Stephen Howard

It is with delighted enthusiasm that I here congratulate Cindy Gentry, president of BBA Life Brokerage, named the 2017 recipient of the Billy Vogel Award by The Marketing Alliance at a ceremony during their recent spring meeting.

TMA’s most prestigious honor, The Billy Vogel Award is presented to individuals in the financial services industry who distinguish themselves through their business acumen, 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. 

Cindy began her insurance career in 1980 as a service rep 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, an independent life and annuity brokerage agency. Now owner and president, she has been in marketing and management with BBA Life Brokerage since 1987.

Cindy has been an active member of the Corpus Christi Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors since 1989, serving on the board, executive committee and ultimately as president 1996.  A member of the Society of Financial Services Professionals,  she was named Agent of the Year in 1997.  Cindy has served as education chair of the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies (NAILBA) and served on the board, the executive committee, and as NAILBA’s chairman in 2004.  In 2007, she was presented with the inaugural NAILBA Education Excellence Award.  Cindy held the position of chair of Life Happens in 2014, the nonprofit organization formerly known as The LIFE Foundation.

In addition to her membership in TMA and NAILBA, Cindy is a member of SAGE, a study group that collaborates on some of the unique issues facing women business owners and BGAs.

Congratulations Cindy, and thank you for your service to the industry, to your agents and their clients, and for your friendship.[SPH]

As they say, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in awhile…  I am gratefully indebted to and happy to (belatedly) announce that Charlie Gipple, Partners Advantage Insurance Services, has joined the ranks of Broker World’s monthly commentary contributors.

Prior to Partners Advantage, Charlie was the national director of indexed products at Genworth. In this role, Charlie directed the sale of indexed annuity and life products and was integral to their development, public awareness and marketing. Prior to Genworth, Charlie was a vice president at ING for 11 years, leading a number of diverse product lines and distribution channels.

Currently the senior vice president of sales and marketing at Partners Advantage, Charlie manages all sales, marketing, recruiting, agent training and sales support activities across the company. He is also the co-founder of The PILLAR System, a trademarked cutting edge practice management and client seminar system for use by financial professionals.  He has extensive experience in client sales, account management and product development, as well as the wholesaling of life insurance, annuity and mutual fund products. He has demonstrated his expertise working with MDRT-level agents, independent marketing organizations, brokerage general agencies, broker/dealers and banks.

Charlie is a specialist in indexed products, financial markets, financial legislation, behavioral finance and the positioning of insurance products. He is well-known in the industry as a keynote speaker on these topics, presenting to NAFA, NAIFA and MDRT Top of the Table meetings as well as media outlets like AM Best TV and thestreet.com.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Finance from the University of Northern Iowa, carries Series 7, 6, and 63 securities licenses, and is a CLU and ChFC.

Charlie’s first column appeared in last month’s issue of Broker World, an excellent, practical treatise on Powerpoint presentations that I urge you to check out if you missed it.  This month’s contribution on The Mind-Game Of Seminars is also a must read. Welcome aboard Charlie,  and thank you! [SPH]

In the summer of 1983 I had been politely encouraged by the University of Missouri to pursue my academic endeavors elsewhere, so I did what any entitled silver-spooner would do and provided my father the opportunity to subsidize my appetites with pre-tax dollars by attending his place of business in a somewhat official capacity.  At some point he decided to see if there was, perchance, some unseen value in this activity and presented me with a list of advertising sales leads which he had determined I could do little if any harm in pursuing.

I believe sincerely that through some act of divine providence one of the names on that list was Sam Lane, Fairlane Financial Corporation, Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  More than 30 years ago, Sam Lane became the first person to whom I sold an ad—and an every-issue schedule on the inside front cover—and my father decided maybe I should give this whole magazine thing a shot.  

From that day forward, Fairlane Financial is the only company that has advertised in every issue of Broker World.

Sam Lane was born on November 16, 1922, in the nondescript backwoods town of Felsenthal, AR.  In 1941 he enlisted in the United States Marine Corp. He was stationed in Guadalcanal in the South Pacific and brought the first radar to that area. He made Master Sergeant rank in just three years.

Following the conclusion of the war, Sam started one of the first television/electronics businesses in Chicago. IL.  In 1953 he relocated to South Florida to retire (at 34), but ended up developing amusement parks.         

In 1955 Sam started Fairlane Financial Corporation as an investment company.  In 1960 he entered the insurance business as sales consultant.  In 1971 he became part owner and sales director for National Trust Life.  In 1973 he became partner in Funding, Inc., a mutual fund/life insurance conglomerate.

In 1976 Sam developed the first National Marketing Organization (NMO) for Capitol Life Insurance Company, Colorado’s oldest and largest stock life carrier at the time.  In 1980 he took that marketing concept to other carriers and began developing annuity products for independent life carriers, recruiting 20,000 agents and giving birth to Fairlane Financial as it exists today.

