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Agency of the Year Award Winners

FEMA relies on the hard work, creativity, and initiative of thousands of insurance professionals to promote flood awareness and financial protection against flood losses. It is through the efforts of flood insurance producers that more than 5 million property owners are covered against the risk of flooding. The contributions of these insurance agents to their communities enable flood victims to move from disaster response to recovery.

At the National Flood Conference each year, FEMA honors three insurance agencies for the work they've undertaken on behalf of the NFIP. Agencies are nominated for this honor on the basis of their flood portfolio growth during the previous year, the marketing strategies they've used to increase flood insurance policy sales, the activities they've undertaken to promote flood awareness, and their adherence to NFIP underwriting guidelines.

Every Agency of the Year Award winner is selected for the innovation and dedication demonstrated in achieving the NFIP's goal of protection from flood losses. Award winners exemplify this successful public-private partnership that benefits millions of property owners in the U.S. and its territories.

Warren Barhorst Insurance Group

For the second year in a row, the Warren Barhorst Insurance Group in Houston received one of the NFIP's three Agency of the Year Awards.

Why?

By the end of 2005, the Warren Barhorst Insurance Group had 1,631 NFIP policies in force. The group wrote 824 new flood insurance policies in 2005, a 78 percent increase over new policies written in 2004 (which was a 63 percent increase over the number of new NFIP policies written in 2003!).

According to agency owner Warren Barhorst, a number of strategies have contributed to broadening flood awareness in his community and increasing NFIP policy sales for his agency. Marketing, selling, and servicing operations are conducted by 50 agency personnel in several offices, although new flood policy sales are written primarily by four producers. The entire staff of Barhorst Insurance Group makes sure that every policyholder is aware of flood hazards during any homeowner transaction.

Barhorst Insurance Group became a FloodSmart agency in May 2005, taking advantage of the NFIP Co-op Program to increase their marketing dollars. The group ran ads in local papers and used the NFIP medium message ad in three cities.

In 2005, the agency conducted several direct-mail, radio, and print campaigns to promote flood insurance. One of these included running the "NFIP squishy sounds" radio campaign in Houston from August through November. A tag line, "Call your Nationwide FloodSmart agent at 866-58-FLOOD," was added to each radio spot. Barhorst also wrote an editorial that was published in the September 16-22 issue of the Houston Business Journal about why businesses need flood insurance protection.

During 2005, Barhorst offered home and flood insurance presentations to a number of local real estate and mortgage companies and used real estate closings to alert new homeowner clients about the need for flood coverage. With upcoming map modernization projected to affect Flood Insurance Rate Maps in the region, the Barhorst Insurance Group emphasized that new maps would be issued in 2006 for designated counties and encouraged property owners to purchase insurance before the new maps went into effect.

Last year, letters providing key facts about local flood hazards and information about NFIP flood coverage were sent to all clients who had homeowners policies but did not have NFIP policies. Agency staff followed up with calls to these clients. Flood insurance brochures and promotional literature produced by its WYO company, Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Co., were distributed to improve client awareness of flood risk. In addition, the agency updates flood awareness and marketing messages on a marquee sign in front of the agency's headquarters, facing a heavily used road.

Agency personnel are encouraged to learn about flood insurance issues and take initiative in NFIP policy growth. As a result of internal agency-wide flood insurance sales educational and motivational efforts, the Barhorst Insurance Group was named Nationwide's largest producer of new sales in 2005 and recognized as one of Nationwide's top flood producers in a yearly sales contest that earned a golf trip reward.

John O. Bronson Company

The John O. Bronson Company is the largest producer of flood insurance in the Sacramento area, offering NFIP policies for more than 15 years. By the end of 2005, this agency had 1,922 NFIP policies in force.

There are 20 people who contribute to the agency's flood insurance sales effort. Flood insurance policy quotes are included with each homeowners/fire policy quote. Once a flood policy is purchased, customers are notified in writing about the terms of their flood insurance coverage. And, to ensure that older policies continue to provide appropriate coverage and are rated correctly, the agency last year began obtaining new flood zone determinations for their long-term NFIP customers.

When much of the Sacramento area was removed from the floodplain through remapping in early 2005, the agency sent customers affected by the change a mailing that included facts and statistics in support of retaining flood insurance coverage in moderate-risk zones. Recipients were advised of their right to convert their coverage to a Preferred Risk Policy (PRP) and urged not to cancel their coverage. The mailing received a strong response from their client base, resulting in an 82-percent rate of flood policy retention since the rezoning took effect. In many cases, policyholders actually increased their flood insurance coverage.

The John O. Bronson Company has contributed to public awareness of flood hazards and the value of flood insurance before, during, and after remapping in the Sacramento area by using FloodSmart's Co-op advertising funds to place ads in the Sacramento Bee, which has a circulation of 55,000 and by working with the media to produce flood-related news items. Several TV reports and newspaper articles in 2005 included interviews with agency representatives about the necessity of maintaining flood insurance coverage in the Sacramento area. The agency also reached out to other NFIP stakeholders by making presentations about flood insurance at real estate sales meetings as well as working directly with the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency and with FEMA to find ways to inform the public about flood risks and to encourage NFIP coverage conversion to PRPs in the wake of rezoning.

IKM Insurance Agency

Inman, Kircher, McBride (IKM) Insurance Agency, Inc., in Harvey Cedars, New Jersey, had 1,382 NFIP policies in force by the end of 2005. Five people located in two offices managed flood insurance policy sales.

This agency offers flood coverage to every new prospect who enters their offices, regardless of the zone in which the property is located, and promotes insuring property to value, when coverage is available. Whenever an NFIP policyholder reaches the $250,000 maximum building coverage on the Standard Flood Insurance Policy, IKM agency staff send a letter describing excess flood coverage, explaining its availability, and recommending that the property owner review his or her contents coverage.

The IKM agency urges all NFIP policyholders to carry contents coverage (again, regardless of the zone), even when this protection is not required by their lenders. In fact, IKM requires that customers who choose not to purchase flood insurance sign a waiver form that underscores the risk they are taking.

The IKM agency flood insurance producers advise their NFIP policyholders of floodproofing or other forms of mitigation they might use to better protect their building and contents and to lower the cost of their flood insurance coverage.

The IKM agency's quarterly newsletter focuses on flood insurance coverage twice yearly. This newsletter is sent to all IKM agency customers and is also provided to area real estate agents for distribution to their customers. Additionally, IKM agency staff send letters to all clients when their flood policies come up for renewal to encourage them to increase coverage to replacement cost on their building or to increase their contents coverage.

In 2005, the IKM agency began using homeowner refinancing as another opportunity to educate NFIP policyholders about flood risk and improved building and contents coverage. When an insured contacts the agency to inform them of the refinancing, the IKM agent discusses the building value, the need to increase coverage, and the availability of excess flood coverage.

The flood insurance producers in the IKM Insurance Agency attend flood training seminars and rely upon the WYO Flood Underwriting team at Fidelity National Property and Casualty for additional assistance. One example of this agency's focus on maintaining high underwriting standards has been in the area of Elevation Certificates (ECs). When discrepancies have been discovered on ECs provided by local surveyors, agency staff verify the information with community officials and then resubmit the ECs for correction.

Last updated on December 1, 2006