KIA&B 2016 Vol. 21, No. 5 | Page 7

Facts on professional development and business needs.
• 70 % of members purchase their agency E & O coverage through the association.
• Over 1600 agency staff members attend the 120 or so high quality continuing education classes put on by KAIA annually.( 300 hours of live CE choices and 200 online hours)
• 50 % of members access AScK markets to meet the insurance needs of their customers.
• Through AScK, members can purchase critical cyber liability for not only their agency, but for their customers as well.
• KAIA helps with agency staffing needs, offering experienced, temporary staffing through WAHVE, preemployment screening through Caliper, and online advertising of job openings.
• Nearly 40 companies participate as industry partners to bring agents and companies closer together.
Facts on representing agent interests before government and regulatory bodies:
• KAIA has strong relationships within the Kansas Insurance Department.
• KAIA works with state legislators to promote the interests of member agents and their clients. We have invested nearly $ 40k this election cycle in races of those legislators that will support issues critical to our members.
• At the national level, InsurPac generates $ 2M per election cycle.
• To date, in the 2016 election cycle InsurPac distributed $ 33,500 to the KS delegation.
• Over $ 250K has been distributed to members of Agriculture Committee at the national level.
• Incoming President Lyle Davidson sits on the national crop task force.
Facts on encouraging integrity and high ethical standards:
• KAIA offers ethics classes to our members.
• Members receive one hour of free advice on contract, employment, or other legal questions effecting member agencies.
• KAIA provides technical advocacy regarding policy standards and interpretation.
• We create and offer the Best Practices Study to help agents improve their agency’ s performance in meeting customer needs.
Facts on informing our members and the public:
• INVEST is dedicated to improving insurance literacy in students and attracting new talent to the industry.
• Agents Council for Technology( ACT) works in partnership with agents, carrriers, technology companies, and user groups to help member agents implement innovative technologies and workflows.
• KAIA works very closely with Kansas Insurance Education Foundation( KIEF) to support insurance education in Kansas.
These are just a few of the ways that we are achieving our association’ s mission. The list of benefits is much longer. To truly fulfill our mission, it takes help from each member. Our members need to be engaged in what the association has to offer. This isn’ t just the principals of the agency, it’ s all agency employees, especially young agents. We have something for everyone, and as an association we will do our best to communicate the products and services available to help members succeed but we need our members to take a few minutes every so often to understand how they are beneficial in helping them maintain a competitive advantage. Finally, we need our Industry Partners to remain engaged because everyone benefits when they are highly visible, engaged, and we can connect them with our 3000 plus agent members.
| September- October 2016 | KANSAS INSURANCE AGENT & BROKER
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