In 1990 Sam turned the daily operation of Fairlane over to his son Ronald J. Lane and grandson Ronald D. Lane.  From 2000 –2015 Sam remained CEO/Chairman of Fairlane Financial and was pleased to celebrate the company’s 60th Anniversary in 2015, their Diamond Jubilee. He continued to consult with staff and was always first in the office—he usually had the entire Wall Street Journal read by 9:00 A.M.  

As Sam was building the national wholesale distribution of annuities back in the 70’s and early 80’s, deferred annuities became the new, en vogue products and Fairlane was at the forefront of the product distribution. Sam’s vision and drive were integral to the future of product creation and independent agent recruitment.  He spoke, wrote and advertised the merits of fixed annuities, an insurance product that was simply a warehouse for money that guaranteed consumers’ tax-deferred returns.  Agents across the nation took notice.

When Sam dealt with insurance carriers and agents alike, a few things were abundantly clear:  Sam Lane had integrity, discipline, work ethic and empathy. His word was his bond.  For Sam a handshake and a man’s word were at the heart of the contract.  A devout Christian, Sam nurtured (and insisted upon) those same character-building imperatives in his children and grandchildren.

Sam passed away quietly at home on January 10, 2017.  His loving and devoted wife Lucille passed away three days later. They were married for 73 years. According to Sam’s daughter, Dianne Skafte, “If you were to write a love story, this is how you would want it to end.”

The insurance industry should be forever be grateful to Sam Lane, and those who followed his lead to carve out a “niche” for an obscure product like a deferred annuity and glamorized it to become a trillion dollar product that remains coveted by consumers today.  

Over 30 years the face-to-face meetings were regrettably fewer than they could or should have been, but each was infused with a sincere warmth in welcome, an honest caring about the success of the magazine and about the fullness (or sometimes empty spots) of my personal life, and was inevitably marked by words of wisdom and encouragement.  I left every meeting with a renewed sense of gratitude and responsibility for my circumstances—Sam believed the work of the magazine, and my role in it, were truly important to the industry.  For a great many of those 30 years, every month, I would talk to Sam, ostensibly about that month’s ad, and end up with a healthy dose of subtle mentoring, integrity CE, and bolstered purpose and enthusiasm.

Yes, Fairlane’s advertising has bought me a fair share of hot meals and season tickets.  But Sam Lane’s contributions to the life I’ve enjoyed for the past 33 years—the dear friends I’ve been blessed with in this great industry (three generations of Lanes prominently on that list), all the places in this great country I’ve seen, and the opportunity to be of service to an industry I truly hold dear—all these blessings trace back to that one day.  The day I first talked with Sam Lane.  I know in my heart with certainty that there are countless people who could tell a similar story about how Sam blessed their lives, and I hold myself humbled and honored to be just one of them.[SPH]

In Memoriam
The brokerage industry, and in particular the long term care insurance battlefield, has lost one of its most passionate, articulate and charismatic leaders.  L. Nicholas “Nick” Hogan, LTCP, LUTCF, age 66, passed away peacefully on December 29, 2016 after a short illness. 

Nick served our industry for 34 years.  After receiving his B.S. from Xavier University and his M.A. from The Ohio State University, he became a career agent and manager with Mass Mutual and later a regional VP for Meridian Insurance. In 1994 he founded Gahanna, OH-based Insurance Advisors to assist agents throughout the United States in growing their businesses.

Nick received numerous sales and industry awards, was a member of the MDRT and was a Fellow in the Life Underwriting Training Council.  But he brought a seemingly boundless supply of knowledge and creativity to the sale of long term care insurance. He was nationally lauded for his expertise in LTCI. He was a Long Term Care Professional Certified Trainer, Co-founder of America’s Long Term Care Insurance Experts, LTCI instructor for The American College and a Certified LTCI Partnership Trainer.  He was also a driving force for LTCI in the Diversified Marketing Group (DMG) which he chaired for many years.

He authored “Top 10 Reasons to Own LTCI Even if you Never File a Claim” and was a technical advisor to Ronald Iverson for his publication “Long Term Care Insurance Handbook for Accountants and Attorneys.” He authored many articles for industry journals and was, thankfully, a frequent contributor to this publication.

Nick was a frequent speaker and panelist at such organizations as The Franklin University, America’s Association of Long Term Care Insurance, and the Intercompany Long Term Care Insurance conference.  I had the privilege of sharing many wonderful conversations with Nick at the ILTCI, where he imparted his wisdom, enthusiastically interspersed with an inexhaustible supply of (to be kind) mediocre jokes.

Nick is survived by his wife of 43 years, Karen, and their children, Ryan and Sr. Elizabeth, CFR (Cailin). Insurance Advisors will continue to be a force in the fight to help consumers mitigate one of their greatest financial risks, the need for long term care, under the competent and insightful leadership of Ryan Hogan.

