CRISPers Visit NAMICO, Gain Valuable Insights

On November 4, 2019, three members of NRRA’s CRISP program paid a visit to the Indianapolis headquarters of NAMIC Insurance Company (NAMICO), the insurance branch of the NAMIC trade association.

CRISP is NRRA’s outreach program to encourage interested college students to build their future careers in the insurance industry.

It is estimated that, with the retirement of Baby Boomers currently working in insurance, the industry will have to find some 400,000 new employees in the next five years — a daunting challenge.

The CRISPers were invited to visit NAMICO by Tim Sullivan (pictured above), 62, the company’s president and CEO, and a longtime member and supporter of NRRA.

Sullivan first encountered CRISP members at the VCIA conference in August; he met with them again at the October NRRA conference in Chicago, at which time the planned visit was finalized.

Says Sullivan: “I encouraged them to visit our operation because I knew NAMICO was quite different from what they’d seen in the past. We’re a small operation — just 20 employees — that caters to a narrow niche market. We mainly sell D&O, E&O, and other professional liability coverages to NAMIC’s member companies.”

The visiting CRISPers were actuarial students at Roosevelt University in Chicago. “Usually when they meet insurance people, they only get a feel for the actuarial side of the business,” Sullivan says. “We don’t have actuaries at NAMICO. Instead, they were able to sit down with our underwriting staff, accounting staff, claims staff, IT expert, and so forth. That gave them a very different perspective on the industry.”

What did the CRISP students think of the visit? “They found it to be quite eye-opening. They appreciated gaining a more rounded understanding of the business,” Sullivan says.