PIIAI board votes to disaffiliate with PIA National
By David Willis
Managing Editor, Property and Casualty
The Professional Independent Insurance Agents of Illinois (PIIAI) announced last month that its board has voted to disaffiliate with the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA), pending ratification by a membership vote to take place on Feb. 22, 2001. PIIAI said it will continue its affiliation with the Independent Insurance Agents of America (IIAA). According to PIIAI President Dino Gavanes, the decision was the result of a recommendation presented by a special consolidation task force charged with evaluating its national affiliations with PIA and IIAA.
"Since the consolidation of PIA and IIAA in Illinois in 1993, PIIAI has closely monitored its affiliation with the national associations," Gavanes said. "Realizing our fiscal responsibility to our members, our concerns have focused on the benefits received from our national affiliates, particularly regarding duplication of services. Up until this point, PIIAI had determined the value received from affiliation with both PIA and IIAA was worth our commitment of time and resources.
"However, the evaluation conducted by our consolidation task force this summer found that with the income reduction from the PIA group health program and the duplication of services with IIAA, the PIA affiliation had reduced in value," Gavanes continued.
The decision was not entirely unexpected, the national association said in a release. "In fact, PIA already factored this probable action into our ongoing planning process," said PIA President Thomas Arneson.
"Illinois independent agents voted to consolidate their two agent associations in 1992," Gavanes said. "The consolidation has been extremely successful, as evident by other states that have done the same. PITAI is a strong proponent of consolidation and serves an example of its benefits.
"When our association consolidated, we decided to remain affiliated with both PIA and IIAA," he added. "Since that time, we have attempted to bring the two nationals together for consolidation discussions as we believe it is in the best interest of independent agents. Unfortunately, all efforts have been unsuccessful. Instead of exerting our energy in attempting to bring the two groups together, PIIAI will focus on the best interest of our 1,450 member agencies."
In October, Bill Hofmann, III, newly elected president of the IIAA, called for the PIA to resume discussions that could lead to a merger of the two national associations. PIA said they were not planning to enter such discussions. (See article: IIAA 2000: Big I president asks PIA to reenter merger talks.)
PIA's Arneson said, "We are, of course, disappointed because many professional insurance agents from Illinois are active in PIA and make great contributions to the betterment of our industry.
"PIA remains firmly committed to continuing to provide the best value for our members to help them grow and perpetuate their businesses," his statement said. "It is what we have done for 69 years, and it is what we will continue to do."