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

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

2010 Anuual Christmas Celebration

A time of year to celebrate. We celebrate the year gone past. We anticipate the year coming up. We take time to leave the work behind and just celebrate the friends, colleagues and partnerships we’ve made.

This is what the 2010 LAAIA Christmas Celebration was all about.

We enjoyed the cocktail hour with live music and lots of laughs.

The always elegant, Rudy Valdes-Diaz CPCU, emceed the dinner program, where we took time to present our annual Man of the Year and Woman of the Year awards.

For the Woman of the Year of award we recognized Marsha Watson. Marsha is Outreach Manager at Citizens and before that at FPRCJUA. For over 14 years she has been assisting over 8,000 agents with issues related to doing business with the largest insurer in the state of Florida. She helps provide training for agent across the state, assistance during the appointment process and help on a daily basis to agents with many questions and if she can’t help you she will go out of her way to find someone who can. She has worked very closely with the LAAIA all these years. Marsha’s favorite pass time lately is being a grandmother, the latest addition arrived just before Labor Day 2010.

For the Man of the Year award we recognized our very own Past President, Nestor Rivero, for his unfailing dedication to improving the insurance industry. He showed it be by teaching highschools students about insurance, to raise awareness of our industry through the InVest program. By his many trips to Tallahassee to sit with legislators to help them see the needs of the consumer, and how the independent agency system is the best way to educate consumers and help them reach their goals. Or by his dedication to the LAAIA and it’s message “United We Serve as a Voice for Independent Insurance Agents”. Nestor, exemplifies the true meaning of “Serve” in our motto.

The highlight of our event was the annual presentation to the Jackson Memorial Foundation of the check for $5,000 from our Toys For Children raffle campaign. Santa was their with the gift for the children. Thank you to our Gold Sponsor for the raffle, Fidelity National for helping us make some very special children smile.

We would also like to thank the sponsor without whom the Christmas Celebration would not be possible:

GOLD SPONSORS

AFCO Premium Finance



United Automobile Insurance Company

SILVER SPONSOR

Security Premium Finance Inc


BRONZE SPONSOR

AmTrust

Finally, we’d like to mention those associate members who went above and beyond and sent separate donations to the Jackson Memorial Foundation along side us QQ Solutions Inc and AccuAuto.

November 2010 Monthly Meeting

If value added customer service is your goal, I hope you were at our November Monthly Dinner meeting. Our speaker Gordon Ragan, President of Accu-Auto, spoke on the relationship between Agencies, Companies and Comparative Rater Companies. He reminded us that only through working together can we streamline the obstacles that so often get in our way of providing the level of customer service our clients have come to expect.

Javier Naranjo, our esteemed Board Member, also spent some time putting a call out to our membership for involvement in our committees. Though the Board of Directors is proud of all the member benefits created to provide, technology, education and cost savings to our members, they can all attest that the best way to get substantive benefits of being a member is by being involved. Call our office today or email info@laaia.com if you’re interested.

Thank you to all of our members present, for your votes and suggestions for Man and Woman of the Year. Which will be presented at our annual Holiday Celebration on Saturday, December 4th 2010 at the InterContinental Hotel in Doral, FL.

"Associates Night" October Monthly Meeting

It was a packed house at Shula’s in Miami Lakes, when we met for “Associations Night”. Once a year, at this special event , the LAAIA takes the opportunity to recognize our Associate Members for all their support.

In a year with serious economic challenges, our Associate Members have proven their resolve through their dedicated and active participation in our agnecies and assocation. On behalf of our Agency Members and the board of directors we would like to thank you. Your cooperation allows us to help give a voice to insurance agents from all walks of life and provide them with tools to meet the challenges we all face.

A special thanks goes out to Fidelity National for sponsoring our Annual Toys for Children Campain. We look forward to everyone selling LOTS of raffle tickets. Contact our office if you need any additional raffle tickets at 305-477-1442.

September 2010 Monthly Meeting

""I skate to where the puck is GOING to be, not where it has been." - Wayne Gretzky

What do Wayne Gretzky, technology and guerrilla marketing have in common? They were all part of the extremely informative presentation by Michael Stebel, the Chief Operating Officer of QQ Solutions, Inc.; an industry leader in insurance agency information technology.

Michael provided a comprehensive strategy to use of the strengths of the independent agent to compete against the almost one billion dollars in advertising spent by the direct writers.

He showed us that by taking advantage of affordable technologies, such as online live comparative quoting portals, and using innovative marketing techniques, such as search engine optimization and viral marketing, the independent agent can use their specialized knowledge of their local markets and demographics to level the playing field.

This presentation was so full of essential information, that this short blog post could barley do it justice. The Board of Directors of the LAAIA urges you to attend one of our monthly dinner meetings and take advantage of our networking hour to meet representatives from QQ Solutions and all of our Program Partners. Bring your questions and concerns. The one constant in our industry is change and together with some imagination and hard work we can push the independent agency system that our customers depend on into the future.

August 2010 Montly Meeting

What better way to get insurance agents attention than to drop a frying pan from the podium to the floor to make a point about "tile chip" claims. That is exactly what Tony McCarty, Senior Vice President of Claims for Florida Family Insurance, did in his informative presentation regarding the current state of claims in South Florida. He went further on to explain some of the most common non-catastrophe claims plaguing insurance companies today and provided good insight on simple questions agents could ask to become better "field underwriters".

Congratulations to Luis De Gongora in presiding over his first Monthly Dinner Meeting. In his words "I have big shoes to fill", but we all know that with his leadership the LAAIA will have it's strongest year ever.

June Monthly Meeting

We may have changed the date, but that did not dissuade us from have a GREAT monthly dinner networking event.

Our speaker Becky Lathrop CIC, Vice President of Optimum Performance Solutions LLC (http://www.optperform.com/), provided invaluable insight into changing our paradigms so that we can improve our businesses effectiveness and efficiencies to stimulate profitable growth.

We were also able to announce our BRAND NEW member benefit. The LAAIA Errors and Omissions programmed managed by Modern Insurance Consultants Inc. Response from our members in attendance was very positive. Check out our Members page of the website for additional details.

Finally, by unanimous vote, the slate of officers for 2010-2011 was approved by the membership. They are all very excited and are looking forward to a great 2010 Convention and have many things planned for the coming year!

Welcome to LAAIA's New Monthly Events Blog

Welcome fellow LAAIA members and visitors. Here you can follow up on previous events. You can see photos, videos and add your own comments.