Stephen Howard

My mother—from time to time—would sum up social, economic or political discord with the phrase, “May you live in interesting times.”

According to this online age’s unbesmirchable universal source of ultimate truth, Wikipedia, “’May you live in interesting times’ is an English expression which purports to be a translation of a traditional Chinese curse. While seemingly a blessing, the expression is normally used ironically; life is better in ‘uninteresting times’ of peace and tranquility than in ‘interesting’ ones, which are usually times of trouble.

Despite being so common in English as to be known as the ‘Chinese curse,’ the saying is apocryphal, and no actual Chinese source has ever been produced. The most likely connection to Chinese culture may be deduced from analysis of the late-19th-century speeches of Joseph Chamberlain, probably erroneously transmitted and revised through his son Austen Chamberlain.”

The above may or may not be apropos, depending on your affiliation, in light of the “China virus” controversy, but the fact remains that at least for the foreseeable future our lives have been significantly disrupted. Learning is predominantly handicapped as universities and schools are closed and the lucky scramble to develop or reshape online coursework. Non-media-relayed Culture is unavailable to those without hefty book collections, as libraries, museums and galleries are shuttered. Broadway is dark. Concerts are cancelled, optimistically rescheduled for sometime in the fall. Mickey and Minnie have been forced to self-quarantine. Vegas is a ghost town. Across the country bars are closed and restaurants are scrambling to make ends meet somehow, limited to only carryout and delivery in an atmosphere where fear of the virus obtained through the food preparation itself must still nag at the minds of the willing. As a sports fan it seems surreal that all sports are absent. It’s a good thing that Tony Romo got that $17 million TV contract, because I haven’t seen a Corona commercial in over two weeks. I feel like I’ve been sucked back through time to a Groundhog Day weekday before ESPN.

Please pardon the “gallows humor.” Inconceivable to me are the huge numbers of unfortunate people who aren’t able to sit on their asses and type out an editorial piece at their kitchen tables. The vast majority of workers in vocations mentioned herein and in countless other occupations have absolutely no dependable idea of when they will be able to return to work, and must now pray for previously suspect bureaucratic efficiency to provide them some measure of speedy relief. My friends in the service industry are quite justifiably scared. And they aren’t the only ones.

Your clients are quite likely scared too, although they may just cop to “concerned.” Besides the balances in their brokerage accounts, and variable and indexed product performance, both their mortality and anxiety over their ability to postmortem provide for their families just became at least somewhere between .06 percent to 3.4 percent more acute. Please read Dave Murphy’s lead editorial beginning on page 10 for ways you can help reassure your clients in this no longer face-to-face miasma.

Dozens of questions swirl around our industry relating to COVID-19 that I’m waiting to hear broached and examined—not the least of which are what steps are being taken or will be taken in underwriting departments regarding testing, what the considerations will be for a positive test, and even perhaps what the mortality projections will be for those who test positive but then recover. Long term effects of contracting the virus can only be postulated at present. The question hasn’t even been definitively answered whether those who have recovered can still spread the virus.

What does seem certain at this writing is that the lack of sufficient testing supplies, cautions delivered from the media and health professionals to stay at home even if symptomatic, and a significant portion of the public suspected of actually having the virus and able to spread it but being asymptomatic and unaware, means that the numbers of positive cases, and deaths from the virus, are surely to increase dramatically in the coming weeks. And despite the projections of the experts hosted by national and local news outlets, no one really has any positive idea when this crisis may dependably ease. What we have is hope and prayer.

By my observation our country is in the midst of a still fairly well controlled panic. But firearm sales are spiking. Shelves in my city have been empty of Lysol, hand sanitizer, liquid hand soap and sanitizing wipes for weeks. Grocery store supplies of canned goods, pasta, rice and beans are infinitesimal. On my last trip to a very large store in my neighborhood there was one breached jar of Skippy and one squeeze bottle of sugar free Welch’s grape jelly. That was it for PB&J fans. We certainly are living in interesting times.

