The Ontario Broker - December 2019 - 7

ONTARIO BROKERS,
STRONGER TOGETHER
JEFF GATCKE, IBAO PRESIDENT

2019

was a productive and rewarding year,
with the theme of Stronger Together
playing out in all we accomplished.
We were able to achieve many of IBAO's strategic priorities
while being present and available for Members through the
tough times we saw with this year's hard market. We ended with
a strategic planning session that reflected on our successes and
considered where our focus and energies should lie over the
next three years.

I'm very proud to have served as IBAO President this year-
something I couldn't have accomplished without many people's
support. I'm so grateful to my colleagues at work and to my
family that afforded me the necessary time to dedicate to the
role. I'm thankful for the many volunteers that make our work
possible and to the IBAO Members that contributed on a
regular basis to our response to the tough market conditions
we continue to work within. Last but not least I want to
acknowledge the tireless efforts and thank IBAO Management
and Staff who hold dear the interests of insurance brokers in
everything they do.

We made immense strides building our influence on Auto Reform
with the Ford Government adopting over 80% of our memberdriven recommendations in its budget. Ongoing engagement with
the industry's new regulator-the Financial Services Regulatory
Authority (FSRA)-helped solidify brokers' roles as consumer
and community ambassadors. Multiple engagements with
RIBO, our provincial and national associations and industry
stakeholders including the Insurance Bureau of Canada and
the Reinsurance Company Coalition proved meaningful and
successful: they reinforced that we're all working towards the same
thing-a better insurance experience for our clients.

I'm very excited to see what's next for IBAO. We're in a great
place, with the momentum we need to accomplish great
things. I'm honoured to have served as President, passing the
role over to the very deserving Joseph Carnevale as we enter
our 100th Convention year. In the meantime, I'll treasure my
time as President of this great association and wish you all a
very happy holiday season!

In the latter part of the year we began one of our most important
initiatives in recent history-addressing the use and control
over consumer data within our industry. Our push on data
connectivity saw a big win in October when a technology vendor
partnered with Canada's largest insurer to create a broker-
owned interface to their consumer-facing digital services. A win
in my books.
In Education we've been working to bring more value to
our Members with the development of relevant Continuing
Education and Commercial Lines training. We experienced
the largest number of participants in a single course this year
with over 8,000 licensed brokers taking part in our Ethics
training. We're looking ahead to 2020 when we'll be delivering
all Member Continuing Education needs for free as part of the
continued value of being an IBAO Member.

WWW.IBAO.ORG

DECEMBER 2019

http://WWW.IBAO.ORG

The Ontario Broker - December 2019

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