NEW JERSEY’S AHART, MISSISSIPPI STATE ASSOCIATION HONORED WITH AWARDS AT BIG “I” LEGISLATIVE EVENT
Honors Bestowed for Outstanding Leadership on Legislative Issues
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 25, 2005—Tom Ahart, chairman of the State Government Affairs Committee of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (the Big “I”) and past president of the association, has received the association’s highest individual government affairs honor—the Sidney O. Smith Award. Additionally, the Independent Insurance Agents of Mississippi (IIAM) was awarded the Maurice G. Herndon Award, the highest government affairs award for a state association.
The presentations occurred Friday during a breakfast session at the 29th annual Big “I” National Legislative Conference, which took place last week in the nation’s capital.
Ahart, CPCU, AAI, president of Ahart, Frinzi & Smith in Phillipsburg, N.J., was honored for his outstanding leadership on state and national legislative issues. In that role, he has helped lead the association’s activities on legislative issues affecting all independent agents and brokers. He has advocated continuing and modernizing state regulation of insurance, and has worked on credit scoring, agent licensing reform, rate reform, and numerous other issues. As chairman of the State Government Affairs Committee, he has testified numerous times before Congress on an array of issues, before the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and other state based organizations.
“Tom Ahart’s contributions to independent agencies and the independent agency system are too long to list. He is a tireless advocate for agent positions and causes,” says IIABA President Thomas A. Grau. “He has been at the fore in pushing agent legislative issues, and he is recognized as incredibly effective in advocating among our regulators and those decision makers who can effect the future of the agency system. Our members owe him a great deal of gratitude for his outstanding efforts, and this award is well-deserved.”
IIAM received the Herndon Award for its outstanding leadership in pushing through comprehensive legal-reform legislation in the State of Mississippi. The legislation, passed with the strong support of Gov. Haley Barbour, is expected to help improve the legal climate for businesses in a state formerly known for its plaintiff-friendly court system.
“The enactment of legal reform in Mississippi is one of the most significant legislative triumphs for independent insurance agents and brokers that we have seen in recent years,” says Big “I” CEO Robert A. Rusbuldt. “The efforts of the Independent Insurance Agents of Mississippi in moving this much-needed legislation were nothing short of heroic, and IIAM certainly has earned this merited recognition. The entire state association, led by State Association Executive Clinton Graham, deserve tremendous credit for the yeoman’s work they did in getting this crucial legislation enacted. In addition, IIAM always makes its InsurPac goals and has a very effective grassroots network at both the state and federal levels. This association has true political and legislative leadership and acumen at both the staff and volunteer leader levels.”
The Smith Award is bestowed annually by the Big “I” and the Independent Insurance Agents of Georgia upon an individual agent or broker for outstanding service to his or her peers and the national association in the field of government affairs. It is named in honor of an IIABA past president and Georgia agent who was instrumental in focusing the Association and its members on legislative advocacy.
Also awarded annually by the Big “I”, the Herndon Award is bestowed upon the state association whose legislative achievements the previous year on behalf of IIABA and its members have been deemed most outstanding. The honor is named after the former head of IIABA’s government affairs operation. Herndon, who died in January 2003 at age 91, directed the Association’s Washington D.C. office from 1949 to 1976 and was known as “Mr. Washington” to agents and brokers across America. He is fondly remembered as an extremely effective leader of the Big “I” government affairs and grassroots operations.
Founded in 1896, IIABA (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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