Q: What tips and experience can you share about the process of grooming agency successors into leadership roles?
Ash Brokerage
First, you have to have willing people—people who have a passion and intelligence about the business—and their skills will come with time. We believe it’s not as important to teach someone as it is to give them the opportunity to learn and grow. Back when Tim was learning the ropes, I brought him to an event and asked him to speak—there were no presentation courses or prep work, I just let him think on his feet. It turned out fine, and with more experience, he became an excellent public speaker.
So the best advice we can give a leader is to say, “Help us find a better way. What ideas do you have to solve this?” Give people freedom and opportunity to try their creativity. It doesn’t always work, but we gain wonderful knowledge going through the process.
Brokers Alliance
One of the greatest advantages David had when taking over as the CEO was that he had worked in every division of the company. From case management and licensing to marketing and IT, David spent time actually doing the work of the employees he would soon manage. Without having that level of experience, he would not have had the perspective he did when taking over. This perspective is what led to the integration of new technologies and processes to make each division more efficient and more profitable. Prior to taking on that endeavor, David started a company at the age of 19 and grew it to 14+ employees by the time he was 22. David already had the propensity and entrepreneurial spirit to succeed when I ended up asking him to merge his businesses with Brokers Alliance. I felt that the online marketing and technology based organizations he built would couple perfectly with the type of revolutionary growth I envisioned for the company.
Insurance Designers of Dallas
Brokerage is changing faster than at any previous time in its existence. There is more pressure on the agency in terms of pay outs, knowledge and service. The key is helping strike the right balance for the future generations to protect margin while not losing market share. Also positioning the agency in all possible markets such as wirehouses, property and casualty, and other producer categories. Being in a 12 person office allows “walk around management.” We are generally aware of what each of us is working on. We can readily exchange “best practices” advice for transitioning.
Q: What steps does your agency take to maintain, respect and accommodate “old school” long-standing producer relationships?
Ash Brokerage
We remain very hands-on in managing relationships, especially with our most loyal producers. As our structure grows and changes, we try to respect the bonds that advisors may have made with particular team members (RVPs, case managers, underwriters, etc.) and do our best to ensure they can continue to work with them. Any changes we make should be to help them, so any disruptions should be kept to a minimum.
We also prefer to keep a lot of “feet on the street” with visits and events. Personally, I flew more than 120,000 miles this year to attend industry meetings, Ash Brokerage Roadshows and other events where we can meet one-on-one with advisors. Though I know how to send emails, I still respect the power of a handshake.
Brokers Alliance
It was really important for Brokers Alliance to ensure we maintained bedrock relationships while building new ones. To accomplish this, the succession plan was designed to take place over a period of time. I spent a lot of years still maintaining these relationships while including David more and more in each of them. Over time, David has grown a culture of renewed purpose and expanded possibilities with the legacy producers and their successors, and innovation to enhance the foundation that I originally laid 35 years ago. Although David purchased 100% of the stock in Brokers Alliance six years ago, I still stay on as an advisor and provide guidance and advice on how to maintain old relationships and build new ones while facilitating the marketing of new competitive products with carrier partners.
Insurance Designers of Dallas
Our philosophy is to provide the best service and total experience as possible regardless of who their marketing representative is. We try to foster a team environment so that a producer feels they can reach out to anyone in our agency. Training and sales meetings for our producers are a great time for them to get familiar with all of the staff.
Q: What are some key ways the thinking of the younger generation has been instrumental in the growth of your agency?
Ash Brokerage
A lot of people call Tim a visionary, and I agree. His vision for the future of our firm—and the entire insurance industry—has been a driving force in our business. We understand the need for change and we want to be a leader in change, but we want to always remain true to our foundational values. A lot of the younger people we’ve added to our team are also visionaries in their own respects. We do our best to empower them to make necessary changes, not only to keep up with new trends, but to discover new opportunities that will help us all succeed.
Brokers Alliance
Technology and Energy. Those two elements have made a huge difference in how Brokers Alliance evolved from an agency that focused on impaired risk term insurance to an all-around life, annuity, LTC, DI, RIA, and medicare supplement firm. The energy is the obvious part, with David bringing on a young executive team that could spend the time and effort to create new departments and strategy. The technology was what really amazed me, and the rest of the industry. I knew David would implement technology to be more efficient internally while integrating agency management and data management tools to help us process business faster. What I didn’t expect was the thinking beyond that level—to look at technology to improve marketing and the sales process for producers. What they are doing with technology to learn about the consumer’s buying habits, to connect to the consumer and agent more efficiently, and to build insurance products that are different than anything we have ever seen is truly amazing.
