Stephen Howard

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]

My wife has an absolutely captivating accent gifted from her formative years spent in small town North Carolina. Just one of myriad traits that served to enchant me almost from the moment we met and continue to do so today. I say almost because, oddly enough, the first time we met, an industry meeting in Texas I believe, she was afflicted with a bad case of laryngitis and barely said a word to me, leaving me with the all too understandable impression…that she was decidedly less than impressed. Well, I’m not sure what combination of visual and perceptive disability coupled with a restricted prospect pool caused her to miraculously choose to embrace a life with me, but please don’t pinch her…I pray every day that she remains unwoke to the reality of her current spousal predicament.

But one of her loveable quirks is the somewhat sheltered belief that country music is somehow an exclusive possession of the South and that non-southerners likely should keep an enthusiasm for fiddles, banjos, steel guitars and the Boot Scootin’ Boogie predominantly closeted for fear of prosecution for cultural appropriation. I’m still a bit fuzzy on why it’s OK for Coke (Atlanta) and Pepsi (New Bern, NC) to be enjoyed openly north of the Mason-Dixon and yet Elvira (Giddy up, oom poppa, omm poppa, mow mow) should somehow be restricted access. She doesn’t seem to mind that the McDonald’s down the street sells sweet tea…

I’m a fan of many types of music. My father instilled in me a love of jazz and classical, my mom used to have hair down to her waist and played folk songs on her Martin guitar, my early teens were spent speeding around a skating rink “dancing” to KC And The Sunshine Band, and my rebellious later teens and twenties were dedicated to 70s and 80s rock. Somewhere along the way I purchased a cowboy hat, several pairs of boots and spent many a night in country bars developing a love for that genre as well. One of my favorite performers is Toby Keith, though I haven’t seen him in person yet, and the song that quite loosely pertains to the vastly belated point of this column is As Good As I Once Was. Although the vast majority of the lyrics are about as distant from my experience as the Pulitzer Prize is certain to be, two lines of the chorus loosely support my forthcoming point: “I ain’t as good as I once was, But I’m as good once as I ever was.”

Although this issue is the Life Insurance issue, it also boasts our 23rd Annual LTCI Survey—and it’s long term care insurance I’m about to critique based on my experience. My disappointments may likely be due to the reticence of one particular company trying to limit outflow with no prospect of new income—they’re out of the LTCI business now—but I encountered an unforeseen, perhaps due to my ignorance, decline of claim due to the strictures of the ADL provisions of my mother’s policy (and I suspect many others).

Backtrack a bit. Mom fell and broke her hip in March 2020, went to a rehab facility for about three months, and then returned to her home. As is too often the case with those in their 80s, her health and fitness slowly declined until her passing this February. We found a marvelous care coordinator/advocate and arranged initially for 18 hours of care—12 hours including overnight and four hours in the middle of the day. The purpose at that point was mainly to have someone there to help with chores that caused too great a strain, and to be there if another fall or other emergency happened. But that evolved as she declined into providing help (or at least oversight) for standing, sitting back down, trips to the restroom, etc. She could do these things herself, with varying degrees of struggle, but it was a mercy to have someone help her and a moral imperative to have these efforts at least supervised. Around that time it was decided we needed to get 24 hour care, and we did so. Somewhere in there we filed a claim for her in-home care and a representative came to evaluate her.

Back to Toby: “Now my body says, ‘You can’t do this boy,’
But my pride says, ‘Oh, yes you can.’”

Cognitive issues were off of the table. Mom was sharp as ever. But she showed that with great strain she could grab her walker and the side rail we had installed on her bed and raise herself to her feet. She showed that she could very slowly walk to her bathroom with her walker. She could transfer food from a plate to her mouth, and said that if forced to she could struggle to the kitchen and microwave a Lean Cuisine. She admitted that if on the seat in her shower she could clean herself and that she could pull on loose leisurewear and slide her feet into slippers. Most of these things (except the physical task of eating) caused great exertion, stress and discomfort, but could technically be done. The very real and severe danger that at any time during any of these activities she could fall and seriously injure herself if unattended apparently wasn’t a factor in consideration of the claim. The claim was denied, but by the time we received that notice she had declined further and actually had to be physically assisted in all but the transfer of food to mouth. Hospice was initiated and she passed only a few weeks later. Thank God as comfortable as possible, in her sleep, in her own bed.