My sister-in-law Christy, my gustatory comrade-in-arms, half-jokingly posits that this is the beginning of the Zombie Apocalypse. With the nationwide run on bath tissue, perhaps it’ll be Mummies instead. I currently have four packages of toilet paper well hidden in my garage, but please don’t tell my neighbors—at least not until I can get to Cabela’s to buy more ammunition. [SPH]

The life insurance industry is already indisputably noble in its primary purpose—taking care of the widows and orphans. You do good work.

But in my experience members of our industry take their purpose as a given and are moved to contribute a great deal more than just insuring lives. Charitable giving is a recurring theme in this column and elsewhere in the pages of Broker World. I’ve chosen to highlight a number of carriers’ charitable giving programs over the years, most recently OneAmerica in the February issue. I’m consistently heartened by revelations that not only do many carriers have charitable foundations that they fund to help those less fortunate, but that they further hold employee fundraising events with a corporate match, hold school supply drives, clothing drives, build Habitat for Humanity homes, sponsor days or even weeks of paid leave for hands-on charitable work in their communities and much much more. I also make sure to run coverage of Jason Lea’s BSMG Charity Golf Tournament every year, because I think it’s inspired to run your annual agent appreciation event as a benefit for local charities. In the years I’ve been covering it, attending or from afar, BSMG has raised well over $2 million for local Rhode Island charities. Truly remarkable.

My wife and I contribute generously to veterans causes, animal shelters and wildlife rescue organizations, Toys 4 Tots, and too many of those damned cookies. We’re frequent visitors to the Big Brothers and Big Sisters donation center as well. Really not a big deal at all.

But one thing we’re involved with is a big deal: The NAILBA Charitable Foundation. I served on the board of the Foundation for many years and now my wife Hope, Broker World CFO (or “The Money Chick”), currently serves on the board.

The NAILBA Charitable Foundation is where altruism meets the business of NAILBA. Since its creation in 2002, the Foundation has encouraged volunteerism in the NAILBA communities. NAILBA members and their corporate partners are encouraged to sponsor a charity they feel is working towards its mission of making dreams come true for those less fortunate.

The mission of the NAILBA Charitable Foundation is to encourage philanthropy and business to work hand in hand helping others who are at risk. Since its beginning, the NAILBA Charitable Foundation has awarded over $3 million dollars in grants—all in NAILBA communities. Every charitable organization applying for grant funding must be sponsored by a NAILBA member agency, exhibitor, sponsor, or advertiser.

For us, the most moving moments at any NAILBA Annual Conference are those shared in the Charitable Foundation general session where they show a slideshow detailing the charities receiving grants for the current year. At NAILBA 38 the Foundation granted funds to 16 charities, totaling $216,500. Those charities receiving funds for 2019 were:

Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Foundation, Miami, FL, $7,500; Down’s Syndrome Connection of the Bay Area, Danville, CA, $7,500; Jewish Relief Agency, Bala Cynwyd, PA, $7,500; CASA of Orange County, Santa Ana, CA, $10,000; Susan B Anthony Project, Torrington, CT, $10,000; Opportunity on Deck, Urbandale, IA, $10,000; Project Backpack, St. Louis, MO, $10,000; Ark House, Richardson, TX, $14,000; Transitions Children’s Services, Fresno, CA, $15,000; JAF CO, Bala Cynwyd, PA, $15,000; Ronald McDonald House Charities of AR, Little Rock, AR, $15,000; Double H Ranch, Lake Luzerne, NY, $15,000; ChildServe, Johnston, IA, $15,000; Our Mother’s Home, Fort Myers, FL, $20,000; Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation—Southeast, Atlanta, GA, $20,000; and the 2019 Felton Grant winner, Mama’s Kitchen, San Diego, CA, $25,000. The Felton Grant, annually the NAILBA Charitable Foundation’s largest, is named after the NAILBA Charitable Foundation’s founder, Col. William J. Felton, an active NAILBA supporter throughout its history and former owner of Tennessee Brokerage Agency, Knoxville, TN.

