Special Section sponsored by TMPAA

TMPAA—A Unique Resource for Program Specialists

The art of establishing alliances.
Making connections and building relationships.
A group of like-minded business people gathering to help each other.
Creating business opportunities.

Each of the above definitions serves as an apt description for the same activity. Perhaps you can add your own appropriate wording—for “networking.”

Networking. Several Target Markets Program Administrators Association (TMPAA) members were recently queried about the advantages they receive from, and can offer to, fellow TMPAA members. Networking is the word that invariably leads off their extensive list of benefits available to the TMPAA members in the association’s three principal categories: program administrators, carriers, and vendors.

A vivid example of the importance of networking to TMPAA’s membership is this comment from Ira Dawer, president of Synergy Professional Associates, a program administrator in Kennelson, New Jersey. “It’s [TMPAA] an organization that’s extraordinarily good for networking at all levels, from the market vendors through the carriers to the producers, the program managers. The relationships I’ve made through the association are invaluable to us at Synergy Professional Associates. We’ve worked with several of the vendors over and over again—well beyond first meeting them at Target Markets conventions.”

Dawer noted that he initially learned of the association’s Best Practices program at a recent TMPAA convention, and he has high hopes of Synergy Professional Associates earning the official Best Practice Designation. “When you apply and prepare for the Best Practice Designation a great deal of information must be studied and digested. But the time allotted is not at all onerous. I find the process to be energizing.

“All in all,” continued Dawer, “what I especially like about Target Markets is the fact that it’s uniquely dedicated to program managers such as myself. It’s an excellent forum for meeting the particular interests of those of us in the MGA world. And as for networking, that’s almost the association’s by-word. Why, just look at the convention agenda each year: the networking luncheon. A networking golf outing. Networking receptions. A networking breakfast. The networking lounge is open every day. I’ve been a Target Markets member for five years. And when you get right down to it, I find that it’s the networking opportunities that make this association so worthwhile. There might be a more profound way to say it, but Target Markets is a pretty darn good organization.”

Robert E. Mackoul, CEO of the Mackoul Group of Companies headquartered in Long Beach, New York, shares similar sentiments. Mackoul’s New Empire Group is a program administrator specializing in high-limit umbrellas for the real estate and hospitality industries. “Values that networking at Target Markets summits and mid-year conferences have brought to me and New Empire Group are really impossible to calculate and quantify,” said Mackoul. “How do you put a value on the fact that I can pick up a phone and call numerous insurance carrier executives who I got to know during repeated meetings and discussions at Target Markets? The same holds true for the MGAs who attend. While the community of program managers and companies is growing, our annual meetings and seminars are comfortably small enough for the format to allow carrier executives and MGAs to get to know each other in a setting that’s very focused, vibrant, intense, and yet social.

“The friendships and credibility built by my visits to Target Markets meetings have generated enormous results for me and my firms. They’ve put me and New Empire Group in a sphere that the average retail, wholesale or program manager cannot fathom and perhaps will never achieve. Our company has become a national firm with strong relationships on many levels with sister MGAs and with various carriers (regardless of whether or not we have program partnerships with them). We could never have built these relationships in a lifetime without Target Markets and the strong leadership of its Executive Director Ray Scotto.”

ARA Insurance Services of Kansas City, Missouri, insures equipment rental dealers. ARA’s clients serve contractors, do it yourself practitioners, and event planners whose equipment can range from road graders and backhoes to boom lifts, tents, and tables—high risk operations which the insurance industry often avoided in the past. ARA operates as a program manager, which needs stable markets for its clients.

Aligning with business partners who understand ARA’s needs and values as a program administrator is critical to the company’s success. “Target Markets,” according to Phil Kelling, ARA’s president and CEO, “is the only forum I am aware of where we can meet the types of companies and service vendors we need. It’s also the only venue that enables us to share our knowledge—and to learn from other program managers.

“Unfortunately, in today’s changing market,” continued Kelling, “we must be alert and ready to replace a business partner if the need arises. The Target Markets conferences allow us to build contacts and showcase our program without threatening our existing relationships. Without this venue it would be very expensive and time consuming to search for the right contacts and the right companies.

“The Benchmark Report and the Best Practice program are added values to our membership in the TMPAA,” said Kelling. “Where else can you find benchmarks against which you can measure yourself? Only with these Target Markets programs can you gain recognition for what you do right.”

Margaret Zechlin, vice president of programs at Swett & Crawford in San Francisco, California, can speak from two angles about Target Markets’ values to its membership. She was a carrier official when she joined TMPAA, but operates now as a program administrator. She speaks with enthusiasm about TMPAA from both vantage points, “In both capacities, I have found the association to be unparalleled in the benefits it offers to its members and vendor partners.”

Ms. Zechlin lauds Target Markets for its recognition of the needs of each distinct constituency. “For example,” she notes, “at annual conventions carriers have the opportunity to present their current program appetite, data requirements, and strategies to attendees. Having all these program-dedicated carriers concentrated in one place expedites the marketing of your program. And it affords program administrators an opportunity to compare carriers and identify those that best meet their needs.

“Every agency and company that join TMPAA and attend its conventions are focused on program business. Given the cyclical nature of our industry, the ability to network with other insurance professionals is critical. Target Markets is sensitive to this need, and offers numerous opportunities to facilitate the exchange of ideas. On that score, the association also publishes a directory which is an invaluable source for identifying cross-selling opportunities.”

It’s clear that Margaret Zechlin’s analysis of the benefits, values, opportunities and advantages that TMPAA members receive mirrors the viewpoints expressed by Ira Dawer, Bob Mackoul, Phil Kelling and dozens of other program managers, carriers, and vendors who value their Target Markets Program Administrators Association membership. Zechlin might very well have been speaking for all of them when she summarized her observations this way, “I am glad I am a member of the Target Markets Association. It has helped me in the past, and I know it will help me in the future.” *