Stephen Howard

It is my distinct pleasure to recognize here one of our industry’s perhaps unsung heroes, and my longtime dear friend, Ed Murray—this year’s recipient of the Billy Vogel Award bestowed by The Marketing Alliance at their recent spring meeting. The Billy Vogel Award is given annually to an individual working in the brokerage industry who possesses impressive business acumen, a sense of innovation and, above all, integrity.

After graduating with a degree in finance, Ed served as a combat veteran in the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment known as “The Blackhorse” as an Artillery Forward Observer in Vietnam. An Artillery FO patrolled with infantry units and called in grid coordinates and artillery fire when under attack. An Artillery FO had to be extremely accurate in determining their own location and the location of the enemy or else terrible things could happen.

The start of Ed’s insurance career came after a brief stint in real estate, when he began working at Chubb Insurance. It didn’t take long to realize carrier life may not be a good fit, so his inner entrepreneur kicked in and he set out on his own, then ultimately teamed with Gordon Zuckerman to form Murray & Zuckerman, Inc., and set up shop in Schenectady, NY. Their vision was to have a general agency that serviced all four corners…of New York State.

Ed has been deeply involved in the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies (NAILBA) serving as its chair and receiving the association’s highest honor, the Douglas Mooers Award for Excellence. Another former chair, Mooers Award recipient, and also longtime friend, Art Jetter, remembers, “Ed likes to give credit to others for NAILBA recovering from the financial issues in the late 90s, early 2000s. He doesn’t take any personal credit. However, when I was chair in 2000 and gave my swan song speech, I specifically recognized his incredible service as treasurer. I called him our ‘financial boy wonder.’ Without Ed understanding that the board had to stick to its guns on fiscal recovery, and rubbing our noses in it, there might not have been a recovery.”

Yet another former NAILBA chair, Mooers winner and good friend, Jack Dewald, adds, “I truly believe Ed has one of the best financial minds I’ve ever worked with. He understands practical application and simplifies complex issues. He runs circles around actuaries and carrier financial folks. Pretty much anything he has financial oversight of does well. He knows his strengths. He is a team player in every way, but his ‘old style’ would never allow him to succeed in a corporate world. He would last a minute max before pissing some hack off with his clarity and brevity.”

Introducing Ed as the Billy Vogel Award recipient, TMA President Tim Klusas said, “This year’s recipient is recognized for their business acumen, practical application, and ability to simplify complex issues. While I can’t possibly list all of this person’s contributions, it was this person’s resourcefulness, vision, innovative thinking, and above all integrity that got TMA off the ground in 1996. It was due to the persuasiveness that only a New York GA could provide.”

Ed’s daughter wanted to say this about his character, “You will never meet a man who more faithfully lives his values. He is a throwback to a more civil generation, and not just because he refuses to send or receive text messages (much to the chagrin of his daughters and grandchildren). He fulfills every obligation that he ever undertakes. He is self-made and self-reliant. His word is his bond, and everyone knows it. He is loyal. His dedication to the people in his life can be seen amongst family, childhood friends, and current colleagues. He has lived these values personally and throughout his career.”

I met Ed longer ago than I can remember, probably at a Sub Centers or NAILBA meeting, before he helped lay the groundwork for TMA. I found him to be welcoming, friendly, intensely loyal and a great fountain of knowledge about the brokerage business. Like many of us, Ed found it hard to deal with ignorance. At least in my case in the early years, the difference between Ed and many others was his unfailing willingness to work to chip away at my lack of knowledge and increase my understanding and appreciation of just how vital and honorable the brokerage business is.

Often the gruff humorist, in accepting the Billy Vogel Award his first exclamation was, “If I’d known I was going to receive this recognition I would have worn socks.” The brokerage industry is extremely fortunate to have Ed Murray as a champion, as am I to have him as a friend.[SPH]

I think I’ve digressed before about my love for the Farm Bureau robot advisor ads.You know, the ones with a white robot with glasses that looks like a cross between John Lithgow and a George Lucas stormtrooper. My favorite line is where the husband winks and the robot says, “Your ocular cavity is experiencing a malfunction.” I think if my wife hears that one more time in response to her “helpful observation” that some assigned task is still yet to be done I’d better start hiding the kitchen knives. “Working Tomorrow for a better Today.”—Procrastination. I have the t-shirt.