Hope and I thank all in the NAILBA community for their contributions of time and money to help the NAILBA Charitable Foundation aid those less fortunate. To learn more about The NAILBA Charitable Foundation, or to make a donation, please visit www.nailbacharitablefoundation.org.

Further, I thank all of you who reach out from your hearts, helping those who will one day be in great turmoil and need with the products you sell, and for reaching further to help those already in need in your communities. God Bless you. [SPH]

Heartfelt congratulations to longtime friend Cindy V. Gentry, CLU, ChFC, LUTCF, the recipient of the 2019 Douglas Mooers Award for Excellence, NAILBA’s most coveted accolade, honoring distinction in brokerage and bestowed annually upon an individual committed to furthering independent brokerage as a distribution system and demonstrating an exemplary record of community service.

Gentry was president of BBA Life Brokerage, an independent life and annuity brokerage agency, until August 2019, when she “retired” to pursue another of her passions—jewelry artistry. She formed Cindy Gentry Designs in August, where she creates “My unique wearable art…by combining my original lampwork glass cabochons and beads with hand fabricated sterling silver jewelry that is textured using my hand drawn spiritual mandala designs. I believe that each of my pieces should delight the wearer each time they put it on through the balance of pattern, design and color.”

Gentry began her insurance career in 1980, and was in marketing and management with BBA Life Brokerage since 1987. Most of her insurance career has been in the brokerage business, starting as a service representative in the group health business. She moved to Texas in 1982 and landed a position with a small health brokerage, later moving on to personal production, then joining BBA Life Brokerage.

Gentry was an active member of the Corpus Christi Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors since 1989, serving on the board and executive committees and ultimately as president of the local chapter in 1996. As a member of the Society of Financial Services Professionals she was presented the “Agent of the Year” award in 1987.

She joined NAILBA in 1992 and served as education chair, served on the board in 2000, on the executive committee in 2001, and as chair for NAILBA in 2004. In 2007, she was presented with the inaugural NAILBA Education Excellence Award. Gentry served as the chairperson of Life Happens in 2014, a nonprofit organization formerly known as the LIFE Foundation.

An active member of The Marketing Alliance (TMA) for many years, she was named the 2017 winner of the Billy Vogel Award of Excellence—that group’s most prestigious award. She has also been a long time and dedicated member of SubCenters, Inc., the nation’s oldest and most respected study group, and helped form SAGE, a study group focusing on issues facing female agency principals in the BGA space.

Through her decades of dedication and service to the brokerage industry Cindy has made countless friends and admirers in the NAILBA community and beyond—and I consider myself very fortunate to be one of them.[SPH]

It is my sincere pleasure to announce that the 15th recipient of The W. Harold Petersen Lifetime Achievement Award is good friend Thomas L. Petsche, CLU, ChFC, RHU. This prestigious award is presented by the International DI Society (IDIS) to the individual who has demonstrated a long term commitment to DI and has made a distinctive contribution in the industry and follows the ethical standards of the IDIS. Unselfish voluntary service is also a consideration in the selection process. The award was bestowed at the IDIS Annual Conference in October.

The International DI Society is an organization dedicated to growing the disability insurance industry through education, awareness, promotion of high ethical conduct of the membership and increasing the knowledge base of the agent, producer, company and carriers. IDIS members dedicate themselves to providing disability insurance to individuals, families, business owners and employers to afford financial security in the event that an unforeseen disability occurs. They are devoted to growing consumer awareness and enhancing the disability insurance industry by expanding their members’ resources, remaining current on industry trends, and providing a community for producers, distributors, underwriters and carriers to establish relationships and drive innovation.

Tom Petsche is president of Brokerage Solutions, Inc., in Cedar Rapids, IA. For the past 22 years he has done employee benefit consulting, specializing in disability income and long term care insurance for both individuals and groups. His agency covers most of the Midwestern states as well as the East and West Coast.

