Turning 35: The National Alliance Looks Back … and Into the Future

Insurance education society has served more than 130,000 participants.

1969. It was the dawning of the age of Aquarius, it was one giant leap for mankind, it was the Summer of Love, it was Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida, baby. And, it was the birth of the Certified Insurance Counselors (CIC) program.

There is a saying that goes something like, “If you can remember the ’60s you weren’t really there.” That may be true for some of us, but after all, eventually the hippies did cut off all their hair, turned into yuppies, invested in high tech and the stock market, and many of them went into the insurance business.

Thirty-five years after its founding the Society of Certified Insurance Counselors, the cornerstone of what is now The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research, is still going strong. If the National Alliance’s recent anniversary celebration–its “Megabration,” held in Dallas in mid-October–is any indication, it is as young and vibrant as ever.

Back in September 1969, Dr. William T. Hold, an insurance professor at the University of Texas, and a small group of independent insurance agents dedicated to advancing their profession through education, developed a program for teaching high-level insurance topics to Texas agents. After a year of classes, the CIC program in 1970 conferred upon its first group of students, 11 of them in all, their CIC designations.

As of 2004, some 26,000 insurance professionals have earned the right to place “CIC” after their names. Through the years, the National Alliance has added Certified Insurance Service Representative (CISR) and Certified Risk Management (CRM) designations. Today, there are more than 18,000 CISRs and 1,000-plus CRMs. More than 130,000 insurance professionals have participated in National Alliance programs; it delivers in excess of 2,000 of them a year. Although based in Austin, Texas, the National Alliance serves insurance professionals nationwide and even internationally.

With his shock of thick white hair, Hold may look a little different than he did at the age of 27 when he established the Society/National Alliance. But his fervor for the business/art/science of insurance has not seemed to wane. Introducing Hold as the “heart and soul of the National Alliance,” Phillip R. Fierro, chairman of the National Alliance Board of Directors and chief operating officer of Van Gilder Insurance Corporation in Denver, Colo., expressed his amazement that Hold “has stayed at the head of the organization for 35 years. And I think the most impressive thing is that he does it with focus, energy, enthusiasm and a continuing vision of what started in September of 1969. That is absolutely phenomenal. He’s really led the National Alliance into being the premier educational experience in our industry.”

Hold said one of the interesting aspects of remaining in his position with the National Alliance for such a long time is “that a lot of people don’t know what to make of you when they see you. People will come up to me and say ‘I never thought you really existed.’ … [Or] they think I’m relegated to a wheelchair.”

Noting while 35 years represents more than half of his own life, Hold speculated that many of the conferees and meeting attendees in the room “weren’t even born 35 years ago.” He added that although 35 years may seem like a long time, “however long I or you think 35 years is, it was all put into a different perspective for me at a meeting I attended last week at which Mikhail Gorbachev was the speaker. … He said he had been to a summit meeting with Premier Chou En-Lai of China. And at that summit meeting there was a French delegation and a member of the French delegation asked Premier Chou what he thought the impact of the French revolution was. Chou En-Lai thought about it for a moment and replied, ‘I think it’s simply too early to tell.'”

Hold said the goal of the National Alliance for the past 35 years has been to “provide excellent programs with actual value for … insurance and risk manager practitioners.” Illustrating the success of the programs, he noted, is evidence of the increased market value of CIC-owned agencies.

“In the year 2002-2003, CIC-owned agencies wrote $45 billion in commercial lines insurance in the United States,” Hold said. “And 43 percent of all commercial lines written in this country are written by agencies that are CIC-owned businesses. Recent studies have shown that agents with CIC earn 26 percent more income than agents that do not have the designation. And when we look at the top 100 agents and brokers in this country, we find that 93 of the top 100 are participating in CIC, 94 of the top 100 are CSRs and 87 of the top 100 are CRMs.”

CSRs of the Year
In addition to conferring designations to new CICs, CRMs and CISRs, one highlight of the ceremony was the presentation of the awards for the 2004 Texas Outstanding CSR of the Year and the 2004 National Outstanding CSR of the Year.

Keri Morris, marketing director for Legacy Texas Insurance Services in Plano was named the top CSR for Texas, and Ruth E. Phillips, customer service representative for Morrell Agency Inc. in Magnolia, Miss., received the award for the outstanding national CSR.

In introducing the winners, Hold said the awards were created to underscore the importance of CSRs and the “fact that they have an impact on the profitability and value of the agency.” The awards are based on the contributions made by the individuals to their agencies, as well as a 1,000-word essay on four ways a CSR can help or hinder their agency. A panel independent of the National Alliance selected the award winners. Prizes include a $1,000 check and a scholarship for the winner’s agency.

In addition to receiving the award for the outstanding CSR for Texas, Morris was one of the top five finalists for the national prize. She’s been in the insurance business for 10 years and holds the designation of CIC, CISR and ACSR. “Her essay was very interesting and was focused on retaining clients with four things: professionalism, attitude, responsibility and knowledge,” Hold said. The acronym is PARK. What she wants is for those clients to park in that agency.”

In accepting her award, Morris offered her congratulations to Phillips as the national award winner, and accepted her prize on “behalf of the entire staff of Legacy Texas Insurance, because I’m one part of an outstanding team,” she said.

Recalling how at one time CSRs were referred to as the “gals in the office,” Hold said insurance professionals often used to “talk about CSRs in somewhat the same fashion they talked about Dixie cups and typewriter ribbons. You know, if you use them up you get another one. No big deal.”

Introducing Phillips, Hold said, “We all know that CSRs are a big deal.” He added that in her essay, “Phillips eloquently described CSRs as the heart of their agency. A weak heart often means heart attacks, strokes and maybe paralysis. And the end result is that you may be out of business or in the best of cases permanently confined to a financial wheelchair. And she writes that through service and knowledge and trust and personality, CSRs can provide the physical and mental heart to be successful even in the most challenging of times.”

Phillips, who also holds CISR and CPIW designations, was previously named the top CSR for Mississippi in 2001. She said she “wouldn’t be here tonight if it weren’t for my mentor, Kerry Morrell.” Admitting that she “didn’t know anything” when she started in the insurance business, Phillips said it was because of Morrell’s mentoring that she began taking classes.

“So I want to encourage everyone here tonight, all the new people who have been conferred to go back to your offices and agencies and to mentor someone and encourage them to learn,” she said.

Summing up the importance of the conferees’ successes, Hold said, “Ignorance can make cowards and servants of us all. And when we get home we’re going to be asked to travel on a little different road. Because now we have been recognized for our achievements and we’re going to be asked to travel a road that’s probably on a higher level. We’re going to be asked to travel at greater speed. … This evening we truly have an alliance of purpose, an alliance of minds and an alliance of spirit.”