In the immortal words of Bob Dylan, “The times they are a-changin’.” I spent almost an hour in conversation with loyal reader Bob Brassard last week. I bet Bob is one of those guys whose most used app on his phone…is the telephone. I’m not sure if my beloved niece Sophie even knows which app is the telephone on the new iPhone my wife and I bought her. Anyway, Bob’s been selling insurance since 1963 and was bemoaning the intrusion of FinTech into the personal relationships he nurtures with his clients—specifically an insurer who emailed the policy direct to one of his clients. He appreciated the crux of Dave Murphy’s recent article on the value of hand delivered, nicely bound, paper policies to clients (Worth The Paper, April 2022). The gist of our convo was the great importance of growing the personal relationships with clients that has been the cornerstone of success in the insurance industry for many decades, and how the inevitable advance of FinTech into the everyday business of life insurance has the very real possibility of eroding those little but vital interactions if one doesn’t commit to staying vigilant.

Dear friend Ken Leibow writes an excellent column each month exploring and outlining countless advances in FinTech that make the sales and distribution of life insurance infinitely more efficient for the carrier, the BGA and the agent, and therefore of much greater service to the ultimate consumer. I recognize the value of eApps, advances making blood draws less necessary, policy tracking systems, needs analysis software, a bunch of stuff in agency management software, forms standardization, a whole bunch of the computereze that Ken utilizes in his articles that go way…way…over my head, and even, as a customer, ePolicy delivery. It is nice to know I can go to a folder on my laptop and review a policy if I should ever need to. Much easier than searching for it in my house, a task I would compare, with regrettably less exaggeration than should be, to the closing warehouse scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

But without the many little formerly formal in-person human interactions that bring agents together with customers, and the inevitable interactions with the families during those meetings, including of course the delivery of a policy printed on high quality paper and attractively bound, how true, and solid, and dependable, is the loyalty between consumer and agent, and hopefully between the consumer and his children and their children’s children? Available in the Hogwarts of industry tech wizardry are a number of things that can greatly help grow this trust and loyalty. At its simplest are things like birthday and annual coverage review reminders. More helpful still are ongoing policy sustainability trackers. There are many advancements in FinTech that truly can help make an agent a truly trusted advisor to multiple generations of clients’ families.

Further complicating the issue are the communication preferences of the various generations which we should adapt to as we progress in service through the younger generations of the families of our clients and new prospects we garner through referrals due to the trust we’ve banked. I’m not a Tweeter or a Tweetee, rarely a Facetimer, and enjoyed just my third Zoom call last Friday. I’m not personally on Facebook although I’ve participated in Facebook posts featuring my “T-shirt of the day.” (Today’s is, “I told my wife she should embrace her mistakes…she hugged me.”) So maybe turn to some of my authors for concrete advice on how to live in both worlds.

The danger, as I see it, is insidious and lurking. As we come to depend ever more heavily on the efficiencies of tech advances, how dedicated are we to maintaining the tried and true personal interactions with clients? How soon do these practices erode as we come to rely on other processes? How many emails have replaced phone calls, or hand written notes? Ya can’t yum with a client about a nice plate of ribs on a Zoom call. It ain’t the same as riding side by side if you’re playing Golden Tee on the internet.

Back before the cell phone, and even through the first few generations of them, I knew by heart all my friends’ phone numbers. My grandmother, alone and blind and still at home, remembered over thirty phone numbers of the people she called daily as a volunteer for a KC service called Telephone Reassurance. And she actually dialed them by running her fingers through the holes on the dial and counting one through zero. She was truly an amazing person. Fast forward to today and I have to pause and strain my brain for my wife’s number when they ask for my loyalty account at the grocery store. And that’s not all the fault of whisky consumption in the 80s and 90s…it’s the reliance I place on the directory in my iPhone.

So I’m “guilty as charged.” I’m not at all immune. I often just text a friend a quick hello, or anecdote. Now Hope and I do call and sing “Happy Birthday” to some dear friends when we remember (or our iPhones’ calendars remind us!), but often too are the texts with: HB2U, HB2U, HBD(Whomever), HB2U! Accompanied by the musical note, party hat and streamer emojis.

