Become a PLRB Affiliate Member Now

 

Now, more than ever, the success of our industry hinges on the quality of the working relationships between insurers and those who provide the critically needed claims services.  We are all in the problem-solving business and our effectiveness is driven by the quality and solidity of those business relationships.  The PLRB is THE relationship organization of the claims industry.  We work for all of our members by providing thorough legal and technical research, the most claim-oriented catastrophe tracking and informational lining in the world, and the best industry meetings anywhere.

 

Benefits

 

The advantages you gain as a PLRB Affiliate Member continue to grow:

 

Preferred Presenter Status—PLRB Affiliate Members get early notice of PLRB calls for presenters and claims educational topics at many of our educational conferences.  Affiliates thus get an early opportunity to submit presentation proposals.  We select presentation topics and presenters based upon claim industry identified needs.  To the extent that your proposals align with industry needs, you will have an excellent opportunity to participate in our programs.  We particularly favor presentations that include both claims adjusters and various service provider experts jointly addressing technical issues and topics.  PLRB chooses presenters based on their expertise and presentation skills, and Affiliate Members with the requisite qualifications are given serious consideration in the presenter-selection process.  Participating as a presenter at a PLRB educational conference helps you demonstrate your expertise to your customers and potential customers. If you would like to submit a topic outline and volunteer to be a presenter at one of our claims educational meetings, please contact PLRB's AVP of Educational and Technical Services, Scott Powell, at 630-724-2226, spowell@plrb.org.  A form for volunteering to be a presenter is available on line at http://www.claimsconf.org/forms/panelistvolunteerform2005.pdf.

 

Increased Networking Through Expanded Meeting Schedule—Your opportunities to appear as a presenter, exhibitor, or sponsor have expanded, and with them your ability to network with claims people.  Our 2008 Claims Conference will be in Boston, the first time this Conference has been there in more than 20 years.  And in 2008 we will hold two-day Regional Adjuster Conference claims educational programs in three cities:  Tampa, Florida; Des Moines, Iowa; and Sacramento, California.  This is the first time we have held a Regional Adjusters Conference in any of these cities so you will be able to network with many new insurer representatives.  We also are planning our fifth Large Loss Conference for late fall in Tucson, Arizona, another first-ever location.  It will offer detailed examinations of the registrant's choice of large, complex casualty claims or first-party property personal lines or commercial lines loss scenarios.  Each of these events draws hundreds of claims-handling decision makers—supervisors, managers, GAs, EGAs, and claims officers—from our member and non-member insurance companies.  Finally, in 2008 we are also offering in the Chicago O'Hare area our PLRB/LIRB & FDCC "Critical Issues for Senior Insurance Executives and In-House Counsel" seminar, a biennial event which brings together the nation's top property and casualty attorneys and senior claims executives for a full day of discussion of current critical claims-legal issues.  Your participation and support will accelerate the growth of our live educational offerings and your contacts and relationships will grow with us.  For exhibition, sponsorship, or registration information about these events, go to http://www.plrb.org/seminars.cfm.

 

Continuing Education—All our educational meetings qualify for continuing education (CE) adjuster credit from CPCU, RPA, and the states of Florida, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Texas.  In addition, our meetings all qualify for Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit in Florida and Illinois.  PLRB's ever-expanding new series of on-line distance learning modules are available to all PLRB Affiliate Member employees free of charge and all these courses also qualify for adjuster CE and attorney CLE in the above-listed states.  Five two-hour courses offering CE and CLE credit are currently available with more being added all the time.  Our goal is to ramp up our production of on-line distance learning so as to allow our Affiliate Members to obtain 15 hours of new adjuster continuing education from our on-line courses each year, enough to satisfy adjuster continuing education requirements just by taking such courses each year.  To view a list of our on-line distance learning modules, see http://www.plrb.org/education/distlearn.cfm?ss=10 .

 

Discounts—Your PLRB Affiliate Membership gives you tangible financial benefits in the form of discounts to all our educational events.  These discounts apply not only to attending, but also to exhibiting, and sponsoring.  Taking advantage of such discounts can alone easily recoup your entire Affiliate Membership dues.  This recoupment is easier than ever with our expanded meeting schedule.  If you would like to talk to PLRB about how you can take better advantage of these discounts, please contact Andy Kelly at 630-724-2255, akelly@plrb.org.

