NAILBA Perspectives Perspectives Fall 2018 | Page 7

chairman’s corner
Final Thoughts as Your 2018 Chairman
I
JEFFREY D. MOOERS
NAILBA CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
’m typing this on the airplane,
flying back from Sea Island, Geor-
gia, where I just attended the
20th Annual TYGERS meeting.
TYGERS is the name of my Study
Group. Twenty years ago, it stood for
The Young Guns Early Retirement So-
ciety.
Today we might call ourselves
TLMAIDWPAGAAS—The Largely Mid-
dle-Aged Insurance Dudes Who Prob-
ably Aren’t Going Anywhere Anytime
Soon—but that’s not a very cool
name, is it?
We’re a group of 12 BGA’s, all of
whom are at least second generation.
We meet twice a year—once at NAIL-
BA—and we share everything; from
sales to steak sauce, from brokerage
to blankets.
And we talk about the future.
Some of our agencies have changed
a great deal in the past 20 years,
and will continue to do so. Others,
like mine, really haven’t. We’re still
a traditional (which might be anoth-
er word for outdated) service mod-
el—we process business, we manage
cases, we service policies—all while
trying to grow through reputation,
referrals, and some marketing.
Other models, ‘marketing models,’
are focused more on growth than on
service, maybe. This is not to say one
model is better than the other. Profit
is still a fairly important statistic for
most businesses.
Either way, we’ve all adapted to
remain relevant and provide value to
our customers. We’d be gone if we
didn’t.
But this fall, I noticed some newer
trends within our group, and I think
within the BGA space in general. Some
of them surprised me. Some I do my-
self. I’m sure some are controversial
or at least thought provoking…
1.  Money from Somewhere. There’s
health insurance (I guess). There’s
Long Term Care. Linked Benefits. I
think I heard the phrase MedSupp
about 37 times. So, everybody’s
thinking outside the term/UL life
box. That won’t change.
2.  Agency Structure. Satellite offic-
es. Sub BGA’s. Roll-ups. Commis-
sion deals. Exclusivity contracts
with brokers. Point-of-sale. I do
annuities through my Marketing
Organization; I have a guy doing
almost exclusively Linked Bene-
fits who wants to go on the ap-
plication with other brokers, train
them, meet with their clients; I
may sign up to allow an LTC shop
to market to my brokers and split
comp. It’s interesting, to say the
least.
3.  The dreaded PP—Personal Pro-
duction. Remember when this was
absolutely taboo? Even orphan
clients were sent to favorite bro-
kers, or local brokers, or brokers
who showed promise. But today, I
bet most BGAs are keeping orphan
cases internal. Many are directly
competing with their own custom-
ers, their brokers. The cases that
my agency will write this year will
probably put me in our Top 50 Bro-
kers. That’s not saying a ton—it
takes about 50 bucks in premium
for you to be one of my hot shots--
but it’s different.
4. Life Settlements. As I live and
breathe. For shame. But the truth
is, these can be a great source of
revenue, and there are occasions
where it’s the best option for the
client. And besides—with some of
the recent carrier activity…..are
they not, too, in the settlement
business?
‘Exciting’ may be the word.
‘Frightening’ has a shot at being
the word.
‘Intriguing’ and ‘Fascinating’ are
the front runners for the word of the
future.
One thing I’ve learned for sure…..
oh dear, I think I sound like Oprah…
If I wait until the time is perfect, I
missed the opportunity.
It reminds me of the analogy I love
to use about how I learned to water
ski. Granted, everybody groans when
I bring it up, but I like it, so there.
I found that I’d get everything
lined up perfectly in the water—arms
straight, knees bent, ski balanced in
the middle, rope in the right spot…
and then yell “Hit it!” But in the cou-
ple seconds before the boat pulled
me, something had left the delicate
balance, and I toppled over.
But I discovered that if I yelled
“Hit it” and then lined up everything
in a panic, the timing worked, every-
thing aligned right when I needed it
to, and I popped right up.
Now, the moral of the story is NOT
to just randomly do stuff when you’re
not ready. It’s more ‘make the deci-
sion,’ go for it, and you’ll force your-
self where you need to be.
That was awful. It makes little
sense. I apologize.
It sounded good in my head.
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