He has been a frequent speaker for agency and industry groups throughout the U.S. and Canada. Petsche has over 40 years of industry experience, 17 of those years as a career agency manager for Paul Revere Life in Cedar Rapids. His agency won numerous company awards for excellence in quality agency production and agent development. He qualified for the company’s Hall of Fame in just three years. In 1980 he was promoted to sales manager, became general manager in 1983 and became president of Brokerage Solutions, Inc., in 1997.

A former national board member and past president of the Eastern Iowa Chapter of the Society of Financial Services Professionals, he was the 2010-11 president of the National Society of FSP. He served on the Board of Directors for the International DI Society for six years and was national president of the Society in 2014. He is a past president of the Cedar Rapids General Agents and Managers Association and has been an LUTC instructor many times for the DI and long term care courses as well as an AMTC moderator.

Petsche was elected to the Iowa Insurance Hall of Fame in May of 2011, and was the recipient of the prestigious Kenneth Black Leadership Award from the Society of Financial Services Professionals in 2013. He is currently the president of the Board of Directors for the Eastern Iowa chapter of the American Diabetes Association. He is also active with St. Pius X church in Cedar Rapids.

I’ve had the distinct pleasure of developing a friendship with Tom over many years of covering the IDIS and have found him to be an extremely dedicated purveyor of DI products and a tireless advocate for the disability income insurance industry. We as an industry are lucky to have Tom on our side and I’m very fortunate to be able to call him friend. [SPH]

December is, for most of us at least, a joyous season of giving—whether you diligently obsess over selecting the perfect gift for each loved one on your list, or your efforts simply help a few seasonal workers stay employed at the return counter for a few more days. My mom is pretty easy, as she really only wants a New Yorker cartoon calendar and for me to donate generously to Toys For Tots. She does, however, appreciate the annual Baccarat crystal Christmas tree ornament as her collection has been uninterrupted for 40+ years, and she always seems to like and wear the comfy “running” suits/loungewear my wife Hope (yes, I’m no longer Hopeless!) finds for her online. Hope does a marvelous job finding wonderful gifts for her family, while I try to find them each suitably douchey t-shirts.

I try to make sure I carry a decent number twenties during the Holiday season, tucking one in each red kettle I encounter and, further, looking the bell ringer in the eye and sincerely thanking them for their efforts. But back to Toys For Tots for a moment. Nothing during the Christmas season gives me greater joy than walking through WalMart or Target with Hope, filling shopping carts with toys for the less fortunate, although it is fleetingly, paradoxically disconcerting that the employees and/or Marines manning the donation site are so surprised at the volume. I don’t doubt that the vast majority of you reading this column are very generous in your giving—that has certainly been my experience in our industry. I would invite you, however, at least once, to feel the wonderful mix of emotions I find in filling a cart…while “fighting” the crowd…and wheeling it up to the donation drop off. Words rarely fail me, but the poignant reminder that there will inevitably be many many poor children with nothing to unwrap, combined with the knowledge that at least there will be a few dozen less, is still indescribably warming. It is this that inevitably makes what was intended to be a two cart trip into a three overflowing cart adventure. No money yet has ever felt more well spent.

Eschewing the archaic convention of a silky segue, Hope and I are freshly(?) back from the NAILBA Annual Conference, where attempts to bolster our income while serving the industry are tightly intertwined with our work for the NAILBA Charitable Foundation—she as a current board member and I as a former “formal” member. The mission statement of the Foundation is, “In a time when competition for grant money is fierce, the NAILBA Charitable Foundation is dedicated to providing funding to community-based charities and non-profit organizations nationwide.

The NAILBA Charitable Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Association. Since 2002, NAILBA Charitable Foundation grants have helped to give blind children the gift of ‘sight’, create whimsical rooms for desperately sick children, provide hope to homeless mothers and children, and ultimately achieve its mission of making dreams come true for those less fortunate.

