July 17th, 2009
Diversity in Insurance
On May 4, in the National Underwriter press online, the President of the CPCU said insurers need a wider diversity effort and should have community outreach programs. The wider diversity idea is certainly true – the insurance industry does not have any variety of people. However community outreach programs alone aren’t going to cut it. Why on earth would any young person want to come into insurance? We copy each other’s policy forms and applications, and carriers chase down the same business and cut each other’s prices. There are very few women roll models and essentially no minorities in any real positions.
Even if we had college programs, the mind set of our industry is so non-innovative that there is no reason anyone would consider this an interesting, exciting career. Fundamental changes need to happen – just look at our industry publications to see that everyone looks alike. A recent article on diversity in a print magazine showed pictures of white men over 40 with their ideas as to why our industry was not attracting young people. Duh.
Aren’t there companies or brokers or individuals out there who can make our industry more interesting and cutting edge?
Tags: CPCU, diversity in insurance, inovative insurance, women roll models
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
May 6th, 2009
Why do brokers and their organizations continue to support state licensing? The logic of this continues to elude me. A May 4 article in the P & C National Underwriter has the President of the IIABA urging brokers to weigh in on the matter of Federal Regulation. I can only assume he means that this is for continuing state licensing. How can that possibly be? My agency has retail and surplus lines licenses in virtually every state which means 150-200 licenses. In some of those states, we have to file our corporation. Why do people in our own industry support a system that is detrimental to our operations?
The president of the IIABA then goes onto talk about recruiting young people. Maybe if we had a more up to date, internet friendly industry such as national licensing, we might be able to attract young people who appreciate savvy business procedures. Our industry system was set up in 1945 with the passage of the McCarran Ferguson act and our modes of operation have not changed a lot since then.
Isn’t it time we updated the way we do business?
Tags: federal insurance regulation, McCarran Ferguson Act, regulatory reform, state licensing
Posted in Insurance Regulation | 5 Comments »