BIG “I” HELPS SECURE CHANGES IN CROP INSURANCE AGREEMENT
Association’s work will help facilitate customers’ claims
WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 21, 2005—The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (the Big “I”), the nation’s largest insurance association, has helped secure important, pro-consumer revisions to the Risk Management Agency’s (RMA) policy governing crop insurance.
After persistent advocacy for farmers by the Big “I”, RMA released its latest version of a provision in the Standard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA) governing conflicts of interest in loss adjusting. The Big “I” worked with RMA to loosen a “gag order” that would have prevented agents from answering claim questions from farmers while loss adjusters assessed damages.
During a meeting in Kansas City with RMA officials regarding fraud, waste and abuse in the crop insurance program, The Big “I” was presented with data showing that fewer than 5 percent of more than 1.2 million crop insurance policies are considered fraudulent.
“The association used this positive development to underscore that farmers with claims need to be able to talk to their agents, because many of them do not know their claims adjustors and need timely and reliable sources of information when their livelihoods are at stake,” says Robert Fulwider, Big “I” Executive Committee member and President of Wuestenberg Agency Inc. in West Liberty, Iowa.
“It is completely unrealistic to expect agents to remain silent when farmers call them seeking important information about their claims,” says Fulwider. “Many farmers have established longstanding relationships with their insurance agents and rely on those agents in times of need, and failure to get needed information can have serious consequences for these consumers.”
The revised policy advocated by the Big “I” and adopted by RMA will allow for more flexibility in communication, giving agents the ability they have historically enjoyed to serve as a much-need conduit between the farmer and the loss adjuster. This new rule allows for all parties to use the most efficient methods for delivering information needed to best deal with losses.
The association will continue working with RMA on its data-mining initiative, scheduled to run out of funding next year. This needs to be reauthorized, perhaps by asking Congress to divert the funds from the Premium Reduction Plan.
“The data-mining initiative reflects what the Big ‘I’ has been saying all along—that agents are providing the best possible service to the farming community and are a tremendous asset to the Federal Crop Insurance Program,” says Patrick O’Brien, Big “I” director of federal government affairs. “The data clearly shows that this program is helping save taxpayer dollars, while the PRP is bad policy for American farmers. The funding would be better used for the data-mining program.”
Founded in 1896, the Big “I” 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 products. Web address: www.independentagent.com.
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