A good measure of the passion for LTCI that I express periodically in this column, and at industry conferences and BGA gatherings, is fueled by the insight, knowledge, mentorship and genuine consumer concern enthusiastically gifted by the always extended hand of Nick Hogan.  He was one of those wonderful bright spots you could always count on to bring a welcome smile in the midst of the rigors of bustling conferences.  He will be greatly and widely missed.  Rest in peace my friend.[SPH]

I’m privileged to announce that the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies (NAILBA) presented Peter Holden, CEO of CPS Insurance Services, Newport Beach, CA, with the 2016 Douglas Mooers Award for Excellence, at a special awards dinner held November 18, 2016, as part of the association’s annual meeting, NAILBA 35. NAILBA’s most coveted and prestigious accolade, the Mooers Award honors distinction in brokerage and is bestowed upon the individual most committed to furthering independent life brokerage as a distribution system, and who demonstrates an exemplary record of community service.

Raised in Kenya and educated in Switzerland, Holden came to the U.S. in 1960, and has encouraged many others to become U.S. citizens since becoming one himself in 1963. He began his career in the insurance industry in 1964 as an agent for State Mutual.  He founded CPS Insurance Services in 1974 with partner John Fazio, and CPS Insurance Services grew to become one of the nation’s leading independent brokerage agencies, specializing in Life, Annuities, Disability Income, and Long Term Care products—a distinction that continues to grow under the very capable hands of Holden’s sons Andy and Greg.  Today CPS employs over 50 people and boasts 26 affiliate offices throughout the country.

In presenting the award David Long, NAILBA Immediate Past Chairman, noted that Holden is considered by many to have had a hand in building the independent brokerage distribution system that the vast majority of BGAs use today.

Holden served as NAILBA’s Chairman in 1994.  He has also served as the President of Orange County Life Underwriters, the president of the California Life Underwriters, as a regional membership chairman to the National Association of Life Underwriters and received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors/California (NAIFA) in 2005. He was a member of the Board of Directors for Life Happens back when it was the Life Foundation. He has contributed to several major insurance publications including Broker World, and serves on BGA advisory councils for numerous carriers.

He is passionate about giving back to his local community. Holden supports an extensive list of local foundations and businesses, including the Foundation for the Arts, which keeps art programs alive in the local schools and community. He has served in numerous leadership roles for Orange County’s St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital, including the Presidential Partners Committee, the Finance Committee, Care For The Poor Committee, and the campaign steering committee for the new Cancer Center that took nine years to build. He currently serves on the Advisory Board. Further, he has personally endowed a special care room in the cancer ward, a conference room in the surgery unit of the new hospital, and the healing garden in the new Cancer Center. He supports the Public School Foundation, which raises money for extra school programs, the Philharmonic Society, which brings children from all over the country to the music center for special programs, and the Lake Arrowhead Community Hospital, which enables the small, community hospital to exist.

With the help of some CPS team members, Peter recently developed the CPS EPIC Foundation, which gives back to the community through various fundraising efforts. The most recent fundraiser raised over $1,200 for the Orange County Women’s Transitional Living Center.

 His family will tell you that his most significant commitment was always to them. He was a loving husband to his wife of 52 years, Gail, until her passing in 2013. Their two sons joined him as leaders in the brokerage community, and he is a doting grandfather to Emily, Max and Charlie.

Congratulations to Peter and the whole CPS family—recognition long overdue for a brokerage pioneer and a cornerstone of the industry we enjoy today.[SPH]

“What a long, strange trip it’s been.”  – Grateful Dead

The first issue of Broker World was September/October 1980. Fifty-two pages, eight feature articles and 27 advertisers.  The predecessor of this column was simply titled “Welcome…:” and our illustrious founder and sage William Howard explained the decision to launch the first new insurance magazine for agents in 25 years thus: “Our decision to do so was based on the conviction that a factor already significant in the total marketing equation is destined to increase dramatically in importance during the years to come.  The name of that factor is brokerage.”  He continued, “At the present time consumer demands and inflationary pressures are both generating unprecedented diversity of product and, some believe, mandating greater efficiency in marketing than traditional systems afford.”

The lead editorial was by George G. Joseph, CLU, president, Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association, titled Brokerage Today And Tomorrow.  Other articles covered risk underwriting; a panel of experts predicting where life insurance marketing would go in the next decade, the direction of cash value life insurance, and increasing flexibility in life products; Retired Lives Reserve; the advantages of reaching impaired risk clients; a “moral risks” discussion; and an underwriting look at Epilepsy. Ads in the issue included Retired Lives Reserve products, small group, and impaired risk, impaired risk and impaired risk.

