By now your agency should have re-ceived information on dues renewal for 2017. Your renewal kit contains an ex-planation of the dues structure and an estimate of your 2017 dues based on the number of employees we have on file for your agency.

This year, we have extended the dues renewal discount date until Monday, January 13th. So remember, if you pay your Insurors membership renewal fee in full and by check on or before January 13th, you are eligible for a 5% discount.

If you have not received your renewal, or if you need another copy, please con-tact Ashley Gold at agold@insurors.org or Colleen Vance at cvance@insurors.org.

owner’s failure to obtain proof of finan-cial responsibility (proof of insurance or POI) then the owner must provide POI before being allowed to reinstate the registration.

The JLA law does NOT require POI prior to initial or annual registration of a vehicle, nor will it require POI for registration beginning January 1 as some news outlets have reported. Tennessee drivers have always been re-quired to carry insurance, and to have POI if stopped for a moving violation or involved in an accident. The law also permits, but does not require, law enforcement to tow a vehicle failing to provide POI at the time of an official traffic stop.

At the end of the meeting, Rep. Lamberth thanked the insurance group, clerks and law enforcement for working together to ensure passage and implementation of this bill. Although some further modifi-cations to law may be taking place, it is still important for Tennesseans to have the correct info on the current changes.

volume 16-24 • thursday • december 22, 2016

Insurors of TennesseeWeb: www.insurors.orgPh: 615.385.1898 or 800.264.1898Fx: 615.385.9303E-mail: info@insurors.org

© 2016 Insurors of Tennessee. All rights reserved. For Members Only. Page 1 of 4

BULLETINYOUR ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER

New TN Auto Insurance Law is MisunderstoodIn 2015 the Tennessee General Assem-bly passed the “James Lee Atwood Jr.” (JLA) law with the purpose of develop-ing and implementing an efficient insur-ance verification program utilizing an online verification system for auto in-surance.

Last week Insurors met with insurance stakeholders, Revenue officials and the sponsors of the law for an update on where implementation of the new law stands. The verification database will go online Tuesday, January 3, 2017. The goal of the new law is to reduce the num-ber of uninsured motorists on the road in Tennessee.

The Department of Revenue, in conjunc-tion with Sen. Bill Ketron and Rep. Wil-liam Lamberth, have filed a bill for the 109th General Assembly beginning in January to make a few minor modifica-tions to the law. The most distinct modi-fication will modify the reinstatement section of the law. Under the proposal, if a motor vehicle registration is suspended or revoked under the JLA law due to the

Receive Dues Renewal Discount Now Thru 1/13

Photo courtesy Flickr/TN National Guardcc

2017 Continuing Education Paving The Way

INSURORS.ORG

The 2017 Agency Growth Conference will take place on March 8-9, 2017 at the Hilton in downtown Knoxville. We will be releasing more details and open-ing registration in January. Guest speak-ers will include Chris Langille, Founder of Advisor Evolved and contributor for Agency Nation, as well as Carl Cana-les, VP and Regional General Manager of Safeco. Save the dates on your calen-dar now!

Save the Date for 2017 Agency Growth 3/8-9

Bulletin Vol. 16-24 December 22, 2016

© 2016 Insurors of Tennessee. All rights reserved. For Members Only. Page 2 of 4

Does your agency need to collect pay-ments and signatures in the same agree-ment process? DocuSign, the eSignature partner of the Big "I", has announced its latest innovation: DocuSign Payments.

Slated for release early next year and supported by Apple, Google and Au-thorize.net – DocuSign Payments saves time and effort by providing a fast and easy way to collect payments and signa-tures in just one step. "We process a large number of transactions – and whenever we can reduce the number of processing steps, our customer service and profit-ability improve," said Insurors member Rob Martinek, principal of Martinek In-surance Services in Nashville.

For more info, visit http://esign.docu-sign.com/payments.

DocuSign Adds Payment Option to eSignatures

The Great Smoky Mountain Chapter of the CPCU Society will host a luncheon on Thursday, January 26th from 11:45 am - 1 pm EST at the Rothchild Con-ference Center in Knoxville. The guest speaker will be Big "I" Virtual Univer-sity Director Bill Wilson, who will dis-cuss "The Additional Insured Illusion."

Please contact Holly Letson at holly_let-son@cinfin.com for more information.

