Big “I” News

Senate Links Agent Licensing Reform with Flood Insurance Delay

There is a new political wrinkle in the attempt to stave off flood insurance rate hikes across the country. The Senate has attached an industry-supported bill to streamline agent and broker licensing to its bill to delay flood insurance premium …

Big ‘I’ 2013 Best Practices Study Finds Increases in Specializations, Profitability

The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or the Big “I”) released its 2013 Best Practices Study which found an increase in agencies with specializations, expansion of technology investment and an increase in profitability across most of the …

What to Know About NARAB or National Producer Licensing: Bissett of Big ‘I’

If and when the federal government resumes operations, a multistate producer licensing reform bill long pushed by the country’s insurance agent lobby could be among the few bipartisan pieces of business Congress tackles and actually passes. The National Association of …

New Hampshire’s Minkler New Chairman of Big ‘I’

New Hampshire independent agent Thomas J. Minkler has been inaugurated as the new chairman of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or the Big “I”), with David Walker as chairman-elect, Randy Lanoix as vice chairman and Joseph …

Senate Committee Advances National Producer Licensing Reform Bill

The Senate Banking Committee today voted to send an insurance producer licensing reform measure to the full Senate for consideration. The bipartisan bill — S. 534, the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers Reform Act of 2013 or NARAB …

Agents Helping Agents in Recovery from Oklahoma Tornadoes

Twelve hundred homes damaged or destroyed, 33,000 people impacted and $2 billion in property losses. Those are damage estimates from the deadly F5 tornado that hit the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore in the afternoon of May 20. The storm …

Project CAP Selects Phoenix Agency for Agency 2020 Program

Hester, Heitel & Associates, an independent insurance agency in Phoenix, has been chosen as the spotlight agency to represent Project CAP’s Agency 2020 program. Agency 2020 was designed to provide independent agencies with resources to help them implement a long-term …

Big ‘I’ Honors Illinois Agent for Work on Crop Insurance

An Illinois agent has received an award from the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America (IIABA or Big ‘I’) for his work on behalf of crop insurance agents. Brian McSherry of Illinois is the 2012 recipient of the Sidney …

W.R. Berkley Corp. Divests, Connecticut Bank Acquires InsurBanc

InsurBanc — a federal savings bank founded by the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America and W.R. Berkley Corp. a dozen years ago — has joined Connecticut Community Bank N.A., based in Westport, Conn., effective April 1. Under the …

Insurance Agents and the 2012 Election: Interview with Big I CEO Rusbuldt

When it comes to the 2012 presidential election, insurance agents have, as industry insiders like to say, “skin in the game.” In addition to being concerned with how the overall economy will perform under either a re-elected President Barack Obama …