Insurance Industry Facing Difficult Times
This has been a wild and wooly year for the insurance industry worldwide-insurers domestically and overseas falling by the wayside or becoming more selective in the class of insurance they will write and the tough qualifications placed upon insureds for whom they will cover.
We as excess and surplus line brokers were constantly making sure the security available to us had the financial strength, the underwriting management and proficiency and the staying power to meet the needs of the consumer as presented by the retail agent/broker.
At the same time we were performing our individual business functions your Surplus Line Association (SLA) was actively representing you in many governmental arenas. Certain governmental regulations and legislative bills were being proposed, each of which we had to address on your behalf.
I would say the most difficult task was to have these different groups comprehend the transactional side of our business so as not to have regulations and laws proposed that would prohibit the consumer from transferring their risks to commercial insurers.
Also, time was well spent citing that insurance and capacity required by the buyers goes well beyond that which is currently available in the admitted markets.
Far
better it is to dare mighty things,
to win glorious triumphs,
even though checkered by failure,
than to take rank with those poor
spirits who neither enjoy much
nor suffer much because they live
in the grey twilight that knows
not victory nor defeat.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Therefore, there is a need for the non-admitted market to preserve the assets of the consumer.
We firmly believe there now exists a better understanding in the Department of Insurance (DOI) and in both houses of our state legislature of the insurance resources we are able to bring to the consumer.
There have been about 12-15 members of your various committee members, as well as the Stamping Office employees, who have sacrificed a lot of their personal and business time to strengthen these relationships With the DOI and the state legislature on your behalf. They are well deserving of your appreciation. In order to continue our efforts along the aforementioned lines and to maintain the dignity and integrity of our profession in the eyes of the consumer, it is up to you to consider volunteering your talents to this perpetuation. Those performing today cannot and should not carry your load forever. Transition must take place.
As we realize the great indebtedness we owe our volunteers, we should also stand and applaud them for their successes-indeed, our success.