The 2011 Ho Ho Holiday Gala

The annual LAAIA Holiday Gala was held on Saturday, December 10th at the Westin Colonnade Hotel in Coral Gables, FL.  The evening was started off by a cocktail reception where attendees took pictures with Santa and caught up with everyone's holiday plans. 

Santa topped his visit with a donation to the Jackson Memorial Hospital - Holtz Children's Hospital.  Ruthann Mitchell, Child Life Coordinator was in attendance to receive the check and to thank us for supporting JMH.  Since Jackson has fallen into hard times, our donation has really helped the Holtz Children's Hospital with a lot of their needs.  Our fundraiser was once again sponsored by Fidelity National Insurance Company with a special shout out going to Ascendant Insurance, QQ Solutions and NQ Advertising for special donations going to JMH!

Congratulations to Ana Del Vecchio and Carlos Peñate who were selected as Insurance Woman and Man of the Year.  This year, in recognition of two incredible past presidents, this award was renamed The Mary B Fernandez Insurance Woman of the Year Award and The Fernando Gimenez, Jr., CPCU Insurance Man of the Year Award.  Gabriela Dominguez and David Gimenez were in attendance to help us honor Mary and Fernando!

Our event was a great success due to the great attendance from our Agency and Associate Members and our event sponsors:

Southern Cross Underwriters

Florida Peninsula Insurance Company

Total Bank Insurance Premium Financing

AmTrust North America

Peachtree Special Risk Brokers

Nationwide

Progressive

Click the links below for pictures of our great event...From our family to  yours, Happy Holiday Season and see you next year!!

2011 Association Picnic

Burgers, Cotton Candy and bouncy houses… Oh my! And don't forget about the domino table!

We descended on Tropical Park at 11:30 in the morning, leaving our blackberry's and laptops behind, to take to some time not just as colleagues but at friends.

Organized by the two must fun members of our association, Pablo Ojeda and Lourdes De la Paz, this years picnic was a great success.

Thanks to Chef's Chris and Luis, who took backyard grilling to a whole new level. (We even had veggie burgers!)

The music was great and the kids (and adults who still act like kids) had a great time throwing water balloons, sack racing and hula-hooping.

As always a special thanks to our sponsors who also brought delicious desserts from the all over the world to give us all a special treat. They were:

Progressive
Del Rio Discount Corporation
Ascendant Commercial Insurance
GIC Underwriters
GM Underwriters
Selective - Flood Operation
Security Premium Finance

Hope to see you all next year!!!

2011 Legislative Fly-In

The 2011 LAAIA Legilstive Fly-in March 15th & 16th, They came, they saw, they conquered. The group of 22 insurance professionals led by Legislative Chair, Dulce Suarez- Resnick and the LAAIA Legislative Consultant, Keri Rayborn met with 40 legislator over 2 days to speak to them about the bills that our association supports and is opposed to. The group also attended 3 Banking and Insurance Committee meetings that were being held during the two days.

Click here to view the 2011 Legislation Fly-In Bill Summaries

January 2011 Monthly Meeting

Its that time of year again, where we like to invite prospective new members and take the time to give an overview of all the fantastic benefits the Latin American Association of Insurance Agencies has to offer.

Thank you to Security Premium Finance, our sponsor of the evening, for making our annual membership drive meeting a success. Jose Socorro spoke briefly about their products and their commitment to professionalism and customer service.

A few of our board members and committee chairs took the podium to enlighten the audience with some of the current initiatives the association is working on, on behalf of all it’s members, and the many partnership programs available to all of our members.

Joe Mier, our immediate past president, spoke as committee chair of the Fraud Alert Team. He provided insight in the battle against the Personal Injury Protection (PIP) Fraud that has been creating a huge burden thought our industry. Floridians as consumers are being affected by the abuse of the tort system, insurance companies are pushed in to paying claims without the resources to investigate fraudulent charges, while insurance agents are powerless to provide the consumer with a competitive priced product. Joe, elaborated on the efforts of the upcoming LAAIA Fraud Alert Team Town Hall Meeting, to be held on Wednesday, January 19th, where 15 Insurance Companies will be represented and we will have the chance to speak out to our legislators and remind Tallahassee that change must come.

Javier Naranjo, gave us a brief description of all the great partnership programs that the LAAIA is able to provide their current members. He outlined the programs available that our partners from QQ Solutions, Bankers Insurance Group and Modern Insurance have to offer.

Dulce Suarez-Resnick briefed the crowd on the Legislative efforts and invited everyone once again to let your voice be heard on Capitol Hill this March.

Chris Monnar the incoming president shared some of the detailso n the upcoming convention in the Westin Diplomat July 13-17 promising to be filled with growth opportunits education and fun.

Amy Castro outlined the exceptional education opportunities being offered to our members which are designed to not only help us fulfill our CE requirements but allow us to obtain several designations from The Professional in Insurance Account Management (PIAM) to The Certified Professional In Insurance (CPII) which will allow our members to be a step above the rest.

Thank you once again to those whom helped make this event a success and may this New Year bring us lost of prosperity