Ivie Isler

Assistant Vice President and Marketing Analyst Supervisor

McGriff Insurance Services

Birmingham, Alabama

From serving as president of the Birmingham Independent Insurance Agents (BIIA) to chair of the Alabama Independent Insurance Agents (AIIA) young agents committee (YAC)—and numerous other roles in between—Isler isn't one to shy away from an opportunity to help the independent agency channel.

“My world has gone from local to state to national, and it's blown my mind how expansive insurance is," she says. “I've realized I'm not just Ivie in Birmingham, I'm part of this bigger picture—and all of us are facing the same challenges." 

In 2023, Isler received the InsurPac Young Agent of the Year award for helping AIIA win its first InsurPac Eagle Award. In 2024, she received the national Young Agent of the Year Award for leadership in her local and state associations and involvement in national YAC events.

Importance of InsurPac?

If you are not involved with legislative activity, then people outside of your industry are making changes to your industry that will impact you. You have to have a voice. I'm at the office working on sales and service and development, and I don't have time to go lobby. But guess what? Someone else can lobby on my behalf.

Helping AIIA win the InsurPac Eagle Award?

The AIIA president said his goal was for the state association to make Eagle status, which is when a state association raises $100 per agency for InsurPac. I was the YAC legislative chair at that time. I reached out to the national Big “I" InsurPac team and they made us a website where Alabama agents could contribute directly. We made a marketing flyer with a QR code and blasted it everywhere, especially at our Young Agents conference. We went from 27 contributors the year before to over 100.

Encouraging others to get involved?

Do it scared, just like I did. You'll make connections and learn about resources you didn't know about. It broadens your perspective and you learn so much.

How did you get into the insurance industry?

I graduated with a degree in public relations and marketing and right out of college I landed a job at a very small PR firm. However, the Great Recession hit and I was laid off. I had a family friend whose dad worked at McGriff and he said, “I know it's not PR, but we do have an opportunity." I landed a job as a customer service representative assistant and learned all the alphabet soup that goes along with insurance. From there I got my license and started getting designations. Now, with over a decade in insurance, I'm in it for the long haul.

I actually left McGriff and worked for the Philadelphia Insurance Company, so I got the carrier side of things too, which was an invaluable experience. I went back to the agency side, before McGriff reached back out to me with a new marketing analyst supervisor position available.

Favorite part of your job?

You either love managing people or you don't. In my time with the YAC and the local Birmingham Big “I" chapter, I got a lot of leadership experience. I love leading people and managing people. My favorite part is the training and the development. I hire, onboard and train people with either no insurance experience or less than five years of insurance experience. Seeing that growth and development is phenomenal.

Perspective on leadership?

My style of leadership is servant leadership. It's not “Oh yay, people have to do whatever I say." It's very much, “The Lord gave me this authority over these people. Now how can I serve? How can I help? What is missing?" Through my authority, I can bring in additional resources to not only serve my team, but also others at McGriff.

PR skills transfer?

Everything that I've learned in PR has been brought over to insurance. Every Monday, I send out a “Monday Nugget," which is an email to employees in which I take one insurance coverage or endorsement, define it and analyze it. People can digest that one thing. A lot of our employees have told me they've saved those emails and refer to them whenever they're asked a question. I also do event planning through serving as the YAC chair and with other AIIA events. 

Serving your local and state associations?

I discovered the association while working at Philadelphia Insurance Company and jumped in feet first—and have loved every step of the journey. I was president of BIIA, and that was amazing. They have an annual gala that raises funds and it's a fabulous event. I reconfigured it, reimagined it a little bit and restructured the sponsorship levels, which raised more funds than ever before for Better Basics and the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama. Since then, it's gone on to raise even more funds.

I went on to serve the AIIA YAC as membership chair. After that, I served as legislative chair for several years. I felt completely inexperienced and underqualified for that, but so many people in the industry help you out. I also served as the education chair as well as the social media chair on the AIIA state board.

Now I'm currently the AIIA YAC chair. I've made several changes this year. We brought on a community service subcommittee chair position. We reimagined our Legislative Day into a one-day event instead of a two-day event. Our YAC conference at the end of July was themed “Recipe for Success," and it was something we were able to hype up. This was the first time we put a theme to our conference, and it was well received.

Goals for the future?

I would love to delve more into training and development and teaching people. That's where my heart is. It's serving other people, helping them learn and seeing them be successful.

When it comes to the association, I'm transitioning out of the YAC chair position. I'm going to stay on the state board. Within the next five to 10 years, I hope to be AIIA president. And from there, if I'm blessed enough, maybe state national director and get more involved on the national stage. You never know—you might see me on the Big “I" Executive Committee one day in the future. Again, this doesn't come from a prideful place but from a heart of serving. How can I be a voice for Alabama insurance agents? And how can I be a voice on the national level to help independent insurance agents?

AnneMarie McPherson Spears is IA news editor.