When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade!

The February monthly meeting was held on Wednesday, 1^st of February where we once again packed house in Casa Juancho.  We would like to thank GMAC Insurance for supporting us once again as our event sponsor.   For more information on GMAC Insurance, visit their website.   We had a different kind of speaker at our meeting this month.  Monica Borbely, is a Life and Business Developmental Coach and she spoke to us about how to turn adversity and challenges into opportunities in our personal and professional lives.  Monica has traveled the country as a Senior Mentor for the internationally known Peak Performance Coach, Anthony Robbins.  If you wish to contact Monica, please visit her website at www.monicaborbely.com.

Don’t forget to mark your calendar for our next event on March 7^th, where will be join the Independent Insurance Agents of South Florida, Miami Dade Association of Health Underwriters and Professional Insurance Agents of Florida in the 2012 All Industry Day from 9am to 4pm at the Doubletree Miami Hotel, 711 NW 72^nd Avenue in Miami.  Please contact Soraya Regalado for exhibiting opportunities at this event at 305-477-1442 or via email at Soraya@laaia.com.

Other events out and about town:

·         BLAAIA – Citizens ACP Class– February 15^th, 2012 from 2pm to 5:30pm at Signature Grand in Davie – 6900 W. State Road 84.  Monthly meeting following class!  Register at www.blaaia.com.

·         CPCU Society – So. Florida Chapter Industry Day – February 16^th at Don Shula’s Miami Lakes.  Take advantage of 6 CE credits, Continental Breakfast and Lunch all for the great price of $40.  Contact Alina Larraz at 305-807-3207 or alarraz@thflorida.com and tell her the LAAIA sent you!

Until next time…Remember that belonging to the LAAIA makes good business sense!

United We Serve As a Voice For

Independent Insurance Agents

The LAAIA “hit the hill” for our 2012 legislative Fly-In from January 24^th and 25^th.  In these two days, we walked the halls of our State Capitol Building visiting your State Representatives and Senators representing our members and the imperativeness of PIP reform!

Compromising the 23 attendees representing you in Tallahassee were some of the Board of Directors from LAAIA National, some of the Board of Directors of BLAAIA (our Broward County Chapter) and many member agents.

In total we logged in 47 appointments during our three days.  We broke into groups and spoke to legislators on bills your association supported. 

Click here to see our talking points used to describe our position on many of the pertinentbills currently on the lawmakers table.

During our time there we also attended the Press Conference given by Governor Rick Scott and CFO Jeff Atwater for Gear Up Florida.  This is a coalition of Florida consumers, businesses and law enforcement organizations aiming to expose and fight auto insurance fraud in the state of Florida and find common sense solutions.  Your Association joined this coalition back in November 2011. 

The climate is changing in Tallahassee, Governor Scott as well as CFO Atwater realize that PIP reform is a must.  We feel that some reform will be passed this session it is just a matter of what the chambers of our state legislature compromise upon.

We also attended a lunch with the PIA of Florida where the speakers where Robin Westcott, Florida Consumer Advocate and Suzanne Murphy from Citizens.  Ms. Murphy brought about the agent commission issue and the LAAIA will promise to keep an eye on this situation.  If you recall, the LAAIA has already fought this battle before and we will fight it again!

We have a long road ahead and education is still the best weapon to battle the issues we are facing.  Take time out to visit the following websites and pass the knowledge on to your clients.

• Gear Up Florida -  www.gearupflorida.com
• CFO Jeff Atwater - www.myfloridacfo.com/fraud
• National Insurance Crime Bureau - www.nicb.org

Membership dues help to get representation in Tallahassee to ensure that our voice is being heard but that is no substitute for your involvement.  Please contact us at info@laaia.com and let us know if you have any questions or how you can get involved.  Remember that belonging to the LAAIA makes good business sense!

President-Elect, Tony Martely, with Governor Scott at
the Gear Up Florida Press Conference

With Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff (R) Ft Lauderdale