In November 1990 editor extraordinaire Sharon Chace reported on a speech by ACLI President Richard Schweiker to the 101st annual meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors of America.  Schweiker spoke on the hot topics of the challenges of AIDS and the possible pitfalls of genetic testing. Our intrepid publisher discussed the merits of a BGA serving as many agents as possible and limiting involvement versus nurturing a smaller cadre of agents and providing, as nearly as possible, their every need in the business.  The conclusion? The very best went down both roads at once, attempting to gradually gain credibility, agent confidence and finally commitment through superior service.  Articles covered a variety of substandard and specialty risks in the life, international and disability markets; survivorship life and estate planning for the 90s; and a LIMRA piece outlining the industry’s growth over the past 50 years and eerily outlining where our industry would be in the next 50 years. Companies were advertising annuities with 9.25 to 9.5 percent first year yields or better with one time bonus up to five percent, universal life interest at 9.25 percent, a plethora of group health plans, and there were a bunch of impaired risk ads.

The November 2000 issue saw Ms. Chace announce the selection of two prominent NAILBA members to the LIFE foundation (now Life Happens) board, outlined NAILBA involvement and commitment to the Life foundation and espoused the benefits to both from their association.  Articles again predominantly explored health and impaired risk considerations across the spectrum from agent responsibility to lab results to carrier considerations. Ads featured annuity first year interest rates from 10 to 12 percent, equity indexed annuities, 30 year guaranteed level term, multiple variable product ads, a variety of LTCI ads from carriers who have subsequently exited the business, cigar or pipe as non-smoker…and many impaired risk ads.

November 2010’s underwriting articles focused on the importance of relationships in the impaired risk market, the importance of setting proper expectations, and the ways revamping underwriting and application processing can drive new opportunities.  Sharon Chace examined the beginnings of NAILBA in 1981-82 and the key role SUB-Centers (The Society of Underwriting Brokers) played in it’s formation.  Advertisers offered annuities with (gulp) 3.20 percent first year interest or 2.35 with a five percent premium bonus, indexed universal life, no lapse universal life, lifetime income benefit riders, tech advances creating ease of doing business with carriers, and ads from impaired risk specialists.

This November issue features articles on financial justification; the importance of field underwriting; medically underwritten SPIAs for financing elder care; living benefits to fund experimental cancer treatment; and the underwriting of settlements designed specifically for long term care.  (And this self indulgent stroll down memory lane.)  Ads include indexed annuities, fixed annuity with income rider, indexed universal life, variable life, whole life, term insurance, accelerated underwriting, living benefits, DI, contingency coverage, LTCI, asset-based LTC protection…and impaired risk.

So what’s the point?  Where exactly brokerage is heading is a topic best left for our industry’s sages rather than this silver spooner, but some questions beg asking:  Will our industry see significant recovery from nearly a decade of artificially suppressed interest rates that will allow carriers to again become more aggressive in product design and risk selection? Will SPDAs and SPIAs again enjoy something better than “Yes, but…” status?  Will carriers reenter the mostly abandoned markets of stand-alone LTCI and disability income?  Will our industry step up and re-develop a financially defensible way for brokers to specialize on the vastly underserved middle market and how? In what ways will the race to speed underwriting via tech advances affect the substandard market?  Is brokerage now becoming the dutifully welcomed, increasingly compliant, differently-mothered stepchild of the career system, where comparatively fewer producers means there are enough “just send us your healthy and wealthy” prospects to keep the dedicated more than busy enough to secure a very nice lifestyle and carrier boardrooms comfortable with easily defensible, increasingly conservative risk management?  Will the desire to place protection for the families of the impaired grey and fall away like my once-Prince-Valiant-like luxurious black locks?  Or will brokerage reinvent itself and make the dedicated pursuit to secure protection for all clients rich and not so…healthy and not so…again a challenging but exciting, rewarding, and satisfying lifelong career choice for a new generation of independent insurance producers?

For now, I just applaud each of the brave grey strands that cling to my scalp for another day.[SPH]

“Together, more or less in line, just keep truckin’ on…”

I am writing this column from an undisclosed location, fearing the wrath of the vast, uncountable, tens of protesters gleefully chronicled by the mainstream media marching on cities throughout the country chanting “Not My Editor And Publisher!”  Let them eat cake.

Disregarding, for the purposes of this column, who should or shouldn’t be residing in the Bastille, I chose to attack another media mantra—that of the insurance company, and our industry as a whole, as a greedy, heartless plaything of the one percenters.

I’ve been blessed to be named to the board of the NAILBA Charitable Foundation, where I’ve served for almost four years and have seen firsthand a small fraction of the great generosity our industry possesses for those less fortunate than ourselves. The NAILBA Charitable Foundation is the philanthropic arm of NAILBA. 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, Foundation grants have helped charitable organizations in the communities in which NAILBA members live and work.  From 2009 to present the foundation had granted nearly $2 million to worthy charities and the Life Happens Scholarship Program.  $985,000 in just the four years I have served on the board.

