Giles Looks at MGAs As He Prepares to Step Down

Outgoing AAMGA president Rob Giles sat down with Insurance Journal recently to discuss the association, managing general agents and his term as president, among other things. Giles, president of Wisconsin-based Midwest General Agency, will oversee AAMGA’s 77th Annual Convention, scheduled for May 18-22 in Boca Raton, Fla. The following are excerpts from that conversation.

Dave Thomas: What is the purpose of the AAMGA and do you lobby?

Rob Giles: We’re a trade association and we don’t do really any lobbying. We’ve just never felt that was a role for our association to get involved in. As an association we have representatives attending the National Association of Insurance Commissioners meetings and we do monitor what’s happening. On occasion, we have somebody speaking on our behalf. The true lobbyist of going in and sitting down in someone’s office in Washington and haggling about stuff, we don’t do that. We’re more of kind of a quiet influence. What we do on the legislative end of it is try and educate the legislators on what a managing general agent really is.

Dave Thomas: Do you think there is still a lot of mystery out there as to what a managing general agent does?

Rob Giles: There are a lot of insurance commissioners that really don’t understand what AAMGA members really do. I think we’re doing a very good job of educating the insurance commissioners on who we are and what we do. There is quite a bit of turnover in that area. Our communications committee has been very active in getting good press for AAMGA. What we’re trying to do is get more information out to the insurance general public along with the insurance departments on who AAMGA is and what our membership is made up of.

Dave Thomas: How would you say the association benefits its members?

Rob Giles: I think first and foremost, AAMGA provides their members with a wonderful opportunity to network. We’re expecting to have about more than 1,200 people at Boca Raton. Also, our members can benefit greatly from participation in our AAMGA University. Under the leadership of Russ Rado, we’re bringing educational opportunities to our members that are customized for general agents and designed to focus on the areas that are not readily available to our members through their local independent insurance agents association.

Dave Thomas: What would you say today are two or three major issues facing MGA’s?

Rob Giles: From a market standpoint, a lot of it is automation issues. We have an automation committee that is trying to help bring information to our members on what is available in the way of automating. A lot of people are trying to go paperless. Right now, most people are being overwhelmed with submissions because of the hard market. Also, qualified and adequate staffing is an issue in keeping up with the mountain of paper that is coming in. More and more things are being done electronically on the companies’ part as well as the MGA’s part, but I doubt there will be a day when everything is paperless. The communication between the insured, the agent, us… there’s still always going to be some paper.

Dave Thomas: Is this a good time today to be an MGA and what challenges does AAMGA face?

Rob Giles: I think it is a great time for the managing general agents. We’re the safety valve for the insurance industry. As the standard, admitted carriers continue to re-underwrite their business and clean up their books of business, that business is flowing into the surplus lines market. Most general agents view 2002 as a good year and 2003 should continue to be a good year if they can meet the challenges of keeping up with the amount of business out there. As for challenges facing us, I don’t know if there are any major challenges for AAMGA. Our focus in the last year has been to continue the transition to Accolade Management Company that is now completed and has gone very smoothly. Bernie Heinze and Tom Rogan have put together a great team and AAMGA is in good hands. We have historically contracted with an independent management company. Two years ago our association managment company of 15 years closed their doors. We have now contracted with Accolade Management Company to tend to the affairs of our association. We’ve also focused on the continued financial and development of our university and putting more programs on our Internet site; our UFOs (under-40 organization)— that to me is the future of our industry and we need to continue to support this group. Participation in that has been very good. I think it continues to be a good place for our young people to network; and expanding the relationship we have with the National Association of Insurance Women. We have participated for a number of years in their annual convention and this last year we have expanded our activities to participate in their nine regional meetings.

Dave Thomas: When you look back at your term as president, what pleases you the most?

Rob Giles: I’ve been very pleased with the progress in transitioning to our new management company. I’ve really been pleased with the efforts our committees have put forth.

Dave Thomas: Is there a lot of duplication of membership between AAMGA and NAPSLO?

Rob Giles: We did a survey a few years ago and I think we figured 65 percent to 70 percent of our members of AAMGA are also NAPSLO members.

Dave Thomas: Do you get a lot of new attendees at the upcoming conference?

Rob Giles: Most of the attendees at our upcoming event, I’d say, 80 percent to 85 percent are return perennially attendees. For those attending for the first time, our member benefits group is trying to set up a situation where new members are contacted by existing members to answer their questions, encourage them to attend events. They (new attendees) shouldn’t be bashful. They’ll start to feel at home real quick. We survey our members after each meeting and event to see what they liked and didn’t like. We view those at our planning committee, good and bad to see if we need to change things for the next year.

How has your business been impacted by the hard market? Have you turned more often lately to using managing general agents? View our poll question at www.insurancejournal.com/poll and vote.

Topics Agencies Excess Surplus Insurance Wholesale Market Human Resources