The mission of the NAILBA Charitable Foundation is to encourage volunteerism among NAILBA members and provide grant funds to worthy charitable organizations that serve to enhance the quality of life for those less fortunate, with a special emphasis on children.”

Since 2002, the NAILBA Foundation has raised and contributed over $3 million dollars to more than 200 deserving charities and community organizations nationwide. At this year’s NAILBA Annual Conference it was announced that the Foundation provided grants to 16 very deserving charities sponsored by NAILBA members, and vendor and carrier partners, in amounts ranging from $7,500 to $25,000—for a grand total of $216,500—possible only through the generosity of NAILBA carrier and vendor partners, BGA marketing groups, NAILBA member agencies, and literally hundreds of individual personal donations from folks working for those entities.

It is said that charity in its purest embodiment should be completely absent any even vestigial wish for recognition, and I mention our giving (of time and funds) simply to hopefully share the opportunity to feel a particular personal warmth we’ve been enriched by, and to reinforce the fact that our industry—noble in its own right in service to grieving widows and children—is also caring and generous beyond and outside of our corporate mission statements. [SPH]

In Memoriam

There have been too many of these lately, but this one really hit me to my core—truly one of my dearest friends in this business, Mike Thomas of J.L. Thomas & Company, Cleveland, OH, passed away October 10 after a nearly year-long fight with colon cancer.

Jerry “Michael” Thomas was born in 1952. He graduated from Baldwin Wallace University in 1974, where he was a member of the Letterman’s Club for baseball.

Mike began his insurance career with Northwestern Mutual as a special agent, but joined J.L. Thomas & Company the following year. Along with his brothers Dave and Craig, Mike built J.L. Thomas & Company into truly one of the premier brokerage general agencies in the country, offering brokers expert help in placing life, long term care and disability income insurance as well as annuity planning. I always found it fascinating, and a little unbelievable, that all three brothers co-managed the company as equals—each as a Principal—with no Chairman or President.

Mike earned his CLU designation in 1983, was president of the Cleveland Association of Life Underwriters in 1994 and 1995, a member of NALU (now NAIFA) for 45 years and served on the board of directors for NAILBA from 1995 to 1997. He served as the treasurer for the study group SUB Centers for 10 years and was a member of the Risk Appraisal Forum. Mike was very well respected in the underwriting community and helped the agency develop many strong relationships with the industry’s premier carriers. The agency is a member of LifeMark Partners.

Mike was well loved in the brokerage community, countless are his dear friends among carrier reps and BGAs, and I can only strongly presume the brokers doing business with J.L. Thomas. Every time I can remember seeing Mike at NAILBA or LifeMark Partners’ meetings he was either surrounded by smiling and laughing faces or in deep one-on-one conversation with a respected carrier VIP. Or giving me a great laughing bear hug and catching up on one another’s lives. Mere hours after his passing word was already circulating and I heard from numerous friends the sad, sad news.

Civic pride and the attendant duty were important to Mike as well. He served as trustee of the Rocky River Public Library in the 1970s, and on the Cystic Fibrosis board, Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland board, Town Cryer’s of Westlake, and board of directors of the West Shore Montessori Schools.

Mike also served as a girls softball coach and soccer coach for both of his daughters’ teams. His family was very important to Mike and he particularly loved spending time with them at the family’s cottage on Crane Lake in Ontario.

Mike leaves behind his beloved wife Michele, daughters Katie and Alli, brothers Dave (wife Paula), and Craig (wife Stella), sister Jane (husband Jim Kelly), and nieces and nephews Kurt Thomas (Nicollete), Sara Thomas, Jerry Thomas (Dr. Anne), Christina Lumsden (Nick), Jackie Kelly, and Tommy Kelly. Memorial contributions may be sent to the American Cancer Society, P.O. Box 24478, Oklahoma City, OK 73123.

Mike always had a great deal of respect for my dad, and thankfully he easily transferred that into a precious friendship with me. I’m lucky enough to consider all three “Thomas Boys” my dear dear friends.

