AAMGA Expands Membership to Include All Wholesale Professionals

The American Association of Managing General Agents (AAMGA) has decided to expand its membership to include all wholesale insurance professionals, while keeping its original name.

Membership will now be open not only to MGAs, but also to managing general underwriters, program administrators, aggregators and other wholesale insurance professionals who meet stringent membership standards. Among the standards are minimums for years in business, annual written premium, and underwriting or binding authority.

The AAMGA board of directors proposed the bylaw changes to members in May 2013 after a two-year strategic review. At that time, board members discussed changing the association’s name to the American Association of Wholesale Insurance Professionals, but instead voted to keep the association’s 87-year old name.

The vote took place between July 26 and Aug. 26 with more than 63 percent of eligible members responding. Eight-three percent of the members who voted agreed with the expansion plan.

The membership expansion plan will broaden the association’s members networking access to markets and other industry practitioners, says Frank Mastowski, president of AAMGA’s board of directors. The expansion is a significant change in how the AAMGA has been structured, he says. The new AAMGA will support technical underwriting and other professional educational development through the AAMGA University, and further the strength of our advocacy with regulators and legislators domestically and internationally, Mastowski adds.

The board of directors will now take additional steps to implement the new bylaw changes, according to the AAMGA Executive Director Bernie Heinze. The board will also expand curriculums for AAMGA University, the group’s professional education and training arm.

“These new bylaws were designed to ensure those market professionals working in the wholesale insurance space with binding or underwriting authority have a place to go where peer networking, education and advocacy resources are available,” says Heinze. “By broadening our membership, we’re strengthening and advancing the importance of the entire wholesale insurance marketplace.”

Founded in 1926, the AAMGA today represents more than 500 corporate members in the wholesale and excess and surplus lines insurance industry.

Source: AAMGA

Topics Excess Surplus Training Development Insurance Wholesale