU Online News Service, MAY 4, 2:30 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON–Independent agents face a major battle ahead over federal regulatory reform and what shape that will take, the chairman of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America said.

IIABA Chairman Brett Nilsson made his comments in a talk Friday on the final day of the association's Legislative Conference and Convention meeting.

Regulatory changes are inevitable, he said, and it is very important for agents to weigh in and help guide what that future looks like for the insurance industry.

"There is no doubt that there will be some change to some degree," he said, adding he could not think of any process that was more important for agents to be involved in than to determine who the regulator will be and how the regulations will work.

Another major issue of focus in his address was agent recruitment of a new generation of professionals into the industry. Agents need to focus on recruiting new talent from the next generation–the millennial generation, he called it–those born between 1982 and 2002.

He said one major reason for agents' failure to bring in this new blood is because they have not done a good job at telling their story. He said that story is about an industry that provides a profitable income along with flexibility and freedom that other careers do not.

With a major percentage of current insurance professionals over the age of 40, if agents are not successful in recruiting their successors now they will find themselves "behind the curve" in perpetuating their agencies in the future.

He noted that there is a fierce competition for talent, but he urged agents to make a special effort to bring this new generation into the industry.

"We are struggling to find the same people that the direct writers are looking for," he said.

To achieve recruiting goals, agents should be out discussing their careers, supporting the education program INVEST and making their own sojourns to schools to speak about their occupation.

Mr. Nilsson noted the association continues to see success in providing services to agents to make them successful. Among these he pointed to the growth of the Virtual University and the educational programs available to agents; InsurBanc, providing financing to independent agents when they can't secure it from a mainstream banking system that does not understand their business; and ACT (Agents Council for Technology) that continues to work at improving technology for the independent agency system.

Trusted Choice, he said, continues to grow as a brand and to get the message out about how effective independent agents are in representing their clients.

"We have been around a long time," said Mr. Nilsson in closing. "We will be here for a long time, and I hope we all can look ahead for calmer waters."

Independent agents have been through a lot of tough battles over the years, and the current independent agency system will prove just as resilient as it has in the past, he said.

He told agents that they and their association are like a ship that has gone to sea, returning battered from a long journey but still intact and able to weather another journey at sea in the future.