It occurs to me that I might need to step up my diligence.[SPH]

In a recent news release from our industry’s most admired information-gathering institution, the great folks at LIMRA offered some insight and optimism (perhaps a somewhat tarnished silver lining) about life insurance purchasing gains during year two of the COVID-19 pandemic (https://www.limra.com/en/newsroom/news-releases/2022/limra-2021-annual-u.s.-life-insurance-sales-growth-highest-since-1983/). Released on March 16, almost two years to the day from the date that I was forced to succumb to the reality that the initial strains at least of COVID were real, scary, and that life as I knew it would have to be altered quite substantially. My wife and I had to fly home from The Marketing Alliance meeting in New Orleans to attend to a family emergency. Just before leaving, NOLA had announced that the first two confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been found at a Marriott on Canal Street—fortunately the one on the other side of Canal from the Marriott hosting TMA. By the time we had arrived home my wife had a pronounced sinus infection (as she occaisionally gets from travel) and visited her doctor—who determined we had just traveled and indicated she needed to quarantine for 14 days. There were no tests yet. By the time her quarantine was served, our intention to travel to Oregon was squashed by severe warnings against air travel and airports, mandatory quarantines upon arrival for visitors, and complete lockdowns banning all visitors to hospitals and care facilities. Grocery shelves were soon barren and hand sanitizer and TP virtually became black market boondoggles. Thank God Oregon wasn’t run like New York. Bought Mom almost another full year.

Awkward segue back to the LIMRA info. I quote: “Propelled by 26 percent fourth quarter premium growth, total life insurance new annualized premium grew 20 percent in 2021, representing the highest annual growth since 1983, according to LIMRA’s Fourth Quarter U.S. Retail Life Insurance Sales Survey.” Further, “Policy sales improved two percent in the fourth quarter. For the year, policy sales were up five percent, which is the highest annual growth since 1983. With the exception of term products, all major product lines experienced policy sales growth in the fourth quarter and for the year.

“In 2021, whole life (WL) new premium grew 20 percent, year-over year. WL held 35 percent of the individual retail life insurance market in 2021. LIMRA is forecasting whole life sales to grow as much as 10 percent in 2022, with continued growth in 2023. Year-to-date, VUL new annualized premium increased 74 percent. VUL market share was 12 percent in 2021, which is the highest it has been since 2008. For the year, IUL was 21 percent higher than 2020 results. IUL represented a quarter of all individual life premium in 2021. Fixed UL ended the year up 10 percent and held eight percent of the total premium market share. In 2021, term new premium increased five percent, compared with 2020 results. This represents the highest premium growth for term premium since 2007.”

But term policies issued actually declined by one percent from 2020 (https://www.limra.com/siteassets/newsroom/fact-tank/sales-data/2021/q4/fourth-quarter-2021-individual-life-final.pdf). Quite frankly this is the number that surprises and significantly dismays me.
One could and maybe should see the numbers from LIMRA as very encouraging, particularly when viewed through the lens of all the drastic changes to the life insurance sales process brought on by the pandemic. “Life insurance is sold, not bought” is a phrase I’ve by and large considered gospel for my entire career serving this industry. And face-to-face is the best way of course…but COVID said “Not no more.” You all are to be applauded for your ability to morph your efforts to continue to be able to protect families.

And it makes absolutely perfect sense that devastating fatality numbers from COVID-19 would slap a significant percentage of Americans in the face with their own mortality and spur them to move purchasing life insurance closer to the front burner and hopefully turn up the heat. But let’s consider this. Of all life products, term is the one most easily commoditized and that has shown the most positive foothold in online/contactless sales thanks to great innovators like SelectQuote. And I’m harangued daily on Sirius by “Big Lou…he’s like you…he’s on meds too.” (And I freely admit that I’m unreasonably put off by his divination that I am, in fact, “a bit porky.”)

Where is all this going? I’m frankly shocked that the figure on term policies sold wasn’t positive and much much higher. The positive figures in the LIMRA results are all for products with higher premiums than term and I would have hoped that the lower price of term combined with the ease of access would have brought more lower income “Somedayers” into the ranks of the insured—at least at some level. We’re all aware that there is a vast chasm in the populace of the un- and under-insured. Looking at just the words under-insured and uninsured, one must grant that there are some among the wealthy that feel their assets are sufficient and they see no need to purchase any or perhaps more life insurance despite its clear financial advantages. Most poignant is the fact that there are way too many in our society where even the lowest premiums would actually take food off the table. Both these demographics skew the statistics as they aren’t now nor are they likely to be realistic prospects for life insurance, yet they are hypothetically or by projection included in the impact of the numbers. So, it is assumed, are those whose health makes them uninsurable.

