ALEXANDRIA, Va., August 19, 2009 - InVEST, the insurance industry’s premier classroom to career education program, recently appointed Bob Betters, ARM, CIC, to its national board.
“InVEST is pleased to have Bob Betters join our already distinguished team on the InVEST board,” says Patrick Moore, chair of the National InVEST board of directors and principal of Antalek & Moore, an independent agency in Beacon, N.Y. “With more than 60% of the insurance industry’s employees over the age of 45, the need to find new talent becomes more apparent each year. Bob is a pioneer and a workhorse who has already made tremendous strides toward achieving and implementing InVEST’s mission.”
In the fall semester of 2004, Bob started an InVEST program at Charlotte Catholic High School where he continues to be an active teacher and mentor. Betters is the 2006 recipient of the InVEST program’s Dach Award, which honors an insurance industry volunteer who has made tremendous contributions to fostering the growth and development of InVEST. The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of North Carolina awarded him the 2008 Ernest F. Young Education Award for his dedication to the state’s InVEST program.
“InVEST is important not only to the future of the independent agency system, but to the insurance industry as a whole,” says Robert Rusbuldt, Big “I” president & CEO. “Survey results from the ‘Agency Universe Study’ by Future One (a collaboration of the Big “I” and leading independent agency companies) pointed to InVEST as the future of the industry, with 56% of respondents stating that the insurance industry should encourage high schools and community colleges to help students plan for insurance careers. Educators, company representatives, volunteers and agents, like Bob Betters, are key to the success of this program.”
Bob Betters is with the Watson Insurance Agency, a third generation agency in Gastonia that is now one of the largest privately owned agencies in North Carolina. Betters is originally from western New York. He attended Valley Forge Military Academy and earned his bachelor’s degree at Pfeiffer College. Betters spent four years at the Pfeiffer admission department before starting his career in the insurance industry as a multi-line adjuster in 1980. In 1982 he migrated to the commercial sales side of the business. Bob’s wife, Susan, also works in the industry as a workers’ compensation adjuster. They have two children and two grandchildren.
As a 501(c)(3) educational trust, InVEST benefits from the support of numerous insurance organizations, hundreds of agencies, brokers and volunteers. The program provides the insurance industry with motivated, talented and intelligent professionals through a support structure of state associations, board members, national staff, teachers and the many industry professionals who work in the field as classroom liaisons.
Founded in 1970 and based in Alexandria, Va., InVEST promotes insurance education in order to attract individuals to pursue a career in the insurance industry. Each year, the program prepares thousands of students for insurance-related careers with a hands-on curriculum taught in high schools, adult education centers and community colleges. The high school curriculum is a business-education program that utilizes a hands-on approach which simulates an insurance agency and company operations to prepare students for various business careers and create more knowledgeable insurance consumers. At the college level, InVEST is an information-intensive curriculum of risk management and financial services. These courses provide students with a working knowledge of the basics needed to pursue careers in the insurance industry. For more information, go to www.investprogram.org.
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, health, employee benefit plans and retirement products. Web address: www.independentagent.com.
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