Tough guy that he was, Mike would tell me each time I called (which is never frequently enough, is it?) that he was “Doing good. I’m gonna beat this thing.” I guess somewhere it morphed from the expected mantra of the optimistic fighter I knew him to be, to the reassuring words of a compassionate fibber. Michelle…Craig…Dave…my heart goes out to you. Dammit, I’m really gonna miss that guy. [SPH]

One of my most treasured friendships is with Eugene Cohen and his wonderful wife Shirlee, who had the somewhat questionable judgement to return that affection and invite Hope and I to Las Vegas for the celebration of Eugene’s harrumphtieth birthday. We spent a wonderful three days with a plethora of Cohen’s including Eugene’s brother and sister-in-law, the three stalwart Cohen sons along with wives and grandkids… Apparently we’ve been adopted, and I couldn’t be more humbled and honored.

After finding varying success in a number of occupations (he once sold watermelons out of a truck), an act of providence led Eugene, then in Cleveland, to begin sales training in 1963, specializing in disability income insurance with Massachusetts Indemnity Life Insurance Company. By 1967 he had become one of the youngest agency managers in company history. He built the agency from a struggling two person office to one of the company’s strongest. In 1970 he was transferred to one of the company’s flagship offices, in Chicago, with responsibility for managing a dozen agencies across the country.

In 1980 the company changed direction and the Eugene Cohen Insurance Agency was born.

From that point on Eugene has been a tireless supporter of the brokerage distribution system. The agency has been a member of both NAILBA and LifeMark Partners for decades. He became a founding member of The Plus Group, a DI focused marketing group, and in 2004 was part of the initial planning and eventual formation of the International DI Society—receiving their lifetime achievement award in 2011. In 2015 he was the recipient of the Douglas Mooers Award for Excellence, NAILBA’s, and the brokerage industry’s, highest honor. I was lucky enough to be present at both of those celebrations as well.

Eugene has served on countless carrier BGA advisory boards, bringing lessons of the past and vision for the future to myriad insurance company executives.

But in my mind Eugene’s greatest industry achievement, on a tediously long list, is the fact that for over 50 years he has diligently helped train, educate and create personal growth in literally thousands of insurance agents—instilling in them not just the necessary components of insurance sales, but more important, the ethical mandates of integrity and the imperative that service to the greatest benefit of the consumer and his beneficiaries must always come first.

Eugene takes the greatest pride in his family. He and his delightful wife Shirlee have raised the aforementioned three sons to mirror their core beliefs in faith, integrity, a strong work ethic and the responsibility of giving back to the community and to those less fortunate than themselves. The Cohens are active supporters of many charities, among them Glenkirk, an organization that provides services to intellectually disabled children and adults, the Jewish United Fund of Chicago, the NAILBA Charitable Foundation, Heart Strings, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Wounded Warriors program.

So for three heartwarming days (cooled only sporadically by the voracious appetite of the Mirage’s video poker machines) we basked in the welcome of the Cohens to honor truly one of the greatest men in our industry. If you happen to be one of the many who have been touched either by his friendship or his tireless service to our industry…send a card or a note to Eugene, wishing him a Happy Belated Harrumphtieth Birthday! [SPH]

Dammit. David B. Lea, Jr., passed away on August 14 in East Providence, RI. David Lea was truly one of the pioneers of our industry and helped lay much of the foundation of the brokerage business we serve today.

After graduating from URI in 1959 as a Hood Scholar, David entered the life insurance industry as an agent with John Hancock, eventually rising through the ranks of different insurance companies in New York and Virginia. In 1972 he joined forces with the late Edward R. Anderson founding what is known today as Brokers’ Service Marketing Group (BSMG), a life insurance brokerage agency he expertly ran until his retirement in 2017. Under David’s leadership BSMG developed a national reputation for excellence and innovation and has become the largest New England-based agency of its kind.

