IIABA Honors Tubertini With Sidney O. Smith Award

Ronald Tubertini, the chairman of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA) Government Affairs Committee, was presented with the Association’s highest individual government affairs honor—the Sidney O. Smith Award.

Tubertini, president and CEO of Jackson, Miss.-based SouthGroup Insurance and Financial Services, was given the award during a breakfast session at the Association’s 28th Annual National Legislative Conference.

The Smith Award is bestowed annually by IIABA and the Independent Insurance Agents of Georgia upon an individual agent or broker for outstanding service to his or her peers and the national association in the field of government affairs. It is named in honor of an IIABA past president and Georgia agent who was instrumental in focusing the Association and its members on legislative advocacy.

Tubertini was honored for his outstanding leadership of the Big “I” Government Affairs Committee, in which he has led the Association’s activities on legislative issues affecting all independent agents and brokers. He has advocated continuing and modernizing state regulation of insurance, the renewal of federal flood insurance and the introduction of legislation that would speed up the depreciation schedule of intangible assets.

“Ronnie Tubertini has led our Government Affairs Committee with great skill and strong leadership,” said IIABA CEO Robert A. Rusbuldt. “His hard work has been instrumental in moving forward legislative issues that are of vital importance to independent insurance agents and brokers across America. Our membership owes him a debt of gratitude for his leadership and hard work, and this award is well-deserved.

“His dedication as Government Affairs Committee chairman has resulted in significant progress in the debate over modernizing state insurance regulation,” Rusbuldt said. “Through his steady leadership and guiding hand he maintained the Association’s focus on the middle-ground reform approach that the Big ‘I’ supports and as a result we are seeing that proposal make serious headway in the halls of Congress.”

Tubertini’s company, SouthGroup Insurance and Financial Services, is Mississippi’s largest privately owned insurance agency. He is also chairman of Blue Goose Agency Services and serves on the board of directors of Brierfield Insurance Company, a Mississippi domestic multi-line carrier, and Magnolia Insurance Company, an agent-owned Bermuda captive reinsurance company. He is also a director and Executive Committee member of Mississippi Insurance Managers, an insurance management and underwriting organization. Additionally, Tubertini serves as president of Associated Insurors of Mississippi, a statewide network of Mississippi’s leading independent insurance agencies.

Tubertini once served as president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Mississippi and has been its state national director since 1998. He was presented the J.H. Johnson Award, the state association’s highest honor, in 1998.