Brooklyn born agency veteran will chair 127 year old Association

When Lane Rubin lifted his hand to take the oath of office as chair of the Independent Insurance Agent and Brokers Association of New York on Thursday the 14th of May at the Garden City Hotel, the Brooklyn born insurance veteran took upon himself the lifting of prospects for both the 127 year old association and its members.

Not a small task.

Lane Rubin, who has been in the insurance business for 31 years, and owns and operates EXCEL Coverage Group LLC faces some daunting challenges within the association and, more importantly, those faced by its members. In a weakened economy and a soft market, an infectious sense of inertia and economic slowdown threaten to create malaise within the walls of the Syracuse based enterprise and within the agencies that are owned by its 2,000 members.

Tough job in touch times.

In an interview with the Chairman Elect, Mr. Rubin identified for us several areas of pressing concern, the leading one being the association model itself as a functioning organ going forward into the 21st century. Mr. Rubin, who is a fan of the potential for creating a relationship between PIANY and IIABNY, whether a cooperative effort or a deeper, more profound consolidation, will reach out to Glenmonts leadership to find economies of scale and other potential areas of mutuality. Rubin looks to this as typical of the ways the association needs to look to the needs and views of the next generation for its model. More and more agencies call for customized care he said. We need to get out and listen to our agent members and conform the association more dramatically to our fellow owners to reflect their interests and needs. Im talking about future independent insurance agents, Im talking about future owners, and Im talking about agents who are looking to consolidate or to prepare for transition over to the next generation of owners, he stated.

According to Mr. Rubin, a concentration upon younger agents or what he calls the Millennial generation, is a centerpiece of his focus. Younger agents and younger professionals work and live in a world where text messaging, twittering, and other words like it - which used to be pejoratives to us-are their means of communicating. We need to look at social networking and its impact on agency communications and client relations as well as a host of other technological advances, if we plan to serve the next generation effectively.

On the legislative front, the producer disclosure matter is an example of how cooperation and good clear communicating can be effective in serving our members best interests, he said. We are now looking at proposals for CE credits; we need to get our position over to legislators coherently, cogently and quickly, he said.

On the education side, we are looking at webinars, video casts and additional kinds of electronic communicating, to reach members most efficiently, as the agency scheduling has grown to be a harrowing experience and as consumer demand of agents rises in this market, he stated.

Another point we need to look at is the whole role of volunteerism as it affects the association and as it affects our members presence in their communities. We would like very much to explore this so that we can interest others in joining in the processes of local association, state association, and national association leadership, Mr. Rubin told us.

These are some of the areas of concern underlined in our interview. There are other and deeper concerns as relate to the associations member retention and services package, from its insurance offerings and educational offerings to communications and legislative participation. This past year the IIABNY tried a new concept, and that was having all its members attend a Capital event surrounding the associations annual L-Day. According to most, the event was a success and serves as a good focal point for member involvement in the legislative process. According to Mr. Rubin, this is being planned for next year as well, and will draw, hopefully, the same kind of attendance, from the governor and legislators to department members, as it did this year: We look forward to sustaining our legislative presence and expanding the number of volunteers involved during my year. I am pleased to be working with a board that is most professional and with a long standing professional staff that has rolled with the punches in and out of markets. At present our members are running faster just to stay in place in this soft market and so our expectations need to be geared to that and lead us to create interest in legislative and committee participation, he said.

Asked about what measures he would use to determine whether or not his year was successful, he looked to several benchmarks including use of technology by agents, the increase in the turn out at the Capital event, and a careful look at the association model itself.

About Lane Rubin

Born in Brooklyn, NY, Rubin who is 56, attended Brooklyn College where he was a baseball star. He got into the insurance business after entering a training program at MONY and has spent the last 31-years as an independent insurance agent after joining the Fortune agency in Valley Stream. He bought the present agency 11 years ago and has grown it to a 10 person agency. Unlike many agencies today, 25% of the firms revenues come from employee benefits.

Active locally, Lane is an avid golfer and sustains an agenda of volunteerism himself. When asked about the sacrifice he protracted for his year as chairman he felt that about 20 hours a week was an accurate gauge i.e. permanent part-timeyet full timejob.

His outlook is optimistic, his preparedness is strong, and his love of the business unflinching. [IA]