(DeWitt, New York, Oct. 7, 2013) — The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York (IIABNY) has again received honors for its work in insurance education. It accepted the 2013 Excellence in Insurance Education (EIE) Diamond Award from the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA) at a ceremony in San Antonio, Texas last month. This is the ninth time that IIABNY has received the award and the third consecutive year.
The EIE awards celebrate and recognize state insurance producer associations and staff for significant contributions to education for their members and the industry. They honor work in the key areas of:
· Class offerings
· Continuing education (CE)
· Professionalism
· Designation offerings
· Industry collaboration
· Planning goals
· Marketing
· Resources
Judges score each entrant based on a state’s overall educational offerings in several areas and a short essay describing its programs.
IIABNY offers insurance agents and brokers a wide variety of classroom and online courses for continuing education credit. New York insurance law requires agents and brokers to take at least 15 hours of continuing education every two years in order to renew their licenses.
“We are very happy to once again receive the Excellence in Insurance Education Diamond Award,” said IIABNY Assistant Vice President of Education Kathy Lawler, AAI, CIC. “IIABNY seeks to provide the highest quality educational events for New York insurance producers. To receive this recognition on a national level is a genuine honor.”
IIABNY’s current lineup of courses includes:
· Mandatory training for producers who wish to sell flood insurance policies
· The certification course for producers to obtain coverage through New York’s plan for drivers who have been rejected by insurance companies for auto insurance
· A course on how producers can reduce their risk of facing lawsuits for their errors and omissions
· A course on recent changes to standard business liability insurance policy forms
· Several online courses on topics ranging from social media in the workplace to issues with insuring condominiums to disaster preparedness.
IIABNY has been a leader this year in offering health insurance exchange certification courses. Producers must take and pass these courses if they wish to participate in the New York’s new health insurance marketplace, New York State of Health. The association has provided the course for the small business marketplace in several locations throughout the state. It has scheduled dates for the individual marketplace course in six locations through October.
The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York, Inc. has represented the common business interests of independent insurance professionals since 1882. More than 1,750 agencies and their 13,000 plus employees currently rely on the DeWitt, New York-based not-for-profit trade association for legislative advocacy, continuing education and other means of industry support. In addition, most IIABNY members proudly identify themselves as Trusted Choice® agents and brokers, a national consumer brand uniting more than 21,000 independent agencies across the United States. For more information, go to www.trustedchoice.com or www.iiabny.org.