GO BIG - 9/16-18 - Book Your Hotel Room Today 

There is still time to register for the Go Big Annual Conference, which will be held on September 17-18. Book your room: Snoqualmie Hotel and Casino has rooms for Thursday night. Snoqualmie Inn, 4 miles away, has rooms for both Wednesday and Thursday nights. Salish Lodge and Spa at the top of Snoqualmie Falls and 3 miles away, has rooms for Wednesday and Thursday nights.

• find a new market or tech vendor at the almost SOLD OUT trade show.
• learn about: how agencies and carriers responded to the Spokane wildfire, effectively selling in this soft market; OIC and WA Fair Plan's newest initiatives; legislative issues facing agents; the art of influence and persuasion; and using AI to maximize sales.
• network with your fellow agency owners, producers, account managers, underwriters and marketing reps.

Free NFL Weekly Pick Contest is Back! 

All industry professionals are invited to participate in this year’s NFL Weekly Pick Contest, which is again being sponsored by IIABW's Young Agents, AMWINS and People Premium Finance. Click here to sign up at no cost. Then, take a couple minutes each week to guess the winners of all NFL games for a chance to win cash - $1,400 in total prizes available! Past winners include (1st, 2nd and 3rd places):

• 2025: Austin Hargarten of AmWins; Sydney Giesinger of AmWins; Joseph Johnson of North Town Insurance
• 2024: Nora Anderson of Alliance Insurance; Jeff Abram of Cochrane & Co.; Gail Campbell of Western Insurance Associates; Ridge Ostling of IIABW
• 2023: Carson Blumenthal of Cochrane & Co.; Rebecca Carroll of HR Benefits; Craig Jones of HUB 

50 Wildfire Started This Weekend

50+ wildfires sparked in the Northwest this weekend from 692 lightning strikes, including the Colwash fire, which prompted evacuations and burned 54+ square miles near Sunnyside. Here are facts on this year's fire season (so far):

• More than 3.2 million acres have burned across Washington and Oregon, 
• Fighting wildfires have cost over $200M in Washington. 
• The 1,200 square miles burned in Washington is getting close to our record, when 1,600 square miles, or over 1 million acres, burned in 2015.

New Claims Handling Rules Effective 10/18/26

The OIC’s new rules updates the minimum claims standards that insurers must comply with. The OIC anticipates the rule will do the following: 

• claimants will have more transparency into their financial recovery, 
• insureds will have better access to the benefits of the insurance policy they have purchased, 
• insurers will appropriately investigate claims and make timely and accurate payments, 

OIC Proposing 2 New Rules

• To modernize outdated rule language to better reflect OIC’s current electronic licensing and verification processes. The rules will also provide guidance for insurers that terminate a producer’s appointment for cause. Watch for more details after IIABW reviews the first draft of the rule.
• To broaden who can sell travel insurance by establishing a ‘travel administrator’ and require them to be licensed as a limited line travel insurance producer.

Member News

• Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of Nancy Gregory who passed away this past weekend. Nancy, with the help of her husband Dave Gregory of Stonebraker McQuary, ran the IIAB of Spokane for over 25 years. She was a recent recipient of IIABW's Agent of the Year Award.

• This past week, the IIAB of Spokane held another successful sold-out golf tournament at Liberty Lake Golf Course. Before the tournament began, they announced the renaming of the event - the IIABS Nancy Gregory Memorial Tournament - in her honor.

Insurance Job Growth Slows For WA

Washington’s annual job growth is predicted to be as following: from 2024 to 2029 0.85% and from 2029 to 2034 0.84%, according to the state Employment Security Department. For the category ‘Finance and Insurance,’ the average annual growth rate from 2024-2026 was .7% and the expected growth rate from 2028-2033 is .49%

CA FAIR Plan Commission Cuts

The California FAIR Plan will be cutting broker commissions starting on Oct. 15 on new business from 10% to 7%, and on renewal business from 8% to 3%. The FAIR Plan broker agreement permits unilateral commission changes. California law (Section 2189.3) prohibits producers from adding fees to FAIR Plan policies.

AI Saves Agents Time

New research from Liberty Mutual found:

• Agents using AI for work save an average of four hours per week and 14% report saving more than 8 hours.
• 65% of agents now report having used AI at least a few times for work in the past year. 
• 18% say their agency has a formal AI policy in place.  