But let’s not cloud the issue with the facts. It’s undeniable that there is still a vast multitude of families out there who could afford and qualify for our products, albeit with some changes to their budget perhaps, and who are without any or sufficient coverage to insure their spouse can remain in the family home and their children might have the ability to go to college.

As great friend and Broker World columnist Dave Murphy eloquently illustrates in this month’s Focus article, they are the people who, in near anonymity, make every day of our lives better, easier, more satisfying, less troublesome. The mechanics…servers…administrators…bar tenders…cashiers…HVAC guys…or maybe the new marrieds who finally made enough two wage earner income to move in down the street last month and wave every time they see you walking your dog. The list is almost endless. And you don’t even have to “prospect” for them. They are right in front of you every single day. You have your own unique expertise that they likely haven’t been sufficiently exposed to. You can help their families. You’ve earned enough in this great industry that they are able to be of service to you on a daily basis. Maybe carry a few extra business cards in your wallet and please ask just a few questions to see if you, in turn, can be of service to them.[SPH]

It is my great pleasure to recognize the excellence of good friend Tori Van Dusen-Roos, recipient of the 2021 Chairman’s Award, bestowed by Chairman Jason Lea at the 40th annual National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies (NAILBA) conference. The Chairman’s Award, created in 2009, was developed to recognize the efforts of a NAILBA volunteer who has performed “over and above” normal expectations during the Chairman’s term. Qualifications include outstanding service or efforts on behalf of NAILBA within the chairman’s term, as well as efforts and service over and above normal expectations, outstanding leadership of a NAILBA initiative or project, and significant contributions to NAILBA in the areas of technology, education, communications, or marketing.

Co-principal of Diversified Brokerage Services, Inc., (DBS), Minneapolis, MN, Tori formally joined the firm and the industry in 1993, although her presence at many marketing group meetings and industry conferences, along with her brother Chip and mom and dad Diane and George Van Dusen, prior to her plunge into the family business made her many friends and admirers—myself included. Tori currently serves as COO, responsible for overseeing its Director of Operations, Director of Finance, Director of IT, Chief Underwriter and Director of HR.

Active in the industry from the beginning, Tori currently sits on the Field Advisory Councils of several insurance companies as well as The Leaders Group, a broker-dealer. She is a member of NAILBA’s Executive Board where she serves as treasurer, and on the NAILBA Charitable Foundation Board of Directors as its current Grants Committee chair. She is a current LIBRA Insurance Partners board member and is also a past board member of LifeMark Partners, past president of LIFE, Inc., and has served on numerous NAILBA committees over the course of her career.

DBS was founded in 1969 by George Van Dusen III as a brokerage wholesaler representing multiple carriers serving the upper Midwest. Their goal was to provide a single outlet for insurance advisors to supplement the products provided by their primary carriers. Over time they developed a number of business relationships with national and regional distribution systems and by 1989 had become a national organization with licenses in all 50 states. It needs saying that NAILBA was formed in 1980, DBS was at the organizing meeting and has been active in NAILBA activities ever since.

The Van Dusen family has been a great friend to the Howards and Broker World since its inception. I remember many nights at industry conferences sitting around while my father and George swapped industry intel and amusing anecdotes with Tori, Chip and I just soaking it in. I’ve been blessed to have the friendship of the Van Dusens since my start in 1983 and none any more so than Tori—always quick with a great smile and a warm hug whenever our paths cross.

Congratulations Tori on an honor richly deserved for your great service to our industry and the countless families your efforts help to protect. [SPH]

It is with the greatest pleasure that I here congratulate one of my dearest and most long standing (I’d sure as hell hear about it if I said “oldest”) friends, Barbara Crowley, Brokers Clearing House, Ltd., West Des Moines, IA, as the 2021 recipient of The Douglas Mooers Award for Excellence, presented by the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies (NAILBA) at a special awards dinner during their 40th annual conference.

To my eye our industry’s top honor, the Mooers Award is named after NAILBA’s Founding Chairman, H. Douglas Mooers, and was established in May of 1986. This annual award honors excellence in brokerage and is bestowed upon the individual most committed to furthering brokerage and independent life brokerage as a distribution system. Further, nominees are those who have demonstrated outstanding dedication to NAILBA, the industry we all love, and generally those that are dedicated to giving back to something bigger than themselves. Nominees are dedicated insurance professionals with superior career accomplishments as well as outstanding records of service to the community. Mooers Award recipients are this country’s peer-recognized leaders of brokerage.

