Practice management

There are numerous reasons to move the sale of ancillary products to the forefront of your sales strategy, not the least of which is a significant increase in your revenue.

Like so many successful advisers, Brian Ashe is quick to tell you that relationships are the largest driver of success in the insurance business. "People change companies," Ashe says. "They can be really terrific with numbers; they can be good managers of their offices; they can have the latest equipment. But if you are not a person who believes in and is dedicated to the establishment of relationships, it makes it significantly more difficult to be successful."

Unanswered questions and unknown repercussions abound as regulators continue to flesh out the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act framework. For employers, it is a frustrating time of uncertainty and confusion.

Cigna Corp is expanding its business that provides health coverage to those working abroad by offering a product directly to individuals.

When the National Association of Insurance Commissioners decided last Sunday to delay action on throwing their support behind a bill that would exclude broker commissions from health reform’s medical loss ratio calculations, the move was met with mixed reviews, but by no means signals an end to the effort, say insiders.

New research from MetLife spotlights a disconnect between the perceptions of voluntary benefits held by employers and employees.

In response to the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Japan on March 11, 2011, the Million Dollar Round Table and the Million Dollar Round Table Foundation have established the MDRT Japan Disaster Relief Fund. The MDRT Foundation has donated the first $50,000 to the fund, and MDRT will match donations up to another $100,000.

It was only a matter of time before several leading U.S. life insurers with business dealings in Japan felt reverberations from the devastating 9.0 earthquake on March 11, followed by a major tsunami and nuclear reactor leaks. While industry observers are still assessing the long-term financial impact of these events on Aflac, MetLife and The Hartford, disaster may have been averted on their balance sheets.

A roundup of recent staff changes in the industry.

North Carolinians are just sick about health insurance, doctors, medical billing and collection practices, health products and services — more so than questionable loans and lending practices, Do Not Call list violations and telemarketing schemes.

Consider this: LinkedIn now boasts more than 70 million members. Unfortunately, many advisers still believe that LinkedIn is just a site for posting a resume and looking for a job. While this may be true, it is also a powerful networking tool that can have a significant impact your bottom line.

On the heels of a politically charged debate and angry street protests in Wisconsin over stripping public employees of their collective-bargaining rights, producers who serve the public sector are now seeing similar efforts take shape across the nation.

Faced with the current challenges brought on by the financial crisis, company priorities have been forced to shift, and employees are left often with a lack of understanding and insufficient guidance on their benefits choices at work.

Usually, when unemployment drops, the number of working Americans increases. But this time around, that hasn’t been true, notes Mark Pawlak, at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

A National Association of Insurance Commissioners task force is seeking comments from brokers, agents and advisers on the impact of PPACA’s medical loss ratio rules. The comments will be the basis of a meeting of the task force scheduled for later this month.

Never have more partners than you can fit in an elevator. While that sounds like a joke, in fact it's good advice when you're starting a business. While it is important to have partners who bring skills to the table, the choices must be made carefully and with an eye toward keeping the group a manageable size.

Well, football season is over, and we are now headlong into March Madness. It's likely to be almost as frenetic as the ongoing gyrations surrounding PPACA in the political forum, the courts, and in the marketplace.

In past columns I've highlighted some of the reasons why women are so successful in the insurance industry. However, we still face certain challenges.

In last month's column we detailed the three psychological states that benefits buyers find themselves in, especially the one you want to lead a buyer to - "satisfied." If you missed my last column, you may want to pick up a copy of the February issue of EBA or read the digital edition on the EBA website, eba.benefitnews.com.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you are already aware that at least one major carrier has announced that premiums for groups of 51 employees or more will no longer include commissions. The agent can specify the commission level desired and it will be billed by the carrier, but it will be a line item visible to the client.