Through the generosity of NAILBA members and corporate partners in the past year, the NAILBA Charitable Foundation was able to award $220,000 this year to members’ local charities and Life Happens. Recipients included the Alexander Leigh Center for Autism, Crystal Lake, IL, sponsored by Bill Bovinette, Life Guys, Inc., Fountain Hills, AZ, recipient of the Col. J. William Felton III Grant, named after the NAILBA Charitable Foundation’s founder.  (Pictured are Bill and Susan Bovinette, presenting the Felton Grant check to Kelly Weaver.)

Also receiving grants were: Caruso Family Charities, Lakewood, CO; Promises 2 Kids, San Diego, CA; CAPTAIN Youth and Family Services, Clifton Park, NY; Children’s Cancer Association, Portland, OR; Downtown Ministries, Athens, GA; Rainbows For Kids, St. Louis, MO; Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Little Rock, AR; Amos House, Providence, RI; Child Help Children’s Advocacy Center of East Tennessee, Knoxville, TN; Delta Gamma Center for Children with Visual Impairments, St. Louis, MO; Hooves to Heal, Marengo, IL; Simon’s Fund, Lafayette Hill, PA; Reach-A-Child, Madison, WI; The Arc of San Diego, San Diego, CA;  Songs of Love Foundation, Forest Hills, NY; Children’s Cancer Network, Chandler, AZ; and Life Happens.

Over 250 carriers, vendors, BGAs and marketing organizations contributed to the NAILBA Charitable Foundation for the 2016 grant cycle, and of special note were particularly generous contributions from: Legal & General America, Prudential, Genworth, LifeMark Partners, The Marketing Alliance, AimcoR Group, Protective Life, BRAMCO, Foresters, National Brokerage Agency (NBA), and Mutual of Omaha.

For more information on the NAILBA Charitable Foundation, or to donate, visit: www.nailba.org/foundation/home.

My experience with charitable work in our industry is by no means limited to the NAILBA Charitable Foundation however.  I applaud Brokers’ Service Marketing Group, Providence, RI, featured in each November’s issue, for organizing their premier producer engagement event around their annual charity golf tournament.  In the 15 years that BSMG has held the event they have raised nearly $1 million for two deserving charities in their area and should be recognized as an organization that should be emulated by all.

Further, over the past two years I have run numerous news releases focused on carriers’ sizeable charitable endeavors, and run features on the efforts of National Life through their foundation and on Foresters and their contributions to children throughout the country.  Up for 2017 is Allianz and their incredible work in their community, as well as others throughout the year.  I encourage you to utilize these, and other stories with which you are familiar, to help sway public opinion one client or prospect at a time.

Our industry has paid out many billions in death claims in its history, and I doubt many grieving spouses or families have found those checks repellant.  Yet the mainstream media has been diligent and surprisingly successful in painting the insurance industry as heartless.  It seems to me that diatribes against our industry, and the collateral damage inflicted on those least able to cope with the tragic loss of a loved one by nurturing them to resent insurance companies as a whole and thus remain unprotected, are the acts of parties committed to an, at best, irresponsible agenda and with a truly heartless disregard for the people they claim to champion. [SPH]

I have a great appreciation for impaired risk underwriting and the carriers, BGAs and brokers who work actively at finding coverage at a fair rate for those with medical conditions (or, more personally culpable, eating habits and other albatrosses…albatrii?) that place them outside the marble palaces of the super preferred, the gated communities of the  preferred, or even the four bedroom, three and a half bath comfort of the stalwart standards.  Now I’m not quite a grass mat in a yurt, but I digress.

The brokerage business has its roots in the substandard market, finding coverage for those clients spurned by more conservative career carriers.  As more aggressive pricing followed the increased awareness of actual risk, competition for those qualifying for standard or better classifications increased and what today we view as being of best service to those in need—finding the best product/price balance for customers, healthy or less so—unfairly branded many with a scarlet letter. Fortunately that perception has morphed by and large into a realistic view of greater choice equals being of greater service.

Service to those in need, healthy or less, is the moral payday for insurance professionals.  Career or independent, many carrier contracts or just a few.  I had a conversation with a young (and new) producer a number of years ago, who happened to be employed by a captive/career company but found himself attending a brokerage meeting with his broker father.  The lightbulb of greater choice was beginning to glow, and he questioned whether he was actually doing a disservice to his customers by hard-selling his very limited life product selection.  My counsel to him was to continue his career for the present, pointing out that he was gaining valuable knowledge that would make him a better advisor as his path, with the ultimate goal of independence entrenched, progressed.  I suggested that he recognize that even though he was perhaps not as able as his father to find the best products for his customers, that as his prospects’ initial, or perhaps only, contact with a life insurance salesperson, he was still providing much needed coverage for families who quite likely would have none without him.

LIMRAs Facts About Life 2016, prepared for this year’s Life Insurance Awareness Month in cooperation with Life Happens, bear out this disheartening truth.  Just one of many helpful items in the fact sheet: In 2016, more households who believe they need more life insurance say the reason they haven’t purchased is because they haven’t been approached by a financial professional (25 percent in 2010 versus 35 percent in 2016).

