About Us
About the Professional Insurance Agents Association of VA & DC
Strength in numbers, unity of purpose and cooperation among peers. These are the concepts on which the Professional Insurance Agents Association of Virginia and the District of Columbia (PIA of VA & DC) is based. Organized in May, 1936, PIA of VA & DC is the strong unified voice in the General Assembly and throughout the region for all professional insurance agents in Virginia and DC.
Headquartered in Richmond, the capital city of the Commonwealth of Virginia, PIA of VA & DC is a voluntary, membership-based trade association representing the interests of professional, independent property/casualty insurance agents who collectively serve nearly one million policyholders in Virginia and DC. PIA of VA & DC is a member of PIA National Association headquartered in Alexandria, VA.
Through PIA of VA & DC, member-agents are provided the cost-effective advantages of a larger service organization without relinquishing any local ownership or local control which is so essential to these independent community businesses. PIA of VA & DC's members are stalwart public servants in their local communities, employing thousands of professionals, paying taxes and churning millions of dollars through local economies. Working together through PIA of VA & DC, professional insurance agents work as a team for the mutual benefit of all association members and achieving common goals which they could not otherwise realize as effectively or as efficiently working by themselves. PIA of VA & DC is the focal point for professional insurance agents' collective efforts in legislative and regulatory advocacy; education and training; communication and information exchange; and insurance service tailored exclusively for professional agent’s needs.
The real fiber that binds the PIA of VA & DC family together is its active committee structure. Volunteer committee leaders provide the vital link between PIA of VA & DC's professional staff in Richmond and more than 1,500 members throughout the Commonwealth and DC. Through the backbone of its committee organization, PIA of VA & DC has established itself as the authoritative voice representing professional insurance agents to state and federal legislative bodies, regulatory agencies, companies, the media and the general public.
PIA of VA & DC is a nonprofit trade association that's more than 85 years old.
Organized in 1936, the association has a long heritage of service to independent agents throughout the Commonwealth and in the District of Columbia.
Publication of PIA of VA & DC's history in 2006 fulfilled action taken by the association's board of directors on November 16, 1953. At the meeting, Immediate Past president Robert Putnam moved “to organize and arrange the printing and establishment of a brochure giving the history and achievements of the association”. The motion was approved unanimously after being seconded by D. B. Robertson (who was elected president in 1955). There is no evidence that the history was ever written. There is no reference in any minutes about a history until the June 24, 2004, board of directors meeting which approved writing of the PIA of VA & DC history.
One of the first questions a reader might ask is “Why call this history of PIA of VA & DC ‘70 Years’ when the organization is not that old?” The answer is simple: although this association was not officially organized until October 26, 1936, our members were instrumental in the formation of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Agents in 1931(now PIA National).
The North Carolina association which was established on November 11, 1935, nearly a year older than PIA of VA & DC, is the only affiliate established before PIA of VA & DC. In 1986, when PIA of VA & DC celebrated its 50 years of service, the national association presented a resolution, which included these statements
“…the Virginia-DC Association was born out of the adversity that made mutual insurance an unpopular commodity in those days. Some critics were promoting the idea that it was un-American to buy insurance from a company whose ownership was vested in its policyholders….”
There remains significant adversity today, as well as growing service opportunities, for PIA of VA & DC as it reaches out to new young agents throughout the region and grows low-cost services to meet changing member demands. PIA of VA & DC's competitive advantage remains the same as it was in 1936 - an open family culture that sets the association apart from all others.