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]