Mom’s 24 hour care cost more than $5000 per week ($30x24x7). Thank God again that she could afford it. Her LTCI policy would/should have paid $123 per day. Quite frankly I just can’t see myself fighting as hard as need be to maybe recoup somewhere between $2500 and $7500 for however many months or years it would take.

I’ve found a great life serving this, I believe, noble business—don’t get me wrong—and I have great faith in many parts of it to help those in their times of greatest need or sorrow. My point is really that the adjudication of ADLs should at least more frequently take into account the stress, amount of exertion necessary, and risk of injury if unattended or unsupervised, rather than simply if, due to stubborn pride combined with a life tenet of honesty, a given set of tasks can, by strictest definition, be accomplished on this particular occasion by oneself.

Stats show that only a small percentage of brokers actively try to sell LTCI. It’s postulated that underwriting strictness, the spectre of dramatic rate increases, and the “use it or lose it” negative perception of the prospect combines to cause agents to shy away from the LTCI sale. I wonder, though, how many producers spurn LTCI sales because of pissed off clients who’ve had claims for just 17 percent of the daily cost of care similarly denied.

At this writing Hope’s been back in NC visiting family for four days, with five more “the thing most dear is absent” days to go until she returns. I’m still vacillating on whether or not to have Alabama playing on the Sirius when I pick her up from the airport.[SPH]

The pandemic has impacted our industry to a great degree—Zooming across the kitchen table, increased digital app submission, fewer calls for paramed exams and fluids, Rx, MIB and DMV results speedier and more integrated, limits for business on an automated and accelerated underwriting basis raised, maximum issue ages lowered, and underwriting holds on those determined to be greater risks due to the potential effects of COVID-19 infection.

And the lasting health legacy of the coronavirus hasn’t yet been tabulated—the long term effects of COVID infection post recovery, including both physical and cognitive impact; delayed or forgone wellness checks, preventive procedures and routine physicals; postponed surgeries and needed treatments; dental cleaning and exams; and the psychological and physical effects of drastically disrupted routines. To say nothing of maskne, lizard hands, awkwardly placed sanitizer saturated pocket wet spots, your wife insisting you wipe down every freaking thing you are even thinking about touching, and walking around with an imaginary (or in some TikToked treasures not) six foot hula hoop around you.

And then there’s the risk of thrombosis from cells attempting to defend against the microchip injected along with the COVID vaccine. (Really?!? I myself entertain more positive delusions.)

LIMRA stats from 2020 reveal that only 54 percent of Americans have any life insurance coverage, a notable decline from 63 percent just a decade ago. Further, there are 60 million households with an average life insurance gap of $200,000. Those numbers by themselves might lead one to postulate that the un- and under-insured problem could be mitigated (and monetized) if we could only find a way to reach this vast market with a) convincing messaging that could educate and inform the populace in such a way as to reinforce the need via real life consequences of inaction on those most loved and left behind; b) concurrently changing negative perceptions of the life insurance industry as a whole; and, c) a refined technological process of acquiring prospects, presenting options, submitting applications in good order and distributing policies in a speedy, cost effective and sufficiently profitable way. Problem solved, right? Easy as 1,2,3… We should be able to find a way to make the life insurance purchase more actionably important than the new bass boat or the flashier, newer car. And easy and quick enough to sooner vault the tendency/obsessive drive to procrastinate. COVID-19 has helped some with that last bit.

I wonder how many of those folks are either uninsurable or rated at a level that makes sufficient coverage simply too expensive for their already squeezed budget. But there must be a decent percentage who explored only one source, perhaps even just their P&C agency’s annual life insurance mailer, and after this too brief investigation believed their health (or age) made the purchase untenable. Discouraged by the health questions sufficiently to convince themselves that they couldn’t obtain coverage at all. Or see that a certain policy with affordable rates today is age banded and the possibility of a convergence of rate versus available income in the future might force abandonment of the policy with nothing to show for it but decades of lost premiums and lost alternative spending opportunities. Many of the underinsured are covered only by group coverage obtained at the workplace, and thank God for that, but typical amounts cover basic funeral expenses and not that much else, to say nothing of the likelihood that policies are abandoned when changing or between jobs—particularly, as too often in this pandemic, when the period of unemployment is lengthy and the next opportunity seems lost in the fog.

So is the race to top tech, today COVIDly need based, also surreptitiously postulated as a panacea for reaching a nearly inexhaustible source of prospects among the uninsured? Or is that vast perceived herd actually thinned—by unknown complications of survived coronavirus infection, age and its effect on risk, and neglected health maintenance conventions in the short term, and more steadfast statistically by those who don’t feasibly qualify due to some combination of income, age and health? How many will Hal refuse to accept after filtering them through his various protocols?