NAILBA’s Past Chair Chad Milner described her, “With 40 years in the industry, (Barbara) brings experience, knowledge and continued passion in an ever-changing industry.”

Barbara is the CEO of BCH, a multi-carrier wholesale distributor of quality life insurance, long term care, disability income and annuity products. She started her brokerage career in 1977 with BCH, learning the insurance business from every aspect. Of her work with BCH Barbara states, “We are not simply a source for products. Rather, we are an essential resource for creating solutions. Leveraging our diverse and talented team of experts, we analyze each situation thoroughly to ensure that advisors have the perfect solution for their clients. Knowing how to match clients with insurance carriers requires finely tuned underwriting expertise. Over the years, we have repeatedly won national recognition for our ability to problem solve and place the most challenging cases.” That in itself is exemplary service to our industry and the clients who depend on insurance professionals to protect their families.

In addition Barbara has worked as a consultant for insurance carriers, served on numerous insurance company advisory boards and been the featured speaker at a variety of industry meetings. She has authored a number of articles for trade publications including, thankfully, Broker World. She is a past Chair of NAILBA and served on the board of the NAILBA Charitable Foundation. She is an active member of Finseca, NAIFA, SFSP and FPA. She has served as president of LIFE, Inc., and was a founding partner and served as a board member and officer for LifeMark Partners, Inc., (now part of LIBRA Insurance Partners).

I can’t remember exactly when I met Barbara, most likely at either a Life, Inc., meeting or an early NAILBA meeting (maybe the First Colony Hospitality suite), but her respect for my father, and my respect for hers, formed the cornerstone of a wonderful friendship that I’m blessed to have. I’ve found her to be a delightful, engaging and fiercely loyal friend and observed the same of her in her interactions with others. She is truly widely and enthusiastically loved and respected within the NAILBA family and the brokerage industry. So I add my voice to many others in saying thank you Barbara for your friendship, and congratulations on an honor richly deserved for work well done in an industry certainly much the better for having you in it. [SPH]

It is my distinct pleasure to congratulate dear friend Raymond J. Phillips, Jr., CLU, LTCP, president of The Brokers Source, Ltd, Pittsburgh, PA, the 2021 recipient of the Billy Vogel Award. One of the industry’s premier marketing organizations, The Marketing Alliance (TMA), presents the award annually to honor an individual who embodies business acumen, a sense of innovation, and above all, integrity. The award is named for William E. (Billy) Vogel, the late president of the W. S. Vogel Agency, Inc., who exemplified all of those qualities.

TMA President Tim Klusas, who presented the award, said Ray is “Recognized for his business acumen, his innovative resourcefulness, and the integrity essential to bring people together and mobilize resources.” Klusas continued, “While there are many examples of innovative situations or expressions of business acumen I could offer, probably the most widely beneficial was how Ray revitalized many of the local chapters of different groups around his city and state. The local NAIFA, local Association of Health Underwriters, local chapter of the Society of Financial Service Professionals…he saw the value in those organizations and took the bull by the horns to get them back up and running, whether at the helm or as a supporting player.”

A past chairman of the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies (NAILBA), Ray is also past president of the Pittsburgh Chapter of National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, the Pittsburgh Association of Health Underwriters and the Society of Underwriting Brokers (SUB Centers). He has served on the board of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Society of Financial Service Professionals and is a member of the International DI Society, The Plus Group, The Marketing Alliance, SUB Centers, and the Pittsburgh Estate Planning Council.

Ray was also a recent recipient of the Keystone Award—which is Pennsylvania’s NAIFA chapter’s highest award, given to the volunteer who made the greatest contributions on the national, state and local levels. A past chapter president said, “There is nothing past about his relentless passion for the industry. He is always there to light the spark, to offer guidance and perspective, a story, or build a relationship to bring the industry together. I can’t think of a more appropriate recipient of the Keystone Award.”

