Art Jetter & Company, Brokers Clearing House and Mike Levy Associates, Inc.
Art Jetter & Company
Omaha, NE
Art Jetter was a Guarantee Mutual Life insurance agent for eight years. The last few years were increasingly focused on doing advanced joint case work with other producers. That joint work led to the founding of our brokerage general agency. We’ve been focused on life, long term care, medical, DI, medigap, group and annuities ever since. Our Chief Operating Officer A.C. Jetter joined the firm in 1996 while getting a degree in information science and technology. We started our succession planning in earnest five years ago.
Brokers Clearing House
West Des Moines, IA
Brokers Clearing House (BCH) is based in West Des Moines, IA, and has operated under family ownership since 1975. The firm began with Robert Hoefer, who hired his daughter Barbara Hoefer Crowley in 1977. Barbara’s son, Rob, joined the company five years ago.
BCH is a national distributor of life insurance, annuities, long term care and disability income insurance. We work with advisors of all types who come to us from banks, P&C agencies, broker/dealers, investment firms and traditional carriers. We provide high touch service to these advisors, which we individualize for their needs.
Mike Levy Associates, Inc.
New Orleans, LA
Mike Levy Associates, Inc., is a life brokerage agency located in the Greater New Orleans area, doing business since 1952. Founded by Michel “Mike” Levy, CLU, ChFC, the agency originally specialized in impaired risk underwriting. For many years the agency primarily represented The Manhattan Life Insurance Company of New
York and their sister company, Manhattan National Life. Their other specialty was group life ancillary products, also part of the Manhattan portfolio. Mike was not only the brokerage general agent soliciting surplus business from career agents when they needed to go outside their primary carriers in order to meet their client needs, but was also a Million Dollar Round Table life and qualifying member, serving a substantial personal client base. During the 1950s and 1960s, Mike was known to his agents and clients as “the man from Manhattan.”
Mike and his wife, Gloria, had three children, and once they were all away in college, Gloria worked part time as bookkeeper in the agency. Their daughter, Michel Levy Boudreaux, LUTCF, started working part time in the agency summers and weekends during high school and college, became licensed and joined the agency full time in 1977 upon graduation from college. In 1981, Mike was one of the five original founders of National Brokerage Agencies, Inc. (NBA), which today is one of the largest and oldest marketing groups in our industry.
Michel served as brokerage supervisor until Mike’s death in 1992, when she became president and brokerage general agent. By then the agency had diversified and offered a full line of competitive life insurance products with multiple carriers, but Michel’s area of expertise remained the same as her father’s, impaired risk cases. In 1999, Michel’s husband, Kevin Boudreaux, joined the agency as business manager, following a 22-year career in country club management.
Today, sixty-two years later, Mike Levy Associates, Inc. is run by Michel and Kevin, and their area of expertise is offering “concierge” service to their agents. Their product line includes full life, long term care, annuity and Medicare supplement, as well as group life and ancillary products. Due to their membership in NBA, they are able to meet their agent needs with virtually any company in the industry. Once an agent starts working with them on their cases, they rarely go elsewhere due to the personalized, hands-on, white glove treatment they receive. They may work with fewer agents, but instead of getting one or two cases here or there, they get virtually all of each agent’s business.
Q: What is your advice regarding the issues of transition of ownership and of leadership within a multi-generation general agency?
Jetter: Although family ownership is a wonderful possibility, a truly successful succession comes only if operating our business is a positive personal experience. The only way to know if it is pleasing is to do the work.
It was beneficial to communicate our succession plan to everyone working at our firm. Knowing that the company would continue to operate after the agency principal retires and being familiar with succession leadership leads to long term staff satisfaction.
If there are other family members who are not part of the succession ownership, it is essential for the plan to be integrated into the principal’s estate plan.
Crowley: The sooner the succession plan can be identified and documents put into place, the better. Many families work together for years without funded buy/sell agreements, because it’s “assumed” who will take over. Regular meetings between the generations need to occur to review the plan and the documents as things change. Estate equalization for family who are not in the business needs to be discussed. There is no good reason why these issues have to be dealt with when there is a death, disability or retirement. If everyone in the family knows how things will work it will make for less stress and a more harmonious transition.