Insurance Designers of Dallas
Focusing on relationships with young career agents and other markets where we have found new producers is the key here. Our agency has no minimum face amounts and we treat all cases as important. We want to help teach these younger agents the brokerage ropes and make them more confident to expand their practice. We put special emphasis on their business as you never know who will be the next star.
What “old” is still essential, what “new” is inevitable and how does your agency build for the future?
Ash Brokerage
Still essential are relationships, service and a desire to always improve. You must keep the things that work and eliminate the things that don’t. Learning the best ways to communicate with and serve our producers will never stop being important—as their needs change, so must our offerings.
Inevitable is technology and the need to be innovators in this business. We’re tirelessly curious, and we know there’s no such thing as standing still—we’re either going forward or backward. We build for the future by constantly looking ahead and keeping our minds open to new ideas and opportunities. Being privately held, we have the advantage of not needing to be focused on the next quarter’s results—we’re focused on the next quarter century for our producers and our team members.
Brokers Alliance
The “old” that is essential would be to continue to understand that this is a relationship business. As wholesalers we have the relationships with our carriers and our agents. As agents we have the relationship with our BGA and our client. The “new” is how we maintain and fuel these relationships and it’s inevitable that we will continue to evolve our way of communicating. I think education comes with a “new” label as well. We continue to see video and the “digital university” become a major part of doing business and we have to embrace that if we want to survive. The future is going to continue to move toward technology and that is a never ending “new” that we must stay focused on. There are a lot of changes facing our industry, including the recent legislation proposed by the Department of Labor. Controlling costs and constantly striving for efficiency is how an organization like ours will continue to grow despite the challenges this legislation will bring. Technology will be the patch to keep those costs down and allow us to remain profitable during this phase in our industry.
Insurance Designers of Dallas
“Old” is still hands on service. Helping agents through rated and declined cases. Being available at all times for questions and guidance. This never changes. “New” will be adapting to processes like E-applications and other drop ticket concepts. We have to really double down on teaching producers new market and sales opportunities. This is our new challenge. Carriers are developing new and more consumer friendly products but they are ever more complex. The challenge is to get the producer on board with the significant and certain changing product and market landscape. This is not an easy task. We are truly in a period that will test the brokerage model as a viable distribution tool. There could be changes in the whole definition of what a brokerage agency is or is not.
Ash Brokerage
Headquartered in Fort Wayne, IN, Ash Brokerage has been a family-operated insurance brokerage firm since it was founded by Jim Ash in 1971. They’ve grown to become the largest independently owned insurance brokerage general agency in the United States, serving financial professionals nationwide. As a gateway to more than 80 top-rated insurance carriers, they seek to give objective, unbiased solutions for risk management, including life insurance, annuities, disability income and long-term care.
Today, Jim remains active as a member of the Ash Brokerage board of directors, and he works from his home office in Naples, FL. Tim joined the company when he was young and worked in nearly every position before becoming CEO. Many other family members are active in the business as well.
Ash Brokerage can be contacted via telephone at: 800-589-3000. Website: www.ashbrokerage.com.
Brokers Alliance
Brokers Alliance has been a presence in insurance distribution and support for over 35 years. Founded in Illinois by Joseph Racich, a recognized pioneer and visionary in insurance distribution and support for independent professionals, Brokers Alliance relocated to Fountain Hills, Arizona, in 1995. Since its inception, Brokers Alliance has grown steadily to become one of the largest major distributors of life insurance, annuity, long term care, disability insurance, and RIA solutions with offices in 11 states.
Joe started writing life insurance as an independent broker in 1978. He founded his general agency, RAAN Marketing, Inc., in 1982. Joe founded the first Brokers Alliance in the town of Homewood, IL, and expanded in 1995 by establishing the Fountain Hills, Arizona office. Joe’s ability to see opportunities in his field are unparalleled. Thus, he is seen as a pioneer of innovation in the insurance marketing industry and has been awarded top contracts and annual sales awards each year.
A new era began when Joe’s son, David Racich, acquired Brokers Alliance and merged his online marketing and software development company into Brokers Alliance. David was a leader in the early days of internet marketing at developing and operating online platforms and sales call centers. David’s associate in those early years of internet marketing, Eric Palmer, has assumed the chief marketing officer leadership role for the firm, while long-time staffer Jessica Lopez took on the responsibility of chief operating officer. Today, Brokers Alliance boasts a staff of 50+ associates working at the corporate offices in Fountain Hills, AZ, and throughout the United States. Joe Racich remains involved in developing innovative insurance product solutions. For more information about Brokers Alliance visit www.brokersalliance.com.
