Gillingham: Record TMPAA attendance “speaks very highly” of programs market

More than 1,600 delegates are registered for this year’s Target Markets Program Administrators Association (TMPAA) Annual Summit, with the record attendance highlighting the ongoing strength of the specialist market the event serves, according to Tom Gillingham.

Speaking to Program Manager in the days leading up to the event, the TMPAA president, who also serves as president of Totalis Program Underwriters, said the event’s official attendance is up almost 10 percent from last year.

He noted that the actual number of people at the event is likely to be at least 100 higher given that unregistered attendees will also be in and around the Westin Kierland resort in Scottsdale, Arizona.

While the number of attendees is on the rise, Gillingham also highlighted that the TMPAA’s membership has grown to 417 program administrator (PA) members, up from 389 in 2023.

The increase in attendees “speaks very highly of the industry itself”, Gillingham said, although he added that the growth in PA members does not tell the whole story considering the substantial consolidation that the market has seen.

“If you had asked me a couple of years ago whether the association would see a growing number of member PAs, it would have been hard to say yes, because you would assume they get gobbled up by the aggregators, and we would end up with fewer, larger organizations.

But membership is in fact growing, because, Gillingham said, “the industry is so dynamic, and entrepreneurial people see these great opportunities, so they're starting new enterprises all the time”.

The PA and MGA model has been “proven to work”, said Gillingham, and “there’s no sense that [the growth is] going to slow down at this stage”.

“There was a time 20 years ago when the market was a four-letter word, and for good reason. But a lot of changes have taken place. A lot of technological revolution. And a lot of really smart, capable people have joined the industry now.”

The new PA members joining TMPAA are “a healthy mix” of de novo operations, including those designed to tackle challenges in certain industries, and also underwriters leaving carriers to launch their own programs or MGAs.

There is also a trend of larger retailers spinning off programs-focused operations into separate entities, he added.

“Not every TMPAA applicant is able to join the group,” Gillingham said.

“There is a screening process to get in. It's not just send a check in and you’re guaranteed admittance to the association.

“We do turn people down routinely. Part of that is for their benefit – making sure that people joining are going to have value, and making sure that our members who choose to meet with those folks at the conference are going to have value.”

Away from the market, Gillingham noted that big changes are occurring within TMPAA itself, with Ray Scotto on 1 June having stepped down as executive director – a role he had held since the organization’s formation in 2002 – to take up a new senior executive position.

That move saw Gene Abbey appointed executive director, with Sarah Ayars, TMPAA’s group director of operations and marketing, sharing in the organization’s management responsibilities.

“That's a pretty seminal moment for us, if you consider Ray's been there since literally the first day that the association was founded, and is really responsible for a lot of the great things that we can now take credit for,” said Gillingham.