David was a founding member and chairman of NAILBA, the industry’s premier national association for BGAs and the brokerage business, and was recognized with the brokerage industry’s most prestigious award, NAILBA’s Douglas Mooers Award for Excellence, in 1998. He was instrumental in the success of the marketing group Brokerage Resources of America, LLC (BRAMCO), one of the country’s leading independently-owned insurance brokerage firms, representing a network of over 16,000 financial advisors who annually produce more than $250 million in life premium and $2 billion in annuities.

Throughout his career David was known as a trailblazer, becoming a true industry icon and ambassador to everyone he touched and paving the way for hundreds of other successful insurance professionals. He always believed that his professional success was not his own doing, but fully dependent on the people around him.

David was a positive force to all who knew him. Being kind and fair was his way; a sign hung on his office door that read simply, “Nice Matters.” David’s focus was on his family first, helping others and building a successful business. Through his unwavering generosity of time, talent and treasure, David helped everyone around him as a mentor and friend. His smile, roaring laugh, and raucous sense of humor could not be denied. He traveled the world for decades with his beloved wife Pat and many friends.

Giving back to the local community was hugely important to David. He was a URI foundation trustee, and a member of the URI College of Business advisory council.

Through his company’s annual charity golf tournament he has raised nearly one million dollars for three local charities: Amos House, Child & Family Services and Day One. My fondest memories of David stem from the many times he welcomed me (and seemingly a cast of thousands) to his home for a lavish dinner the night before the tournament, and for the hilarity at the auction after the tournament as he, as master of ceremonies and auctioneer, offered his own brand of caustic humor to the golf winners and begged, cajoled and often shamed those posing as reluctant to up their bids. I happen to be the caretaker now for a truly precious $1500 “Schnoodle” that I imagine was rescued for about a hundred bucks. I can’t even begin to catalog the challenges (and costs!) of arriving back at a “No Animals” hotel late at night with a puppy in tow, nor the anxiety (and cost) of equipping oneself with all the necessary accoutrements—at 10:00 am when the pet store opened—and making an 11:30 am flight back home. The ticket counter agent wasn’t particularly happy, but Leala seems to be.

David will be remembered for how he treated all who knew him, and the positive impact he made on so many people. A life full of love, spectacularly lived by one simple rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Besides his wonderful wife Pat, he is survived by four children: Deborah A. Ross, Jeanne C. Hunt, David B. Lea III and Jason E. Lea as well as nine grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorials be made to Amos House, 460 Pine Street Providence, RI 02907 or online at www.amoshouse.com/MakeaDifference/GiveNow.

The measure of a man’s life may very well be the number of people whose lives they have touched in a positive and memorable way. Through his leadership, savvy and truly caring nature many many thousands of consumers have insurance that either has or will provide some measure of solace in a time of great emotional upheaval and financial need. I’m confident that simple smiles and small kindnesses touched legions more during his day-to-day life. In my personal experience I’ve seen literally hundreds of insurance folks over many years share a genuine smile and a chuckle with him at past NAILBAs and particularly at BSMG’s spectacular Charity Golf Tournament. A quiet testament to the countless friendships he seemingly effortlessly forged and the great respect and admiration he engendered particularly within the brokerage community. I’ve been blessed to be just one of many who deeply admired him and called him friend. [SPH]

“Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They
always run out of other people’s money.”― Margaret Thatcher

OK, so what’s the over-reaching segue between Socialism and a Life Insurance issue that includes the 2019 Milliman Long Term Care Insurance Survey? Quite simply this: There are still too many Americans who believe the Government will simply step in and pay for facility care when the need arises—ignorant or perhaps delusional about both the personal cost and the societal drain. Spend downs are either inconsequential, or a vague nebulous threat, or perhaps completely unknown. For some I poignantly imagine Government paid facility care might not represent a great departure from, and perhaps even an improvement on, their current living conditions. The sad fact is that our industry can’t help them. And God Bless the truly caring service professionals that labor in those facilities daily, overworked and underpaid.