Great Smoky Mtn CPCU Chapter Luncheon 1/26

Get Marketing Dollars w/ Trusted Choice in '17The new 2017 Trusted Choice Market-ing Reimbursement Program guidelines are now available. In order to deliver the brand experience to your customers con-sistent with Trusted Choice, the brand will reimburse a portion of expenses in-curred in 2017 by member agencies (all Insurors member agencies are Trusted Choice agencies) in co-branding adver-tising and marketing materials; and in creating or updating a digital presence to include the Trusted Choice logo, link to the Trusted Choice website and Pledge of Performance.

This is not meant to replace your agen-cy’s brand, but to complement it by in-cluding the Trusted Choice branding in your marketing efforts. Reimbursement will only be made for use of the TrustedChoice logo.

Agencies that have multiple locations can apply for each location separately, however, materials submitted for reim-bursement to be paid or credited to an agency’s branch location must be shown to pertain to the branch location being credited with the expense. Items that pertain to multiple locations can be sub-mitted on one application, with agency locations to be credited noted under “Additional comments.”

There are limited funds available; there-fore, Trusted Choice will offer reim-bursements on a first-come first-served basis until funds allocated to the MRP are exhausted. Provided funds are still available, you have through February 2018 to submit materials invoiced in 2017.

To learn more, or to apply, please down-load the guidelines at http://www.insur-ors.org/pdf/MRPguidelines_2017.pdf. If you are unsure about an item or use of the logo, or want to get pre-approval of an item or proof prior to printing, email us at Trused.Choice@iiaba.net. Then, fill out the application and submit it.

Big "I" Markets For Your Small Commercial BizWhen members hear about the recently expanded small commercial markets available on Big "I" Markets, they often have a pleasantly surprised response of, "Oh, really?"

Yes, really! With CNA and Travelers Se-lect as available carriers in Tennessee, Big "I" Markets can cover more com-mercial risks than ever. On top of that they've added excess and surplus lines through Gridiron and small contractors through RLI/CBIC.

Here is a summary of the new product line-up:

Small Commercial Standard Markets

• Travelers Select® Travelers Select Ac-counts offers a robust variety of cover-ages for small businesses. A proprietary BOP product, Master Pac®, Workers' Compensation, Commercial Automo-bile, and Commercial Umbrella are available, with a broad array of industry-specific coverage options and coverage extensions. Travelers is available in all states except AK, FL, HI, LA, RI & TX.• CNA Small Business CNA Small Business currently offers a market for a broad variety of businesses, represent-ing Healthcare, Financial Institutions, Professional Services, Business Ser-vices, Technology, Retail, Real Estate, Wholesalers and Manufacturing. BOP, Workers Compensation, Commercial Automobile, and Umbrella and Miscella-neous Professional Liability products are available. CNA is available in all states except AK & HI.

Small Contractors Market

RLI/CBIC designed to meet the needs of small to medium-sized artisan and gen-eral contractors specializing in residen-tial and light commercial projects. RLI/CBIC available in AZ, CA, ID, MT, ND, NM, NV, OR, TN, TX, WA, WY.

To learn more or submit a contractors risk, select "Small Contractors Market" from the product menu. CBIC Contrac-tor Application (located in the Product Resources section) and 3 year loss runs required.

The new markets are live! Visit http://www.bigimarkets.com to learn more or sign your agency up today. If you have any questions, please contact Big "I" Markets Commercial Underwriter Tom Spires at tom.spires@iiaba.net or call 703.647.7800.

Bulletin Vol. 16-24 December 22, 2016

© 2016 Insurors of Tennessee. All rights reserved. For Members Only. Page 3 of 4

2017 Continuing Education

Nashville 2/28 CISR Commercial Casualty I

5/3-5 CIC Commercial Property

6/13 CISR Personal Residential

7/20-21 CIC Ruble

9/13-15 CIC Commercial Casualty

11/1-3 CIC Company Operations

11/7 CISR Personal Lines

Memphis 3/1 CISR Commercial Casualty I

3/15-17 CIC Commercial Multiline

6/14 CISR Personal Residential

11/8 CISR Personal Lines

Knoxville4/6 CISR Agency Ops

8/16-18 Agency Management

10/3 CISR Personal Auto

Johnson City4/5 CISR Agency Ops

10/4 CISR Personal Auto

Chattanooga 4/4 CISR Agency Ops10/5 CISR Commercial Casualty II

Paving The Way

Bulletin Vol. 16-24 December 22, 2016

© 2016 Insurors of Tennessee. All rights reserved. For Members Only. Page 4 of 4

Receive Big "I" Markets Commission Thru EFTAgents writing business through Big "I" Markets receive commission on their policies one of two ways:

1. Quarterly (September, December, March and June) via paper check, or

2. Monthly via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)

Have you signed your agency up for EFT? It’s easy to do from the Big "I" Markets website, but only a user with System Admin or Organizational Ad-min roles can update your registration. Don’t know who that is? Call Big "I" Markets at 703.647.7800.

