CHARLOTTE, NC, August 31, 2018 – O’Connor Insurance Associates, Inc. continues FOR THE 9th YEAR to be part of an elite group of independent insurance agencies around the United States participating in the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or the Big “I”) Best Practices Study Group.
The agencies comprising the study group are selected every third year through a comprehensive nomination and qualifying process and awarded a “Best Practices Agency” designation. The selected Best Practices agencies retain their status during the three-year cycle by submitting extensive financial and operational data for review each year. Only 237 independent agencies throughout the U.S. retained their status for 2018.
The Best Practices Study was initiated by IIABA in 1993 as the foundation for efforts to improve agency performance. The annual Study of leading independent insurance agencies, which is conducted by IIABA by Reagan Consulting of Atlanta, Ga., documents the business practices of these “best” agencies and urges others to adopt similar practices.
Over the course of 25 years, IIABA has developed a family of products and webinars designed to help cultivate a Best Practices agency culture. The offerings include materials such as the Agency Self-Diagnostic Tool, Agency/Company Joint Planning Tool Quick Step, Customer Service Experience Handbook and Top Producers: Discover, Train, Reward. Additional studies and tools are added periodically. Many of the publications include guidelines, worksheets, and case studies to help agents apply the information contained in each report and move beyond theory into practice.
In addition to the written materials, hundreds of workshops and seminars have been conducted at various producer association functions, company sponsored agency meetings and national automation users group conventions.
The IIABA and Reagan Consulting jointly maintain the Best Practices Gateway website (www.reaganconsulting.com/reasearch/best-practices) that provides executive summaries of the annual Best Practices Studies and various Best Practices tools. The Gateway, as well as the annual study, is made possible in part through the financial sponsorship of various insurance companies and industry organizations.
The 2018 Best Practices Study sponsors include: Agency Business Solutions and Amerisure Insurance, Applied Systems, Beyond Insurance, Central Insurance Companies, Chubb, CNA, EMC Insurance Companies, The Hanover Insurance Group, The Hartford, Imperial PFS, InsurBanc, Kemper, Liberty Mutual/Safeco, MetLife, The Main Street America Group, Nationwide, Travelers, Vertafore and Westfield Insurance.
O’Connor Insurance Associates, Inc. was founded in 2000 and can offer insurance products from a number of different companies including Erie Insurance Group, Travelers, The Hartford, Liberty Mutual and Accident Fund.
For more information on the Best Practices Study, contact Jennifer Becker at IIABA, 1-800-221-7917.
Founded in 1896, IIABA is the nation’s oldest and largest national association of independent insurance agents and brokers, representing a network of more than 300,000 agents, brokers and their employees nationally. Its members are businesses that offer customers a choice of policies from a variety of insurance companies. Independent agents and brokers offer all lines of insurance – property, casualty, life and health—as well as employee benefit plans and retirement precuts. Web address: www.independentagent.com.