Its perhaps not statistically defensible, but I would add that another percentage of families remain un- or under-protected due to attitudes simmered by a liberal media and their fawned-upon icons who portray “Insurance Companies” as monolithic, heartless institutions serving as hedonistic financial playgrounds for the ultra rich.  Our industry’s consumer advertising unfortunately too rarely does much to mitigate this belief, often talking about ways to amass income for a comfortable retirement in conditions outside the experience of many potential consumers.

Many of you advisors/brokers/producers/agents make a very nice living providing retirement, estate and legacy counsel to those who’ve done well for themselves in their business careers.  More power to you!  Don’t think for a moment that I think one shouldn’t reap the rewards of hard work, prudent investment and or innovative thought.  The “one percent” and many thousands of conservatives are employing the vast majority of the people bitching about them, providing the income that pays not only for the poster board and markers they brandish at their marches, but their parents’ Subarus, Volvos and Escalades that they drove to the rallies while texting on their iPhones.

I have a dear friend who has absolutely lost his mind during this current election cycle, one more vitriolically polarizing than any I can remember.  I, and my blood pressure, are fortunate not to be on Facebook, but my wife is, and friended him several years before the recent primaries.  I occasionally get a masochistic twinge and listen to her renditions of several of his 20+ daily posts demonizing a particular entrepreneur and all who feel compelled to vote for him.  Steadfast in his manic denial of any legitimate mitigating factor and deafeningly silent on any of the treacheries of his second choice, he “works” for an entrepreneur who apparently allows him a great deal of time each day for Facebook.  Either that or he feels the time he’s stealing from his employer makes him somehow closer akin to his Jesse James as Robin of Locksley candidate.

By the time many of you read this the election will be decided and we will find a way to adapt to either a semblance of responsible economic policy or another four years of industry adverse conditions (to say nothing of a Supreme Court even more determined to turn the Constitution into a left-wing comic book).

My elusive point is this:  No widow receiving a death benefit check has a negative feeling about life insurance beyond wishing there had been more. Those who’ve been fortunate enough to create a decent retirement and estate already appreciate our industry for what you can provide, but less so those for whom a $100,000 or $250,000 death benefit could make a huge difference in the future of their families.

Your efforts every day provide immeasurable solace for families in crisis, and for that you should be applauded, rather than sneered at by proxy.  But my feeling is that the most effective way to lessen the traction of our detractors is by reaching out to serve those lower commission clients—filling the void of those without insurance advisor contact—and thus changing perceptions one future grieving but grateful family at a time.[SPH]

It is not a coincidence that the Agent Best Practices issue contains our annual DI Forum.  I have long held that any insurance advisor—life or annuity producer, health agent, worksite benefits specialist, financial advisor, registered rep, estate planner, and even property and casualty agent—should have the income protection conversation with each and every employed client.  For the vast majority of consumers an extended disability would be very disruptive if not catastrophic to virtually every aspect of their well crafted lives.

Without the ability to fund plans and pay bills, estate and legacy plans are eroded.  Premiums on life, health, home and auto coverages go unpaid and policies lapse.  Private school tuitions and college funding plans become unrealistic.  Mortgages, utilities, food and clothing needs become suddenly problematic.  Even with medical insurance, the attendant costs of the illness or injury are myriad and drive families deeply in debt.  You lose commissions on current and future sales, renewal income and naturally referrals.  And if, as a conscientious advisor, you grow to care deeply about the wellbeing of your clients you lose sleep.

LIMRA, along with Life Happens, conducts an annual Insurance Barometer Study, and produces a very useful fact sheet each year for Disability Insurance Awareness Month.  The 2016 version repeats the statistic that 7 in 10 working Americans understand the importance of disability insurance, yet only one third have coverage.  A clue lies in the middle stairstep of this research:  72 percent of respondents believe most people need disability insurance; 33 percent say they own disability insurance; but only 55 percent say “I need disability insurance.”

Theories abound surrounding the disconnect with the public:  The idea that “it won’t happen to me”;  human nature and procrastination; the idea that DI isn’t affordable for many; the old “but what if I never use it?”; and many others.  The very disconcerting fact that comes from many conversations with DI devotees, and from several of Life Happens’ Real Life Stories,  is that many consumers relate that simply no one had approached them about buying an income protection product or had a meaningful conversation with them about the very real risk of a disability and the potentially devastating effects.

This, in my opinion, is both our industry’s great shame and our most easily correctable ethical error.

Also no coincidence is that October is the month chosen for the annual conference of the International DI Society (IDIS)—this year’s meeting (the group’s 12th) to be held October 15-18 in beautiful Charleston, SC.  The group’s mission statement: 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.  Member benefits include: the annual conference, industry information, a company directory, DI Coach Referral Action Program,  education and disability insurance designations, IDIS study groups, a LinkedIn discussion group, producer videos, affiliate associations and societies, available publications for purchase, and a speakers bureau.

