LAAIA Monthly Events

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