Staff News

SLA CEO Ben McKay participated in a panel discussion at the APCIA Western Region General Counsel Conference today in Los Angeles, joining Dan Brown and John Finston of Drinker Biddle and Joel Laucher of the California Department of Insurance. The panel discussed homeowners insurance issues, which has been a major topic of discussion as admitted insurers have continued to reassess their risk in wildfire-prone areas.

The SLA’s advocacy team was in action on Wednesday, April 3, as Ben McKay and the SLA’s Communications and Government Relations team represented the industry at two important hearings.

At the request of committee staff, Ben testified before the State Senate Insurance Committee in Sacramento during an informational hearing on the insurance industry. The purpose of the hearing was to give new committee members a briefing about the various facets of the industry. Ben explained the surplus lines industry to the committee and also provided an update on the increased homeowners’ insurance business going into the surplus lines market in recent years, a key issue for California legislators. In so doing, he demonstrated the SLA’s value as a credible source of marketplace information and data on important and timely issues. Communications and Government Relations specialist Caroline Gilbert joined Ben in representing the SLA at this hearing.

Cliston Brown attended a hearing of the Commission on Catastrophic Wildfire Cost and Recovery in Santa Rosa, a Sonoma County community that suffered massive wildfire losses in 2017. Mindful of the increased role for surplus lines in the homeowners markets after major wildfire years, Cliston attended to monitor the discussions and to correct any erroneous statements that may have been made about the surplus lines industry. Fortunately, no speakers during the hearing presented any misinformation about surplus lines. Prior to the hearing, Cliston worked with the Personal Insurance Federation of California (PIFC), which testified at the hearing, to ensure that it had the most recent available statistics on the role of surplus lines in the state’s homeowners insurance market.

Cliston also attended the PIFC’s Legislative Reception a week earlier in Sacramento, discussing the basics of the surplus lines industry with numerous state legislators and Governor Gavin Newsom. 

Additionally, Ben and Cliston are regulars at the thrice-yearly National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ meetings, and they both sit on important committees of the Wholesale and Specialty Insurance Association (WSIA). Ben sits on WSIA’s Legislative Committee, and Cliston was recently named a member of its Political Action Committee. 

The SLA’s attendance at, and participation in, these events gives the SLA an opportunity to make the surplus lines sector known to key decision makers whose votes, rulings and/or recommendations may impact our industry. This is just one of the important ways we work to support our members and to advance a healthy, fair and competitive surplus lines marketplace in California.

Cliston Brown, the SLA’s vice president for Communications and Government Relations, represented the SLA on March 27, 2019, at the Personal Insurance Federation of California’s 30^th Annual Legislative Reception in Sacramento. Cliston talked with several key legislators and Governor Gavin Newsom about the SLA and the California surplus lines marketplace. The SLA is engaged in an ongoing awareness campaign to help educate lawmakers about our industry and the vital role it plays in protecting Californians.

Glenn Leung has earned the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCUÒ) designation and diploma by The Institutes for successfully completing courses and examinations on risk management principles, insurance policy contracts and coverage analysis. The Institutes, a leading educational organization for the risk management and property-casualty insurance industry, confers the CPCU designation, which is internationally recognized as the premier credential in the industry. CPCU designees are dedicated to serving their clients and the insurance business by maintaining their professional knowledge, skills and competence.

To receive the CPCU designation Glenn took, and passed eight different exams and took an ethics course. The exams covered topics including Insurance Law, Insurance Products, Insurance Accounting and Finance, Risk Management, and Insurance Operations. Each CPCU candidate can choose between two concentrations, Commercial Insurance or Personal Lines Insurance. Glenn choose to do the Commercial Insurance concentrations because the majority of surplus lines business is in the commercial sector. 

Glenn has two other designations from The Institutes, the Associate in Insurance Accounting and Finance (AIAF) and the Associate in Surplus Lines Insurance (ASLI). If you are interested in receiving any of these designations, Glenn would be happy to talk with you and share his experiences.

The designation will be formally conferred at a ceremony in San Diego on Saturday October 13^th. 

On June 21, 2018, the SLA sent five of its employees to attend the IICF Women in Insurance Regional Forum in Los Angeles. The conference, held at the Millennium Biltmore, was a full day of inspirational and educational presentations given by female leaders across various industries, including Olympic gold-medalist Stacy Dragila, Ivy Kusinga of Chubb, and Mandana Sadigh of Mattel, Inc. The presentations ranged from inspirational storytelling to more concentrated topics such as “Honing Your Leadership Style” and “Cultivating Confidence.” The four divisions of this conference drew in a record-breaking attendance of over 1,600 women and men this year, with a total of 6,200 attendees since 2013.