I encourage each of you to join the International DI Society and attend the annual conference—either to further hone your income protection sales approach or to perhaps solidify a commitment to better pursuing this crucial protection for all your clients and prospects.  I ask you to look at your family, your home(s), your car(s), your clothes, the summer vacation photos on your phone, and the plate of food in front of you—have you personally taken the steps to protect these by insuring your own income?  And most important—your clients bought all these things for you.  Don’t you owe them at least a diligent effort on your part to protect their incomes so that they can continue to enjoy these same things themselves?

To find out more about the International DI Society, visit www.internationaldisociety.com or email info@internationaldisociety.com.[SPH] 

September is, at least for the September 2016 version of this column, quite simply the most important month of the year.  Arguments can, and perhaps will, be made for any of the other months—I may be unwittingly exposing my company and person to mass protests on the streets of suburban Kansas City by both dedicated April Fools (despite a well-documented case for honorary lifetime membership) and armies of sandal-candle, tree-hugging, wood-hippie Arbor Day devotees.  As a dedicated print publisher and, by default, unrepentant tree killer, I assure you that it won’t be the first time I’ve had to pay to have ridiculous amounts of maliciously flung sap painstakingly removed from my gas-guzzling SUV.  (Although I personally believe Julius Sterling Morton was just another opportunistic demagogue, as a service to my ideological adversaries I offer you the Arbor Day Foundation’s website—www.arborday.org.  Apparently the national recognition of this momentous holiday—thanks to Richard Nixon—is celebrated annually on the last Friday in April…they even have a countdown clock on the website…no kidding.)

Coinciding with the relieved sighs of countless millions of parents celebrating their own interpretation of no child left behind, September marks, for many, the ability to return to work, responsibility and service at least less interrupted.  In our universe it also beckons two of the most significant events in our industry—Life Insurance Awareness Month (LIAM) and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors’ (NAIFA) Annual Conference.

To make sure Americans are reminded of the need to include life insurance in their financial plans, the nonprofit organization Life Happens (formerly known as the Life Foundation) coordinates Life Insurance Awareness Month. Life Happens is joined in this educational initiative by more than 100 of the nation’s leading insurance companies and industry groups.

I implore you to join Life Happens (www.lifehappens.org), both to support this worthy organization and to avail yourself of a wealth of agent resources to use in your marketing campaigns, in client education and in spreading the word at a grass roots level about the benefits of life insurance.  Despite the public perception of the endlessly deep pockets of insurance companies, no entity has the funds to truly combat widespread liberal media and office seekers’ portrayals of our industry as opportunists merely feeding heartless financial monoliths, and Life Happens is no exception.  But they do offer you a vast array of tools to influence one or more minds at a time in your communities.

Perhaps the best known of these resources is Life Happens’ series of Real Life Stories, available as flyers or even embeddable videos, that reinforce the need for life insurance in powerful, emotional ways.

Perhaps less known but powerfully demonstrative of our industry’s compassion for others, Life Happens sponsors the annual Life Lessons Scholarship Program for college students and college-bound high school seniors. Qualified entrants who submit essays or videos about how the death of a parent impacted their lives are eligible for scholarship money. Over a million dollars in college scholarships have been awarded over the years. The total of scholarships for the 2016 Program is $260,000, to be awarded in various amounts to 33 young people struggling to afford a college education due to the loss of a parent or guardian.  Individual contributions are accepted from those wishing to support this important initiative. Your financial support can make a world of difference, and donations to the Life Lessons Fund are tax-deductible.  Donations can be made at https://www.lifehappens.org/life-lessons-scholarship-program/donate-to-life-lessons.

Over three decades serving the insurance industry has left me still an ardent advocate for the NAIFA organization (formerly NALU).  Any internal debate about the self-serving benefits of NAIFA you may recognize need be addressed elsewhere, despite the preponderance of member benefits represented on the NAIFA website (www.naifa.org).  From industry advocacy to a wealth of practice resources and professional development programs, NAIFA certainly has a great deal to offer both the established insurance professional and the early career advisor.  And therein the artfully-crafted segue.

My experience in the industry was indelibly etched with memories of early NAHU conventions.  Not as much by the well-presented programs or the boisterous “networking” during breaks and in the evenings, as by countless times that I saw respected veterans of this industry take time for either a few minutes of simple encouragement or for lengthy, in-depth mentoring of young agents trying to make their way in the business.  In my capacity as neophyte servant to the industry, I was often the beneficiary of both as well.  Too many great guys from the Kansas delegation to even try to mention.