Obviously misinformation, distrust, disinclination, and “tomorrow” present a significant but hurdleably-reached middle market mass who really should be contacted and convinced. But I’m not sure C-3PO and R2D2 are currently particularly suited to execute that task, at least not by themselves. How many of the reported un- and under-insured populate the subset of unable to automatically insure?

We’ve been hearing conspiracy theorists prognosticating about “black box” underwriting for years. Will the Coronavirus redact the flourish, diligence, and birthright of the lifeblood of the brokerage business, the BGAs and the agents they serve, by virtually eliminating the human element of fighting for the best possible rate for clients “outside the box?” Most vexing: Is automated accelerated underwriting Pied Pipering our brokerage industry toward seeking and selling to only the most likely to be approved? Isn’t that the formula we once viewed with entrepreneurial disdain as the forced realm of the career agent? Will automated accelerated underwriting truly help significantly with the un- and under-insured problem?

I love the white plastic Stormtrooper robot insurance “advisor” commercials…I’m waiting for the one to come out where he pulls out a blaster and PEWPEWPEWs a guy who comes in that is obviously a KC barbeque devotee who thinks the almost exclusive purpose of plants is for feeding his food. Might be my doppelganger.[SPH]

My wife and I count Serena as one of our dearest friends. She is a beautiful, vibrant, incredibly bright and imminently loveable young woman with a great sense of humor. Her laughter, often at my expense, when not threatening to damage one’s eardrums absolutely lights up the room. We often trade barbs, some subtle and some not, and to that end I purchased a t-shirt for myself specifically with her in mind. Pursuant to full disclosure, one of my more narcissistic conceits is the collection and public display of witty, sarcastic, ironic or pathetically punny casual outerwear. Examples include “Irony, The Opposite of Wrinkly,” “I am your internet girlfriend,” and, in a nod to the pandemic, “This too shall pass (just like a kidney stone).” Today’s is “I’m ashamed of what I did for a Klondike bar.”

Back to Serena. One of the most recent times she came over to watch a football game, I greeted her at the door wearing my Chief’s jersey (although she’s a “Ewww…one of thooooose!” Patriots fan). After she had settled in on the couch I switched to the aforementioned t-shirt bearing the poignant message: “I’m having people over to stare at their phones later if you want to come by…” Half way through the second quarter she finally noticed and flipped me the bird while chuckling. Before the two minute warning she was eyeGlued to iPhone again.

The obsession with mobile devices has led to some sobering statistics. According to The Zebra, distracted driving causes 35 percent more injuries than drunk driving. Per distracted driving stats from 2015, driving while using a cell phone caused 391,000 injuries while driving under the influence of alcohol caused 290,000 injuries. From my personal experience, “probably some kid (anyone significantly younger than me) messing with their phone” has replaced “that guy’s wasted” as my first reaction to observed “creative lane management.”

For many younger couples stringent measures must be instituted to prevent mealtimes, either at home or in a restaurant, from lapsing into insulated exercises in tiny screen REM. Some restaurants, as well as other businesses, even go so far as posting archaic printed messages offering to “cheerfully wait on you after you’ve finished with your phone.”

These days the least used app by far on our telephones…is the telephone. I sometimes fantasize that someone develops a…err…tablet…to help with mobile device overuse. But even I have found it difficult to imagine not being able to check email when away from my office, Google available businesses on the fly for any number of products and services, or get vocalized directions to addresses not fully familiar to me. We’ve come a long way from the 10 pound bag phone I felt so privileged to possess not so very long ago.

It’s undeniable that there are myriad benefits to today’s mobile device adaptation and adoption in our industry. Speed to issue, app accuracy, info gathering, proposal presentation, policy detail access…the list is extensive. But likely the most positive result of our embrace of advanced tech and mobile solutions is the enhanced ability to reach more of the Nation’s un- and under-insured by exploring and exploiting the tools, systems and platforms on which millennials and GenXers skulk. Mobile devices and other tech advances allow agents old and new to meet and engage younger (more easily underwritten!) prospects on social media platforms where they seek and offer advice from and to their peers (referrals?) and offer a quicker much more seamless buying experience to those who’ve become accustomed to Amazon’s nearly immediate gratification.