Ray has been a great friend to the Howards and Broker World for 40 years. I’ve found him to be a tremendously loyal and enthusiastic friend, a great source of industry knowledge, and always eager to help in any way he could—usually under a ridiculously tight deadline! The only chinks in his armor I can see are his questionable choice for NAILBA’s Chairman’s award during his term and a rather poorly thought out invitation to a speaker at a SUB Center’s meeting (which he then judiciously fled before his poor choice was exposed). But the Jack Stack barbeque was really good…

I was surprised to learn recently that Ray’s first foray into the insurance business was when he was offered a job at an agency ordering phone books for nearby major cities, going to the insurance section, and calling all of the names he could find. As they say, “You’ve come a long way, Baby!” Congratulations Ray! And thank you for decades of your wonderful friendship.[SPH]

I think we need some sort of HIPAA-like protection from “the internet.” I’m not overly fearful of being exposed as morally compromised due to my internet searches for Fox News articles—at least not quite yet—but I’m fairly disconcerted by the fact that all my wife has to do is bring up my MSN homepage and her devious mind can winnow out my current thoughts on future purchases and suitable “surprise” gifts by simply perusing the ads that pop up. “So, are we getting a new TV? Oh, and that dress wouldn’t look good on me and you already have too many sarcastic t-shirts.” Sure seems like the camel’s nose may already be inside the tent.

Recent tech advances have given our industry the capability to digitally collate greatly useful information for underwriters to utilize in their duty to appropriately price risk and, further, reduce the physical discomfort and/or schedule disruptions of many insurance-seeking clients. These abilities are even easing the strain on and minimizing the delays from currently often overtaxed medical care providers. Information gleaned from outside sources can increase efficiencies, many times reducing the need for extensive medical records and even paramed exams.

Some tools are tried and true, like the Motor Vehicle Report (MVR) and the Medical Information Bureau (MIB). MVRs can reveal to underwriters the “Bold Adventurer” that cuts across three lanes of the interstate right in front of me to hurtle off the exit he almost missed while he was checking his Facebook feed on his cellphone. (Ah Ha! But here’s the rub…we all know too well that there’s “never a cop around when you need one” and he and his ilk are too often able to escape significantly specific DMV notation until the info is perhaps no longer of any personal consequence to him life insurance-wise.) MIB is an entity that collects and stores medical information that its member insurance companies collect during the underwriting process.

I’m assured by this month’s author Greg Horak, from whom much of the real information in this rant was plagiarized, that the Medical Information Bureau “does not collect information from medical records or directly from doctors outside of the reporting done by insurance companies. If an individual has never applied for insurance in the past, then they will not have an MIB record.”

Newer tools include the Clinical Laboratory Database, the Prescription Database (when you go running for the shelter of a mother’s little helper), Existing Claims Data pulled from Healthcare Common Procedure Codes, and Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). Each has their drawbacks and limitations, but in the aggregate they provide increased efficiencies and thus serve brokers and many of their clients better regarding speed to policy issue. Another plus is that underwriters are increasingly able to more accurately pinpoint cases where further investigation is warranted to form an opinion.

There are rumblings about genetic testing as a potential underwriting tool down the road, and one wonders if and when and how that information will be gathered. But if one takes the Prescription Database, MVR and others as the model for collection, how long before hooking up with SpitInATube.com, in what you thought was just a harmless though perhaps poorly thought out attempt to explore your heritage, becomes potentially more financially damaging than the unexpected odyssey of contact with unknown distant living relatives and their can’t miss investment opportunities and/or high risk loans?

Further, truly how “helpful” will inevitable genetic predisposition declines be to the client, ostensibly mitigated by the revelation that they’re now statistically likely to be facing the spectre of a heretofore unknown-to-them malady inexorably clotting his or her future? I know some folks, and I’m sure you do too, who seem that they “just ain’t happy unless they ain’t happy.” I’m sure this info is like the end of the rainbow to them, but it would be the end of all peaceful and enjoyable days for me personally. Dad died on an airplane—he is reported to have gone to sleep and simply been unable to be awakened by his row-mate urgently seeking relief via the boa constrictor closet of the airline’s restroom. I’m sure Dad was posthumously delighted to finally be a pain in the ass to the airline for once. It’s just the type of institutional role-reversal that would greatly amuse me as well. Mom passed asleep and comfortable in her own bed in her own home, aware of “Time’s winged chariot hurrying near” yet not confined to some sterile room with a bunch of humming and beeping machines hooked up to her.

