Two long-standing insurance and risk management education organizations in the United States have announced the completion of an affiliation agreement. Effective November 16, 2020, the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) and The Institutes will partner more closely and will empower each other to serve both the information and education needs of those interested in risk management and insurance.
This affiliation is the culmination of several years of strategic dialogue between the two non-profit organizations. Sean Kevelighan (pictured), chief executive officer of the Triple-I, commented: “It will further unify our collective efforts, grant both the Triple-I and The Institutes greater access to a deeper bench of resources and expertise, and improve value for the Triple-I’s member companies across the country.”
For the Triple I, the largest online source of insurance information dedicated to empowering consumers with objective, fact-based research, the affiliation with The Institutes supports its quest for a modern, transparent, and team-oriented structure that reflects the diversity and breadth of its more than 60 insurance company members—which include regional, super-regional, national, and global carriers.
When looking into the affiliation and potential ways the two organizations could work together, both entities discovered “remarkable similarities,” according to Kevelighan. They’re both rooted in information and education, but, beyond that, they had membership overlap, operational issues/challenges overlap, and they had similar goals of diversifying, modernizing, digitalizing and enhancing their offerings to their respective members.
“We also saw really strong similarities with the other affiliates The Institutes has brought into its enterprise over the years, in particular, the Insurance Research Council (IRC) and the Griffith Insurance Education Foundation,” Kevelighan added. “We believe there are ways we can foster stronger collaboration with those entities, while still adhering to their governance models. When you look at the research agenda of the IRC and the Triple I, for example, we know there are several redundancies where we feel we can collaborate to create more efficiency for our members and for the industry as a whole.”
One of Triple I’s core goals is to modernize how it disseminates and distributes content. As Kevelighan put it, the organization needs to “evolve out into the 21st century and modernize its digital platform”. This is something The Institutes has already done – transforming from a paper-publishing education group to now having an all-digital platform – so the Triple I will gain a strong road map and “tremendous scale” as it enhances its digital distribution.
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Together, the two non-profit organizations will also partner more closely for industry events. They’re holding their first virtual joint industry forum in January and they’re already planning new events that they can produce together via modernized and enhanced platforms.
Through the affiliation, The Institutes will gain additional insights and resources based on data-driven primary research – Triple I’s specialty. It will leverage these to support its wide range of offerings in professional education, research, publications, events, and career development. “We see this as a great opportunity to provide a more synergized information platform for insurance knowledge and to bring further efficiencies to our organizations,” said Peter L. Miller, CPCU, president and chief executive officer of The Institutes.
“The Institutes’ strategy has been in the works for several years. It is working to create efficiencies to better serve its customers and to give customers a better line of sight of other potential organizations that The Institutes is engaged with. And so, we fit very well into that strategy,” said Kevelighan. “Also, The Institutes is looking to enhance their own communications and understanding of what they do, and I think there’s significant opportunity there. There are potentially half a million jobs going to be available in the coming years in insurance and risk management. The Institutes is one way for an individual to get certified or become more educated or enhance their career value, and I think we need to talk about that.
“For too long, people have just fallen into the industry and worked in it, whereas, if they knew more about direct ways they could get engaged and enhance their career value or individual value through the likes of a certification or educating themselves more, I think that’s a story that can be told - and that’s what we do at Triple I. We’re a trusted voice of the industry, we do great work in communicating, and so we’re going to help The Institutes communicate about the great work they do as well.”
Triple-I will retain its offices in New York City and Arlington, Virginia, and also maintain staff throughout the country, and its employees will now become employees of The Institutes.