Millennials and Gen X are much more likely to do internet research and survey their peers when considering a variety of purchases—including insurance products. Tablets in the hands of brokers at the time of sale offer younger clients the buying experience that they’re most familiar with, as well as providing more apps in good order and digital (archivable) policy delivery.

Stridently exclaimed as crucial to your business’ continued health, keeping as current as possible on tech and social media trends has become the price of streaming (formerly admission) for those hoping to connect with the literal wealth of prospects “coming of age” as serious insurance prospects. Whether this adoption proves Faustian or not, as a blasphemously disinclined late baby boomer technidiot I need to reinforce to myself that this is, indeed, clearly necessary…kinda like a colonoscopy. [SPH]

Maybe…finally…we might soon be able to have a dinner party with more than four people. We might be able to hug loved ones whose births significantly preceded ours (as of January 12 of this year I’ve slapped a moratorium on the adjectives “old” and “older”) without worrying about unintentionally infecting them. We might be able to travel again soon! And…be still my heart…we might be able to have face-to-face industry meetings again! Damn I miss my Biz Buds!

A look in the mirror is a daily disenchanting reminder that I don’t have a mystical painting locked in my attic, but reflecting on 2020, and in particular my prior periodic disappointment with my travel schedule, I’m again awakened to how much I took the blessings that came with my chosen profession for granted.

I realize that my pre-pandemic travel schedule was nowhere near as demanding as that of your typical carrier regional rep. I salute them for their diligence. Hope and I would average about a dozen business trips per year. Inevitably, however, a few nights before a departure I would bemoan the interruption of a planned project—sometimes home, sometimes business. Thankfully, as soon as I saw a familiar face in the lobby of the meeting hotel my reticence would evaporate and I would again appreciate the opportunity to catch up with “friends of long standing.”

Our last trip, a little over a year ago, was to NOLA to attend the TMA meeting, and the hints of the severity of the coming crisis were still just meandering whispers, unsubstantiated speculation, and suggestions that seemed at the time to be born of an overabundance of caution. Granted, the China travel ban (and cries of xenophobia) began January 31, but on March 10th the U.S. count of confirmed cases had just crested 1000. NOLA had no reported cases when we landed. I greeted my friends with hugs, despite the aforementioned cautions, and the clueless “Hell, if hugging you kills me I’ll still die a happy man.” Then the first two NOLA cases were reported, rumored to stem from a conference at the Marriott…we were at a Marriott…fortunately at the other Marriott, on the opposite side of Canal Street. No more hugs. This was real. And then our trip was cut short due to a family emergency and we flew home, planning to change out our travel duds and fly to Oregon. Hope had sinus symptoms and a scratchy throat and went to the doc in KC, where, upon revealing that she had just flown, she was instructed to quarantine at home for 14 days. Fortunately it wasn’t COVID-19, but by the end of the quarantine travel was all but forbidden. We haven’t been further than 25 miles from the house since.

There are myriad negative consequences of the pandemic, most tragic of course are the unfathomable death toll, the horrible suffering of many who didn’t die, and the effect those cases had on the loved ones of those patients. The forced extended isolation of children during crucial times of social development and learning. But there are numerous, albeit by comparison trivial, societal warts brought on by the virus. Unpleasant blemishes on our day-to-day interactions. I hate not being able to see people’s faces when I’m talking with them. Over a year in, and at least several times per week I get 20 feet or more toward a store before slapping my forehead and returning to the car to retrieve my mask. I’m not a Seinfeld “close talker” but I vastly prefer a bit closer than six feet unless I’m loudly questioning the parentage of the “Bold Adventurer” who just made a three lane swerve right in front of me to exit the freeway. Fist bumping used to be just mildly cliche over-”Bro”ing, but now knucks and elbow taps are the requisite condoms for our social greetings and partings.

By all indications the vaccination of America is progressing, and I’m eager for the opportunity to chat in person with business friends, many of whom started as clients but over 38 years have grown to mean so much more. Prayers and fingers crossed that these coronavirus-caused communication carbuncles are soon sufficiently salved. I don’t care what Dr. Fauci says, I’m going to thoroughly enjoy my next firm handshake and Bro-hug with back slaps.

There isn’t any Dr. Pimple Popper to fix 2020, but in 2021, when properly vaxxed, I am going to lean into my business travel with greater enthusiasm and more fully appreciate the blessings I’m given by having frequent opportunities to renew my business-fostered friendships, and grow new ones, even if it still has to be mask to mask.[SPH]