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So
far in this series, we recalled ARM’s founding in
Indiana back in 1970, and then we highlighted the ARM Partners
relationship with Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. In this
and some of the upcoming installments, we’ll profile
several of the individual ARM groups. One of the significant
strengths of ARM as a national organization is our willingness
and proven ability to organize ourselves as individual
member groups in various ways. We have single-state ARMs,
multi-state ARMs, and allow “affiliate” states
to start up with the help and temporary guidance of existing
ARMs. By any measure, one of the most successful ARM groups
so far has been the very interesting ARM of Mid America.
It all started, as they say, when ARM of Oklahoma (which
had 6 member agencies at the time) hired Janet Rogers to
be their Executive Director 16 years ago. Janet proved
to have the energy, the imagination, and the tenacity required
to turn ARM into a real success story in that part of the
country. The first major step “outside the box” that
Janet engineered was the merger, in 1995 of her organization
with ARM of Missouri, to formally create a new corporation
called “ARM of Mid America”. There were plans
at that time to add Kansas, but in early 1997, an opportunity
arose to buy ARM of Texas, which had been struggling and
needed some leadership and motivation.
Next, several agencies in Colorado were identified that
wanted access to the advantages that come with ARM, so
they started off as “affiliates” and then formally
were added to Mid America in 2004. This past January, Mid
America finally did get around to bringing Kansas on board,
and there are 5 active agencies in that state at this time.
Today, ARM of Mid America boasts 34 member agencies in
5 states that together handle over $1.2 billion of combined
premium volume.
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Mid
America now employs a full-time staff of four (including
Janet). They undertake a variety of tasks, including acting
like an MGA for 3 markets on a rate-quote-issue basis,
handling several hundred thousand dollars in annual premiums
at this time. The staff also helps members locate markets
for hard-to-place accounts. The staff there is known as
the “go-to” solution for all types of agency
management and industry questions and challenges.
A recent addition to responsibilities managed by the staff
there is the processing of over $98 million in premium
financing business for ARMFICO, our premium financing company.
The staff works with each contract twice – first
as an e-mail and then hand-stamping each final agreement
and forwarding them. This is all done under a management
contract, which allows ARMFICO to not have to employ anyone.
ARMFICO only pays about $1,000 to $1,200 each month to
ARM of Mid America to do all this work – which is
a good deal for everyone involved.
To find out more, visit their website - http://www.armmidamerica.com
. If you ever think your agency isn’t getting as
much out of ARM as possible, just think of Janet Rogers
and ARM of Mid America, and remind yourself what is possible!
By Larry McSpadden
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