From the President

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Advocacy is about educating policymakers on important issues before they have to vote on them...

RYAN BUTZKE, CIC, CISR President, PIA of Wisconsin

3RD ANNUAL PIA-PAC CLAY SHOOT

It is critical that lawmakers in Madison and Washington, D.C. understand your needs and the needs of your business. Since you’re busy running your agency and helping your clients, PIA follows what’s happening in Madison and D.C. and advocates for you.

Advocacy is about educating policymakers on important issues before they have to vote on them and compelling them to see the issue from an agency principal’s point of view. That job is much easier when lawmakers already understand and are supportive of our industry. Therefore, part of PIA’s advocacy effort is working for you to help get supportive lawmakers elected and reelected.

What if I said that there is something easy and fun you can do, with just one day of your time, to help independent agents and make our voices even stronger in the State Capitol? Well, here it is: Attend the 3rd Annual PIA Clay

Shoot on May 18th.

This event is not just another fun PIA event. It is fundraiser for our political action committee, PIA-PAC. Contributions to PIA-PAC enable PIA of Wisconsin to support lawmakers and candidates who are pro-business and pro-independent-agents. Since this event has generous sponsors who cover the costs associated with the event, every penny of your $125 registration fee will become a campaign contribution to help elect a state representative, state senator or governor who supports small businesses and the insurance industry.

Last year, our event doubled in size and the 2nd Annual PIA Clay Shoot raised almost $8,000 to put to use in the 2022 election cycle. This year, our goal is $10,000, which will also be put to use in supporting candidates in the fall 2022 election cycle. You can help achieve this goal by attending a fun day of sporting clays, having a delicious lunch with friends from the industry and likely making some new friends. All for 125 bucks! What a deal, right?

See the ad for the Clay Shoot on Page 16 of this magazine for more details or go to piaw.org to sign up. If you have three friends who want to shoot with you, sign them up, too! Much like a golf outing, we navigate the sporting clays course in teams of four. If you sign up as a single, no worries because we will group you together with others to form a team, which is a great way to meet new people.

This will be my third year attending, so I can attest that the event is well worth a day away from the office. Come see for yourself - I hope to see you there!

PIA’s Member Benefits Keep Growing

In 2021, PIA helped agents get back to business by creating programs to bridge physical divides and assist agents in navigating the digital landscape. The one thing we know is digital relationships aren’t going anywhere, and we can always improve on the way we connect in cyberspace.

2021 NEWEST PIA MEMBER BENEFITS

PIA Virtual Coffee Break

Informal meet up for PIA members to connect, seek advice, and discuss insurance news.

PIA Partnership Winning@Virtual

A 3-part toolkit to assess virtual readiness and make the most of today’s digital solutions

Practical information and resources to develop and grow customer relationships online

Be Independent Campaign

A social media campaign agents can use to educate the insurance-buying public about the value of working with an independent insurance agent over a direct writer

2021 PIA ADVOCACY VICTORIES

FLOOD

National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Extension

PIA successfully advocated for the NFIP’s extension in advance of each of its 2021 expiration dates.

Defeat of Harmful Provisions of Late 2021 Reconciliation Package

As originally proposed, the second 2021 reconciliation package would have hindered the businesses of independent agents. The PIA advocacy team successfully defeated proposals like: • A provision that would have permitted federal oversight of state workers’ compensation programs. • A proposal that would have imposed a broad new tax information reporting regime on small businesses. • A proposal that would have raised individual and corporate taxes and increased the capital gains tax. • A provision that would have repealed the 20-percent tax deduction for qualified business income of qualifying pass-through businesses (S corporations), which was established by the 2017 tax reform law.

Advocacy on COVID-19 Related Issues

PIA successfully advocated for public policies that provided relief to small businesses struggling due to COVID-19, including: • Creation of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and its second-loan draw opportunity, the establishment of a streamlined loan forgiveness process for some PPP borrowers, and the protection of PPP borrowers from a surprise tax on their loan proceeds. • Protection of businesses against the retroactive rewriting of existing agreements to impose extracontractual liability on those businesses for losses resulting from business interruptions. • Leadership of agent community in the development of policy solutions to protect businesses from future pandemic losses.