Levy: In our particular case, change just evolved, and mostly due to my father’s early death at age 69, we did not have a planned transition except via my father’s will. He also was able to make phone calls prior to his death and make arrangements with our major carriers so that the transition would be smooth. Due to my work in the agency for such a long time, my participation in company meetings, conventions, training, etc., during the prior 20-plus years, it was a smooth transition for us. I am not sure that would be the case today, so even the smallest “mom and pop”-type shop should be urged to have a plan in place.
Q: How has your agency dealt with the grooming of the younger generation into supervisory or leadership roles within the company, as well as the division of responsibility?
Crowley: There is quite a disparity in my age and my son Rob’s age. I have chosen the path my father did of including him in everything feasible in order to give him a broad understanding of not only our agency but the industry as well. While he quickly established his knowledge and his ability, he has not yet been given department or management responsibilities. I felt we needed highly qualified people with more maturity in place between myself and my son. As a result we have a president, COO and CFO as the next layer between us, and everyone involved knows the plan.
Levy: Again, ours is a small operation—Michel and Kevin, husband and wife. Fortunately, our roles are interchangeable when necessary. Obviously, my view for this discussion is based on the transition from my father to my generation. Kevin and I do not have children, so another younger generation is not in the picture at this time. We were, however, surprised recently when a nephew who is an officer in the Army and still has several more years, at least, in his Army career, stated that he might like to get licensed and go into the life insurance business. Never say never!
Jetter: A.C. Jetter started with our firm while he was in college. He was our IT manager. After a few years, it was clear he found personal value in our business. So we discussed potential succession. Over the years he’s worked in each area of our company. For the past five years he has been our chief operating officer.
We are blessed with good friends who experienced family succession and shared their suggestions and experiences with us.
Q: Has the younger generation faced challenges in maintaining and growing producer relationships that were originally forged by the elder generation? What steps has your agency taken to surmount or avoid these challenges?
Levy: This question really brings us back to my father’s last week of life in the hospital. Up until several hours before his death he was visiting with many of our agents in his hospital room and making phone calls to our best agents, telling them he was dying and asking them to please give Michel their support. Many did—and still do today—but it is like anything else, you have to perform to maintain those relationships. For many years we have counted our blessings that we were given that extra time in the last weeks of my dad’s life to have those conversations with our carriers and agents. A lesson from that is not to take proper planning for granted, for had those opportunities been taken from us we believe the transition after his death would have been much more difficult.
Jetter: Many of our relationships started with Art but continued with staff members. We have a terrific team. Karen Nalley, our exceptional chief marketing officer, joined the company in 1988. Karen is an important player in the development and implementation of our succession plan. Our experience and age differences of the three of us helps assure leadership continuity.
Crowley: I did not have this problem following my father, as we worked together for so long that his relationships became mine. We have long term staff who have maintained relationships with our advisors as well. We have involved our successors with our advisors at all levels.
Q: What has been your agency’s approach to maintaining the service, integrity and relationship building foundation of the business while exploring and integrating new ideas, processes and technology?
Jetter: We intend to always provide exceptional customer service. We do our best to measure quality and improve wherever we can. For a decade, A.C. was successfully focused on our technology. He brought document imaging to our firm when imaging was first imagined. Having a tech expert on staff was a valuable asset. So, when it was time for A.C. to lead all of our operations, replacing his IT responsibilities was a serious but necessary challenge. Experience is the best teacher.
Crowley: We were founded and raised on integrity relationships and service. Those characteristics have not been difficult to maintain, regardless of the changes we continue to execute. Without integrity there is nothing. Relationships carry you through good times and bad. Advisors need to know we care. Service is a given and at BCH, where we maintain a high touch model, it is imperative.
Levy: Mike Levy taught both Kevin and myself integrity by example. Personal service is integral and reinforces face-to-face relationships. Technology certainly has made it much easier for two people to operate an agency, attend meetings and still offer good personal service, but we are careful to adopt the newest tech changes once they prove useful and not necessarily jump on the first chance to incorporate all the newest gadgets and techniques. Sometimes that philosophy works in our favor and sometimes not, but it seems to balance out in the long run. The important thing is to keep involved, stay in touch, know what is new and be aware of the changes as they come around so you can make educated decisions.