Want to sign up now?:

1. Gather your banking and related in-formation:a. Bank account number and rout-ing numberb. Tax ID (to be sure it hasn’t changed from when you first regis-tered for BIM)c. Email address of the person to re-ceive commission statements

2. Now, go to www.bigimarkets.com and click on “Register/Update EFT Commission Deposits” in the upper right area of the screen.

3. Enter your user credentials and se-lect ‘Login’a. Verify/Update your agency in-formation on the first page (Step 1). Click Update or Nextb. Verify/Enter Federal Tax ID and related questions on Step 2c. Enter information indicated under EFT Informationd. Click ‘Next’ to save the infor-mation.

You may exit the online registration af-ter this step and your EFT sign up will be complete. However, we encourage you to continue and verify all of the information for your agency, including adding any new users or changes to your account.

Update to Changes on WC Minimum PremiumAs we reported previously, in Orders dated November 1, 2016, the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insur-ance approved an overall decrease in the workers' compensation loss cost of 12.8% and an increase in the assigned risk plan LCM from 1.66 to 1.70. Both changes will be effective March 1, 2017 and will apply to new and renewal policies.

At the same time NCCI filed for the loss costs and LCM, it included in its filing a request to increase the minimum pre-miums for many class codes from $800 to $1,250 and the current assigned risk minimum premium multiplier from 158 to 200. The filing noted that an analysis for all NCCI states show that the collec-tive loss ratio experience for minimum premium policies is comparatively worse than that observed for risks of larger pre-mium sizes.

The filing also proposed an expense con-stant of $160, which is a decrease from the currently approved $215 expense constant. The expense constant repre-sents a per policy fee intended to ensure equity among policyholders by recog-nizing economies of scale.

You can find the class codes affect-ed by this change on 3-1-17 at www.insurors.org/pdf/WCAssignedRisk-Rates3-1-2017.pdf

The "Power of 30 Sec." Phone Sales StrategyThe first 30 seconds of any inbound sales call sets the tone for the entire customer experience. In that short time, agencies can either earn valuable new business or portray themselves unfavorably among potential clients.

Trusted Choice® aims to help mem-bers make those seconds count with The Power of 30 Seconds™, an online training tool designed to help you con-vert inbound sales calls into clients. The program coaches agents on creating and managing an inbound sales process for their agencies, training them on how to:

• Establish an effective call workflow.• Provide a positive customer experi-

ence.• Manage phone system automation.

Members can also earn a certificate of completion by testing their knowledge with a post-training quiz. Take the "Power of 30 Seconds" training by vis-iting http://tc.iiaba.net/powerof30sec-onds/index.html or view "8 Action-able Tactics to Boost Your Phone Sales Game' featuring Ashley Fisher of Ruby Receptionists and Sydney Roe of Trust-edChoice.com at https://www.agencyna-tion.com/phone-call/

The Tennessee Court of Workers’ Com-pensation Claims has put together an on-line blog chronicling the decisions and updates related to workers' comp cases in Tennessee. You can also view the up-coming court calendar and read FAQs about the work comp court process in Tennessee.

View the blog now at https://tncourtofw-cclaims.wordpress.com/

Workers' Comp Court Produces Online Blog

Please note, no money is drafted from your account for return commission as that is handled via a paper invoice mailed to your agency. So, they’ll put money in but not take money out.

We know security of your information is a primary concern. Big "I" Markets uses secure socket layer (SSL) protocol to se-cure the information exchanged between the server and browser. SSL encrypts the data before it is sent over the Internet and decrypts at the server side. Standard security protocols are being used to pro-tect your data on the BIM server.

For questions, concerns or require tech-nical assistance, please contact bigimar-kets@iiaba.net or 703-647-7800.