State Farm Pays $5 billion in Dividends 

State Farm is paying $5 billion in payments to its 49 million auto insurance customers – the largest one in the company history. The dividends are based on 4% - 10% of the premium paid in 2025. The company attributed the dividend to “positive performance in the auto business in 2025.”

Big I 2026 Best Practices Study 

For the past 33 years, Big I and Reagan Consulting has provided performance benchmarks across agency revenue categories. The Best Practices Agencies in Washington are Davidson & Associates, Mitchell Reed & Schmitten, The Ballard Agency and WaFd. Here are some results of this year's study:

• Pro Forma EBITDA margins ranged from 23% - 31%. The top-performing quartile of the under $1.25 million group posted margins of 43%. 
• Organic growth decelerated to 6% -10%, down from 9% -11% last year.
• Sales velocity exceeded the 12% threshold. Producers aged 36-45 generate the largest share of new business.
• Net unvalidated producer payroll (NUPP), a measure of successful producer recruitment and development, ranged from 0.0% - 1.7%. A healthy NUPP investment is 1.5%-2.0%. 

Largest Brokers in WA

Each year the Insurance Journal publishes a list of the largest insurance brokers by P & C Revenue. Not all brokers voluntarily participated in this list, including Marsh & McLennan, Arthur J. Gallagher, etc. Here is the list that IIABW believes have offices in Washington state.

1 Alliant Insurance Services/Confie ($4B)

2 HUB International Limited ($3.1 B)

3 Lockton ($2.7B

4 Acrisure ($2.2B)

5 BroadStreet Partners ($2B)

6 USI Insurance Services ($1.6B)

7 EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants ($993M)

8 Alera Group ($775M)

9 World Insurance Associates ($714M)

10 IMA ($711M)

12 Highstreet Insurance Partners ($638M)

13 Trucordia Insurance Services ($588M)

15 Leavitt Group ($431M)

16 ALKEME ($380M)

18 Patriot Growth Insurance Services ($333M)

19 Cross Insurance ($323M)

21 Relation Insurance Services ($282M)

22 Inszone Insurance Services ($221M)

23 Heffernan Insurance Brokers ($200M)

28 OneDigital ($145M)

Costco Launches Medicare Advantage Plan

Costco is partnering with SCAN, a California-based nonprofit insurer, to offer a Medicare Advantage plan, which will integrate with Costco’s current prescription, vision, hearing and over-the-counter offerings. SCAN offers Medicare Advantage plans in six states, including Washington.

New Tsunami Report

An earthquake in Alaska could send a 20+ foot tsunami in 3 ½ hour across Washington’s coast and could last 24+ hours. A new model shows the deepest flooding along the outer coast, Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay, and in the Puget Sound.

WA 8th Highest Auto Rate Increase

According to a national study, Washington state had the 8th highest rate increase for private passenger auto insurance this past year. 

Washington's Lawsuit Crisis 

As reported in past IIABW Bulletins, pressure is growing on Washington legislators to pass meaningful tort reform. Washington state government had a record-setting $614 million in lawsuit payouts, legal fees, and tort settlements last year, up from $557 million the year before.

According to the Washington State Association of Counties, Washington's waiver of sovereign immunity is broader than any other state. Courts have steadily expanded the ability to bring claims against the government, and the elimination of statutes of limitations on childhood sexual abuse cases caused claims against the state to explode from just four in 2018 to 1,110 in 2025. 

Florida recently enacted meaningful lawsuit abuse reforms and has since seen insurance rates fall, litigation decline, and consumer costs stabilize. 

E&O Mistakes That Get Agents Sued Webinar 8/25 & 27

Big I members are invited to join a FREE risk management webinar at 11 am on August 25 & August 27. Using real-world examples and claims data, we’ll review the allegations agents most often face, including failure to procure coverage, inadequate recommendations, processing errors, and coverage lapses.

IIABW's Washington Marketplace Report

IIABW’s P & C Marketplace Summary analyzes A.M. Best data on premiums, losses, and underwriting results 1000+ insurers in Washington in 32 P&C lines of business. This 80-page report is the most comprehensive data on our state's insurance industry. It is provided as an IIABW member benefit.

25% off Big I CE Webinars

Save 25% with code Summer2026 (use code at checkout) on over 50 webinars,