While the pursuit of financial wellbeing is certainly still a consideration today, I assume that most, if not all, of us must recognize that at the ethical heart of our industry is the mandate to be of service to our fellow man in our unique way—protecting families and legacy wishes through the sales of insurance products.  I contend that those who today enjoy a comfortable life, earned as a result of dutiful service to consumers, have still a further moral mandate to pass their knowledge, compassion, ethics and sense of purpose to those less experienced men and women who are trying to forge a career in our industry—by not only steering them to NAIFA but by welcoming them yourselves when they walk through the door.  Give back to the industry that has treated you well—at your local level, and by providing yourself as a resource at the 2016 NAIFA Annual Conference.  Plus it’s in Vegas.  Register at http://www.naifa.org/events/performance-purpose-2016-annual-conference. [SPH]

Undying thanks go out to Claude Thau, Thau, Inc./Target Insurance Services, and the great folks at Milliman, Dawn Helwig, Allen Schmitz, Nicole Gaspar and Taylor Schmidt, for their tireless work in producing both last month’s 2016 Long Term Care Insurance Survey and this month’s 2016 Analysis Of Worksite LTC Insurance.  Broker World has been truly blessed to be able to provide the industry’s most comprehensive studies of LTCI products and trends for 18 years now, and it is only through the efforts of these fine champions of our industry that we are able to be of service to you, our readers, in this manner.

It is perhaps an unwitting philosophical disservice that the LTCI study appear in this issue, with a focus on brokerage niche marketing.  Included are four fine articles about various niche products and niche marketing approaches, but their proximity to a long term care insurance study now tilts this column into further discourse on a seemingly impossible dream.  Panzamonium.

Whether I wear the mantle of the witty squire or that of his delusional knight is problematic and presently beyond my powers of introspection.

BusinessDictionary.com defines niche marketing as “concentrating all marketing efforts on a small but specific and well defined segment of the population. Niches do not ‘exist’ but are ‘created’ by identifying needs, wants, and requirements that are being addressed poorly or not at all by other firms, and developing and delivering goods or services to satisfy them. As a strategy, niche marketing is aimed at being a big fish in a small pond instead of being a small fish in a large pond.”

Therein lies the disheartening paradox. Our industry is behaving as though LTCI, and further, DI, are niche products, and dedicated LTCI and DI product champions are niche marketers.  It is my perception, and that of many of my industry friends, that brokers who diligently pursue providing these products to their clients are comparatively few in number—one might think this would label them big fish?  Yet their target market is vast—an incredibly large pond.  Virtually everyone in the country who: Is employed or has an income and is not barely scraping by to provide basic necessities (food, shelter, clothing); Is not so vastly wealthy that they cannot possibly exhaust their resources in their lifetime; Has not gained irrefutable knowledge of their future sudden demise without need of services; Doesn’t give a hoot if they become a pitied and resented burden on their loved ones; Has a medical condition that definitely eliminates them from obtaining any type of LTCI or DI policy; Has absolutely no legacy ideals or desire to benefit their heirs.  I’m sure there are a few others.  But it’s these people who fit the description of a niche market—a small but specific and well defined segment of the population—not the eligible customers for DI and LTCI protection.

So how does the brokerage industry rate on “…the needs, wants and requirements that are being addressed poorly or not at all by other firms?”  On “…developing and delivering goods or services to satisfy them?”

Facts from LIMRA for Disability Insurance Awareness Month:

• Over half of working Americans worry about the effects of a disability. Among younger workers the percentages are higher.

• The average worker faces a 3 in 10 chance of suffering a job loss lasting 90 days or more due to a disability.

• More than half of all personal bankruptcies and mortgage foreclosures are a consequence of disability.

• Seven in ten working Americans understand the importance of disability insurance, yet only one-third have coverage.

Facts from LongTermCare.gov:

• 70 percent of people turning age 65 can expect to use some form of long-term care during their lives.

• Women need care longer (3.7 years) than men (2.2 years).

• One-third of today’s 65 year-olds may never need long-term care support, but 20 percent will need it for longer than five years.

According to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance, 2014 LTCi Sourcebook, only 8.1 million Americans were protected with long term care insurance.

Those morsels indicate some pretty darn panoramic niches.

With only a figurative handful of carriers serving the LTCI and/or DI markets, and relatively few fish earnestly serving the need, the industry as a whole is shirking its responsibility to deliver DI and LTCI risk abatement solutions to American consumers as a whole.  But perhaps more disheartening (and shaming) are the multitudes of eligible customers in brokers’ client lists who have not been legitimately informed of the risks they face, the benefits that are available, the true need for coverage and the full range consequences they face by refusing to pursue coverage.  It should be the ethical if not moral duty of all financial professionals to diligently pursue DI and LTCI solutions for their clients—those same clients whose premiums provided countless hot meals, season tickets, fancy cars, nice homes, memorable vacations, designer clothes and nice schools for the families of insurance professionals they trusted to provide the coverage needed to protect their own families.

Combo policies, hybrids and linked benefits are undeniably helping, but the numbers of the underserved are still staggering.  This problem is no windmill. [SPH]