 

Industry Voice—We now have in place a committee structure through which our Affiliate Members can increasingly participate in the planning, development, marketing, and administering of a variety of PLRB educational programs, particularly the networking aspects of most importance to Affiliates, giving our Affiliates a significant voice in the delivery of PLRB's educational services and thus a substantial influence in the claims industry.  If you would like to participate and lend your voice and expertise to shaping our industry services, please contact PLRB's corporate Secretary, Hugh Strawn, at 630-724-2230, hstrawn@plrb.org.

 

Service Provider Listing—Insurers are increasingly searching for service providers to meet the very specific loss adjustment and mitigation needs posed by problem losses and multiple catastrophic events.  Using software designed for PLRB by Claimspages, the PLRB Service Provider Directory provides insurers and the public with a simple, three-click means of searching a database of over 1,000,000 businesses for firms which match the selections the user has made.  The Directory then automatically builds and displays a list of all service providers fitting the selected requirements of expertise and geographic area served, together with full contact information, including map, Web site, and e-mail links.  PLRB Affiliate Members always appear at the top of the retrieved list of providers and renewing affiliate members never lose their place at the top of the list to newer Affiliates.  In addition, we have created an Alphabetical List of our Affiliates which insurers and the public can search.  Each of these separate functions help make you easier to find by our members' adjusters and more visible to the industry—not to mention enhanced visibility to the public since the Service Provider Directory is not password protected and is thus available to anyone looking for the type of services you offer.

 

Informational Services—the PLRB also offers its Affiliate Members a growing list of informational services through full and unlimited access to the PLRB Affiliate Member Web site:

 

·         PLRB Technical Reference Library—a wide variety of reference works dealing with the claims-technical issues involved in adjusting first-party property losses;

 

·         Distance learning—a wide variety of on-line distance learning modules—with an ever-increasing number offering CE and CLE credit—dealing with core coverage interpretation and loss adjustment skills are available;

 

·         Learning and Reference Materials—collected from our many educational conferences and symposiums;

 

·         Educational Materials—including the In-House Educational Series (highly valued by our members for years);

 

·         PLRB Front Lines—a weekly e-newsletter providing case law news with in-brief summaries and links to the actual court decisions, "Test Your Claims Knowledge" quizzes, plus other PLRB news and information; and

 

·         Catastrophe Information—the most claim-oriented catastrophe tracking and informational linking service in the world, providing both current and historical data in text, tabular, and graphic formats.

 

 

We have developed "PLRB Web Services for PLRB Affiliate Members," a PowerPoint presentation which will quickly show you and your staff how to take full advantage of all the on-line resources available to you as a PLRB Affiliate Member.  To see this presentation, go to http://www.plrb.org/help/TechnicalHelpPages/downloads.html .  From that screen, at your option, you can view the presentation on-line, have it e-mailed to you, or directly download it to your computer for later viewing and review.

 

Conclusion

 

The great value of trade associations is found in their promotion of ideas and strategies for the success of their members.  From the diverse and imaginative curriculum of the Claims Conference, Regional Adjuster Conferences, and Large Loss Conference, to the solid legal research and analysis of our highly regarded legal staff, or our in-depth catastrophe tracking and reporting, the PLRB and its 1,300-plus insurer and Affiliate Members are working together to create and implement the solutions that will shape our industry's future.

 

I encourage you to continue to take advantage of the opportunities provided to your company by the PLRB Affiliate Member Program, not only as a means to directly market your company, but also for the value of exclusive high-quality information and education, the power of sharing ideas with industry thought leaders, and the most effective relationship-building network in the industry.  We truly value and appreciate your continued participation as a PLRB Affiliate Member.  Your continued involvement will make a real difference as we continue to grow the PLRB Affiliate Member Program from what it has already become—a vital service to the claims industry.

 

If you have any other questions about your continuing affiliate membership, please contact me or PLRB's Vice President of Membership, Paul Dispensa, at 630-724-2252, pdispensa@plrb.org.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

 

Thomas W. Mallin, J.D., CPCU

President & Chief Executive Officer

 

Enclosure—PLRB Affiliate Membership Invoice