Warm sun and the white sandy beaches of Kona, Hawaii, lent itself host to IBA West’s annual Blue Ribbon Conference last month, where agents, brokers, and top industry executives came to explore the latest news and information from top insurance leaders. During the conference, Insurance Journal was able to sit down with president, Neal Nakashima, to discuss the details.
IBA West’s primary charge, according to Nakashima, is advocacy, both legislative and regulatory. Their membership represents many different aspects of insurance but in the recent past their primary focus has been advocacy. With over 100 years of experience under their belts, IBA’s membership has grown to over 1,000 agencies with more than 14,000 agents and brokers. “About ninety-seven percent of their agencies reside in California,” Nakashima commented. “Our membership is pretty wide spread; we have the single-sole proprietor personal lines agent all the way up to Marsh & Aon and anything and everything in between, so I would say it is a very diverse membership that really kind of accesses us and really uses us in different ways. It really depends on their size, their locale and their book of business.”
The Blue Ribbon Conference consisted of four days of speakers and presentations on regional and national issues. Topical issues such as D&O and workers’ compensation were also touched upon.
According to Nakashima, who has been president of IBA West for one year, there has been an increase of over 15 percent in attendees and IBA would like to see that number grow tremendously in the future.
“I think those people that have not attended should look seriously at this,” Nakashima continued. “This is our primary Blue Ribbon conference, so that’s why you call it that. We bring in major carriers, CFO’s, presidents of companies to speak to us on issues that really affect us. It has been wonderful.”
Many issues have arisen in the industry in the recent past and one in particular has affected IBA West and its services. According to Nakashima, IBA has catered to this issue much more than others.
“I think the primary one that everyone has reacted to is [California Insurance] Commissioner Garamendi’s order relative to the State Fund and what has been happening to the State Fund. That has been our focus over the past couple of months, and as a result of that, [we] have really reanalyzed our advocacy plan.
“Our plan this year was assuming that we would have a pretty quiet legislative and regulatory year, we really wanted to drive our business plan. Financially, we have finally turned the corner, and so we really wanted to focus on our operative plan. This year we are going to look at some current issues that we are facing and try to do some funding for that, so that we are able to head something off, instead of reacting to things as they come to us,” Nakashima said.
For more information on becoming a member of IBA West visit www.ibawest.com.
Editor’s Note: Elizabeth Petty contributed to this story.
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