But we, as cognizant representatives of the insurance industry, wouldn’t wish this type of late life treatment for our loved ones, or clients, or hopefully anyone who might still be saved. And yet many Americans on the left (and unbelievably at least one or perhaps more wolves in sheep’s clothing—or hemp or some other plant-based, non-animal-exploiting fabric—lurking on the fringes of our industry in the guise of service) think the Government should provide Golden Care for all golden-agers—at taxpayer’s expense of course. And by taxpayer’s expense I mean a new system of industry and economy crippling taxes on corporations and the wealthy. (After all, they can afford it.) Government largesse isn’t the panacea for long term care, any more than the tragically flawed Obamacare program was the divine solution to the Nation’s healthcare crisis. With the Baby Boomer glut poised to crash upon the nation’s caregiving systems (projected by many to be facing a critical shortage of caregivers in the not-to-distant future—thereby increasing costs), the cost of government care for all should be clearly recognized by all but the most diligently ignorant to be too astronomical for even criminally insane taxes on the rich to subsidize for long. All thoughts of crippling economic prosperity aside, there simply won’t be enough of other people’s money.

Another significant societal trait needs mention here as well. Nursing home horror stories aside, I believe most Americans wish to remain in their homes for as long as humanly possible, and that the adult children of the increasingly dependent wish the comfort of home—the adult dependent’s or even their own—for their aging parents. And this brings us to another demographic under tremendous stress—the unpaid family member caregiver.

Per LIMRA, a worldwide research, consulting and professional development organization and the trusted source of industry knowledge since 1916: “According to LIMRA research, there are 43 million Americans currently acting as an unpaid caregiver for a family member. Advances in medicine and better lifestyle choices have helped more Americans live longer but many of these older Americans often need caregiving help–and oftentimes it falls on the family to provide it.”

In an attempt to quantify the sacrifice assumed by caregiving for a family member, LIMRA research asserted that “Aside from the out-of-pocket costs associated with caring for a loved one, which AARP estimates is almost $7000 annually*, there is often a cost in terms of lost opportunity for those who work outside the home.”

The findings suggest that, “Half of unpaid caregivers work full-time outside the home. For many of these individuals, the demands of taking care of a loved one has impacted their career. The study found four in 10 had to take an unpaid leave of absence or decrease the number of hours they worked because of the demands of caring for a family member. Three in ten say they have turned down a promotion and a quarter say they have lost job benefits, such as medical, retirement, insurance, etc. because they had to cut back their hours due to their caregiving responsibilities. In addition, a significant percentage indicated they ultimately had to stop working—22 percent voluntarily quit, 18 percent had their employment terminated, and 13 percent retired early.”

The release concluded that, “With more than 10,000 Americans turning 65 each day, the number of families facing the financial challenges associated with providing care to an older family member is certain to grow in the next several years.” (For more information about LIMRA research visit www.limra.com.)

The insurance industry is the only body capably constructed to mitigate both the quality facility care and family caregiver crises. Stand-alone LTCI has numerous options available to maintain private-payor facility status, provide qualified in-home care providers, and even compensate family caregivers. Asset-based life and annuity long term care solutions are readily available and increasing in both quantity and quality at a gratifying rate. But insurance professionals of all disciplines must commit to prospecting, proposing, taking applications and protecting families across most of the economic spectrum. The private-sector solution—our industry—is the only workable solution and we need to feel duty-bound.

The Government could, however, provide immense help with these solutions—through drastically increased and improved messaging about the looming crisis and the options our industry offers, combined with more varied and aggressive tax incentives for those who adopt private-sector protection. But that help seems to be our right-wing Brigadoon, at least at present, for two main reasons: First, because it makes good sense and would save the Government trillions in future costs; and second, because it would represent a ceding of Government power, discomforting to the majority of our legislators and bringing cataclysmic, apoplectic despair to the lunatic fringe on the left.[SPH]

Reference:
*(https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/financial-legal/info-2017/family-caregiving-costly-jj.html)