Texas Surplus Lines Association President: Membership Has Its Perks

Lana Parks says her managing general agency, The Parks Group, bought a new computer system after a fellow member of the Texas Surplus Lines Association shared with her their experience and knowledge of the system. That’s one of the benefits of belonging to TSLA, says Parks, who’s in the middle of her term as the association’s president.

“We’re competitors,” Parks says, but members make the most of the opportunities to get to know each other and develop relationships. “We share knowledge as a professional organization and keep abreast of what’s happening legislatively.”

When Parks was sworn in as president of the organization in November 2007, she told attendees at TSLA’s annual meeting in Austin that she hopes when she retires “the insurance industry will be better when I leave than when I arrived.”

She reminded the audience of her peers that the decisions they make and the issues they “lobby on will no doubt impact us and our families for years to come. We must think boldly about how we can make Texas a better state and about how we can have the drive to make sure we can achieve those goals. …

“We must continue to strengthen our relationships with our regulators, legislators, other professional organizations, our companies and our friends on the retail side. Each group plays an integral part in our organization and our success and our future.”

While 2008 is not a legislative year in Texas, the group nevertheless has continued to monitor both state and federal legislative issues that are important to the industry, such as the interstate compact for licensing of surplus lines entities.

Among the issues the association will be watching during the Texas legislative session that begins in 2009 is the Texas Franchise Business Tax that was approved last session, Parks said. “We’ve heard there’s a possibility it could be brought up again in the legislature. TSLA will be watching that, as it affects our members. Also the Texas Windstorm Association issues. We will watch that and continue to do what we need to do to make sure our businesses and our homes are protected.”

New initiatives that TSLA has inaugurated during Parks’ term as president include efforts to expand the “Under 40” group and develop younger talent, an outreach program aimed at encouraging inactive members to become more involved and a process for examining the association to determine its strengths and weaknesses.

Mid-year Meeting

While TSLA holds its annual meeting in Austin in November each year, the group generally takes its mid-year convention, which Parks says is a more family-oriented event, to more exotic locations. The 2008 meeting is in Santa Barbara, Calif., July 20 – 23. Parks says attendance is up — they expect a record crowd — and that there are “quite a few first-timers coming to the mid-year meeting.”

Highlights from the upcoming meeting include:

–“Soft Market Strategies/Catastrophe Update” – David Rucker, All Risks Ltd.
–“The Acquisition Process” – Paul Vredenburg, Brown & Brown Inc.
–“21st Century Retail Agencies: Insights into Characteristics and Strategies” – Rick Bondurant, Independent Insurance Agents of Texas
–“USA – Here I Come!” – Doug Bauckham, Corrie Bauckham Batts Ltd.
— Updates from insurance organizations, including the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas, the Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas, the American Association of Managing General Agents and the National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices.

Editor’s note: The full version of this story appears in the July 21, 2008, edition of Insurance Journal – South Central.

Topics Texas Excess Surplus