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Jack Kwicien

Jack Kwicien

Managing partner

Jack Kwicien, an Employee Benefit Adviser columnist, is co-founder of Daymark Advisors, a Baltimore-based consulting and advisory firm. He is also the co-developer of the SMART Benefits Strategic Planning Toolkit and previously founded RewardsPlus.

Morph your business to survive and thrive

Are you wrestling with the need to increase revenues despite compensation compression? (Think commission reductions.) A number of benefits advisers are actively pursuing strategies to migrate a portion or all of their revenues to a fee-based consultancy model. What are you contemplating? Perhaps a strategic alliance is a solution that you can embrace and deploy in your local marketplace. Many advisers are realizing that in order to move up-market (larger size accounts), they need more staff, different skill sets, access to other product solutions and services, and different market perception about their "small" practice.

By Jack Kwicien

Cultivating the ideal client base

Creating a benefits strategic plan for your clients (50 lives and larger) is a great way to engage clients in a discussion about what are they trying to accomplish with their benefits program and expenditures over the next three to five years. Your clients are going to be coping with all the market dynamics and the rippling effects of regulatory compliance, so what they need is a process for managing change. And you can be their "change agent."

By Jack Kwicien

Take the reins in your adviser-client relationships

In a difficult economy, you have to be even more adept at creating value for your clients and their employee population. You need to go beyond being perceived as the point of access to benefits product information and services, and transcend your client's expectations. But that's no small task. How can you do that in these economic conditions when most are being forced to do more with less? Well, the best way we know is to create a multi-year benefits strategic plan. And now is the perfect time of year to initiate such discussions with your existing clients and prospects as well. It is a powerful planning process that will enable you to guide your client's benefits planning for the future.

By Jack Kwicien

Finding the ideal partner

Many of us are growing tired of the colder weather just as we grow weary of the grind of health care reform updates and downdrafts. And all of us are ready for the economy to improve in a meaningful and sustained manner. In some respects it is our winter of discontent. Not to mix literary references, but it is the best of times and it is the worst of times. Which will it be for you? That depends on whether your glass is half empty or half full. And it depends on whether you have a plan to succeed.

By Jack Kwicien

Put it in writing

As we enter a new year, it's a great time to reflect upon what we can do differently to improve results and to make adjustments in operations to respond to the changes in a very dynamic and recently tumultuous marketplace. Clearly that job is considerably easier if you have a written business plan for your business. Since we know that the majority of you do not have written business plans, perhaps now is a great time to consider the creation of a written document for your business.

By Jack Kwicien

Do you have a career goal line?

If you are an aggressive producer, how can you become an agency owner or practice leader? In the November issue EBA contributor Jack Kwicien shares how you can not only play the game, but also take home the trophy but it requires preparation and dedication.

By Jack Kwicien

It’s your future – and your move

Well, here we are at the beginning of the fourth quarter. On the one hand, it hardly seems possible that this year is almost over. On the other, many in our industry have found the beginning of this decade to be very challenging and would prefer to not relive the industry-altering events of the recent past. And when you add in the year of debate that preceded the passage of the health care reform bill, it's really been about two and a half years of difficult and disruptive dialogue and change.

By Jack Kwicien

Connecting with financial officers and CPA firms

We're headlong into the heat of summer and many of you will be taking some well-deserved vacation time. I've found that's often when you do your most creative thinking since you are in a relaxed state of mind. Released from the pressures of day-to-day responsibilities, our thought processes are often more free-form, and new methods for addressing critical issues often emerge. Given all the pressure and additional workload created by health care reform, you probably just want to forget about business for a while.

By Jack Kwicien

Mapping a path for change

If you've ever wanted to be a fly on the wall when two benefits brokers are discussing client strategy (and I admit it, I have), then keep reading. In an exclusive to Employee Benefit News, Jack Kwicien, co-founder and managing partner at Daymark Advisors, recently sat down with fellow adviser Beverly Beattie, founder and CEO of Selden Beattie Advisors, to do just that – specifically, a case study involving a Selden Beattie client. Not to worry, no state secrets are spilled, no confidences broken. But the Q&A does offer benefits pros some food for thought to chew on as they plan their next meeting with their own benefits adviser. -from the Editor

By Jack Kwicien

A trusted adviser case study, part 2

Last month we shared the first half of a case study involving Beverly Beattie of Selden Beattie Benefit Advisors. In that column we talked about how we jointly facilitated a benefits strategic planning session with a Selden Beattie client. We shared some background about the client and their relationship with Selden Beattie. We then discussed how Beattie's approach to client interaction has become much more strategic. In fact, that strategic approach is central to all of her firm's interaction with existing clients and has become a focal point of much of its marketing outreach and prospecting initiatives.

By Jack Kwicien

Mergers and business sales, Part 2

It's now the middle of winter, and the collegiate and professional football seasons have drawn to a close. While the gridiron battlefield is now silent, another one is not – the battle of gridlock in Congress and the courts over health care reform is still going strong, and it's likely to continue for some time.

By Jack Kwicien

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