As technology advances and more and more sources digitally collaborate, are human underwriters to become a disappearing species? Perhaps we shouldn’t worry too much about what happens to them. After all, they can simply be retrained to work in green energy. More precarious for our industry and the people we at least profess to serve, does this trend portend a retreat to the captive carrier mindset where primarily just the lowest risk applications are considered for coverage? In the absence of aggressive impaired risk marketing and human underwriter intervention, how will the fitnessly-challenged obtain the life insurance protection that their families will surely need?

“You’re not qualified for preferred or standard and I can’t issue you a policy Dave.” I, for one, am not amused…Hal.[SPH]

I’ve always been a bit curious about why a bulk of the promotion of and materials for Life Insurance Awareness Month, for agent and carrier use, come out later in August or early in September. And many articles and columns addressing it come out primarily in September as well. I think I’ve actually been guilty of that several times in my years as an aspiring industry wordsmith. As I’m ridiculously late actually “crafting” this very column, my subsequent comments belong firmly in the “Do as I say, not as I do” lexicon. That notwithstanding, it seems to me that taking maximum advantage of LIAM should take a careful, well thought out plan to expand one’s reach into the pool of the un- and under-insured—one that should be conceived, nurtured, tickled and tweaked throughout the month preceding.

Although I’m sure many already know it, for helpful videos, a Life Insurance Needs Calculator, a variety of Real Life Stories and a bevy of other helpful items visit Life Happens at www.LifeHappens.org and www.LifeHappensPro.org and maybe drop them some coin too…they do great work, God Bless ‘em.

I apologize to those grizzled veterans who’ve been utilizing LIAM well for years and simply need to drop some new material into existing time-proven systems, although the pandemic has thrown some new challenges, as well as some great new communication tools, to the forefront of many of our consciousnesses (either welcomed or perhaps not so much so—can you say “Zoom Fatigue”?).

Now to meander back to the memory that belatedly came to me as perhaps germain to life sales to the less than affluent—and thus suitable to the LIAM push. Some number of years ago I was at a BGA event somewhere—I can’t even remember now where or which of my friends hosted. I was standing removed from the group and was joined by a young second generation life insurance salesman whose father worked through this BGA and had included Junior for this trip. He must have been a reasonably attentive attendee with a dedication that belied his age, because his comments to me were striking.

To back up just a tad, he didn’t work as an independent agent alongside his father, he was a year or two into what I’m absolutely certain ultimately became just an apprenticeship at a career/captive company. His striking comments juggled guilt, almost anger, remorse and anxiety about the need to, and formulating a plan to, right a number of perceived wrongs he’d committed against his current/previous customers. You see, he’d sold them products his company offered, and only those his company offered, instead of shopping their needs for the best suited and best priced coverage among a variety of carriers as his father did. The light bulb had come on, and in that “moment” his insurance career had become solidly as much or more about best serving people in need rather than just making enough sales (and money) to advance his lifestyle. This changed me too! It was one of those unexpected moments in our lives where we find that clearer understanding of our true purpose in our chosen profession. But it also brought an unsought clearer understanding of the benefit to the public brought by career/captive agents and that whole system.

In stark contrast to my hubris laden belief that ”our” way, the brokerage way, was the truly honorable way to serve the public, I was in that moment moved to console and reassure this young man with two stark and undeniable truths. First, that his efforts at his current company could develop the skills he would need to first survive and then prosper later as an independent agent and thus better serve many more clients in need. Second, and most important—that the people to whom he’d already sold life insurance would not have bought insurance for their families the day they did, and perhaps not at all, if it weren’t for him.

It’s that simple. A whole lot of the instruction and motivation for change that is disseminated within our industry, and often enough in the pages of Broker World, relies on the assumption that if you don’t adapt at the same or better pace than your competitors that they will snatch your prospects and clients away from you…and there is certainly more than a degree of truth in that. The great lifestyle you’ve built for yourself might suffer. But the entire heartbeat of LIAM is about reaching the un- and under-insured, not those lucrative, “fabulously well-to-do” clients for whom you must ostensibly viciously compete. It’s the people whom nearly all agents chase at the earliest points of their careers…those still young enough to have not seriously considered life insurance yet, and those who have in the back of their minds that they might should consider buying some insurance one of these days…

Above all, the spirit of LIAM that I hope you take with you, along with a determined enthusiasm, in the coming September and ideally periodically throughout each year, is just what I (epiphanically sourced to be sure) was able to relay to that young man—if you don’t seek them out and sell them today, then maybe no one ever will. [SPH]