Nationwide Insurance Independent Contractors Association

Tech Tips

Charter Member: Coalition of Exclusive Agent Associations

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This month's helpful tip is from agent Rusty Davis in West Virginia.

Have you ever forgotten or lost a vital piece of information? A phone number or instructions on how to quote a certain kind of business? Here is a little tip to help you and all of your staff find those details in just a click of your mouse.

Let's say you want to write a farm policy. But only one of your staff knows how to get it started. Simply have that person put the instructions in a note in client management. Start by creating a new client in your system (you know how to do that, right? If not call the help desk, and ask "How do I create a new client in my system?")

Set up a new client with the last name "Farm Quote". Now, anyone in your agency can click on the binoculars and enter the words, "Farm Quote", or simply. "Farm", and BINGO, up comes the screen for Farm Quote. Now have that staff expert create a note in that client account. In the note, enter specific instructions on how to quote a farm. I.E, click here, type this, enter that.
You can use this same system for saving any information on any topic.

Let's say you want to write a snowmobile, an ATV, a boat. Simply create a new "client" named "Boat info" or Snowmobile". Then enter all the notes you want under the Notes menu selection (you know...over there on the left...about half way down).

We have about a dozen of these instructional "clients" in our system, and we use them every week. If you want help setting them up, call me, and I will happily help you get started. My phone number is in the Agent Locator on the dashboard. You know how to use that, right? Maybe that will be next month's topic.

We want to send our members tips that will make your job easier. We welcome your letters and suggestions. Just fax them to NIICA headquarters at 410-931-2060 or send an email to this website.

Supreme Court Reaffirms Your Right to Privacy

Should the confidentiality of NIICA’s membership be a concern? A United States Supreme Court decision eliminates this question.

In a case that is almost 40-years-old but which is still good law, NAACP v. Alabama (1958) 357 U.S. 449, the State of Alabama attempted to force the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to produce its membership lists. The Supreme Court held that a production order of the identity of members of the organization was a violation of the constitutional rights of those members. The court stated that there was a "vital relationship between freedom to associate and privacy in one’s associations." The immunity from disclosure is here so related to the right of members to pursue their lawful private interests privately and to associate freely with others in so doing (comes) within the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution."

Subsequent cases have reaffirmed the rights of association and the right of privacy in such associations.

2001 Jefferson Davis Highway • Suite 1004 • Arlington, VA 22202-3617 • phone (703) 416-0060• fax (703) 416-0014 • info@niica.org