Keep Calm and…

Or laugh! Cal Broker reader Joel Vorensky, a health insurance agent/broker and mental health counselor in San Diego, recently dropped us a line. Joel is the author of I Dare To Heal. He has some videos up on YouTube and he works often with laughter and breathwork. Joel wanted to pass along this info in case his work could help others in this stressful time. Thanks, Joel!

Rejoice: The Government Says You’re Worth It!

According to the U.S. government,agents/brokers are extremely valuable to the public. In fact, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare recently spent some of our taxpayer money on a nine-page report that concludes agents/brokers do a bang-up job at getting the word out about health insurance and getting people enrolled in plans that save them money. According to the report:

Licensed agents and brokers play a key role in the Health Insurance Marketplace® (Marketplace) by providing consumers with expert guidance on plan options in their local area while assisting with everything from comparing costs and coverage to applying for financial assistance. By working with individual consumers one on one, agents and brokers help millions of consumers each year find and enroll in the best coverage for their specific needs. Their popularity among consumers has continued to increase over the last several years, as CMS has worked to give licensed agents and brokers better tools to serve clients. Nearly half (approximately 4 million) of all Marketplace enrollees using HealthCare.gov for Plan Year (PY) 2020 were assisted by an agent or broker, an increase of three percent from PY 2019 and continuing a trend of steady increase from PY 2017.Additionally, agents and brokers were responsible for bringing 1.12 million new enrollees into the Marketplace for PY 2020. Agents and brokers are instrumental in driving greater participation in the individual health insurance market, ultimately increasing health of the risk pool and creating a more stable individual market.

Read the full report here.

Register Now for NAAIA National Leadership Summit Sponsored by The Hartford

The National African-American Insurance Association is offering a leadership summit Tuesday, November 17 at 9a.m. Pacific. This is a great opportunity for networking/mentorship, skill enhancement and insider tips on key areas critical to career advancement in the insurance industry. Thank you to The Hartford for its sponsorship of this important event. Register here.

FINANCIAL PLANNING

MDRT Opens MDRT Academy

Did you know that more than 80% of new recruits leave the financial services profession after four years? That data is according ot LIMRA. The Million Dollar Round Table, however, is aiming to keep more new financial pros. MDRT, a prestigious association for financial service pros –announced it will be broadening its support and reach with a new kind of association, the MDRT Academy. The new association will help financial advisors who want to reach MDRT’s top-level qualification requirements. Launched just this week, the MDRT Academy is a fully digital association that provides members with the resources they need to learn best practices, sharpen and develop skills, increase their production and achieve success. MDRT Academy content, which includes articles, videos, podcast episodes and Performance Guides, is all MDRT-original or MDRT-approved. The content topics are broken up across four areas of focus that MDRT Academy has identified as being keys to success: marketing your practice, advising your clients, managing your business and developing yourself. Academy members also gain access to MDRT members and other industry leaders, and can connect with them in the app’s community and during monthly Webcasts. It sounds like the ticket!  Get more info at www.mdrtacademy.org.

LIFE

Continued Concerns But Consumer Confidence in Life Insurance at All-Time High

Nearly eight months into the pandemic, Americans’ concerns about COVID-19 and the U.S. economy persist. According to LIMRA’s latest Consumer Sentiment study, fielded in early October, nearly 3 in 5 consumers report being “very” or “extremely concerned” about the virus and half report this level of concern regarding the economy. Good news is, a record number of Americans (41%) say they have “extreme” or “quite a bit” of confidence in life insurers. Confidence in financial pros also hit a new high, with 33% of consumers saying they have this level of confidence in insurance agents and brokers and 37% when it comes to financial advisors.

INSURTECH

Third Annual InsurTech100 List Announces Tech Companies Transforming Insurance Industry

Research firm FinTech Global announced the 2020 InsurTech100, a list that recognizes the world’s most innovative solution providers for the insurance industry.  Nearly $17 billion has been invested in InsurTech companies since the beginning of 2017, according to figures published by FinTech.  For the IsurTech100, a panel of analysts and industry experts voted from more than 1,200 companies and the finalists were awarded a place on the list for their innovative use of technology to solve a significant industry problem, or to generate cost savings or efficiency improvements across the insurance value chain. The leading companies that were awarded a place on the InsurTech100 include:

Anorak: the world’s first fully automated life insurance advice platform authorised by the FCA.

Bdeo: creating a fully automated, instant, and seamless underwriting & claims management process based on Artificial Intelligence to transform the industry.

ClaimVantage: global InsurTech vendor providing cloud-native, life, health, and absence claim management solutions.

EIP: InsurTech software business enabling device and lifestyle insurance providers to reduce costs, maximise profits and upgrade their digital customer experience.

Humn.ai: deep-tech MGA using streaming data, neural networks and real-time geospatial risk modelling to modernise commercial fleet insurance.

Jooycar: the fastest growing auto InsurTech and connected car company in Latin America that arrives to the US market.

Life.io: leading customer engagement technology firm that helps insurers accelerate the development of their end- to-end digital client experience.

Maptycs: advanced risk data analytics, geospatial visualization, and severe weather events monitoring for property risk analysis and loss projections.

Medallia: experience management cloud technology company enabling insurers to engage with customers across the entire customer journey

NeuralMetrics: underwriting solutions company helping customers classify and automatically assess risk quality in seconds for prospects, live submissions, and portfolio management.

Omniscience: powers insurers’ multi-decade compounding advantage through better risk selection, 92% complex Underwriting Automation STP rate, and 90% opex reduction.

Planck: leading artificial intelligence data platform that provides real-time risk and underwriting insights for commercial insurance.

QOMPLX: cloud-native risk management SaaS solution provider that helps insurance firms solve data challenges and improve underwriting processes.

Quantiphi: an applied AI and data science software company helping insurers with data transformations and custom AI solutions.

Relay: the first subscription-based all-inclusive risk placement platform for Commercial Insurance and Reinsurance.

ThingCo: provider of next-generation telematics products serving both the B2C and B2B insurance markets

Wakam: digital B2B insurer that creates white label innovative insurance solutions for all types of distributors.

A full list of the InsurTech100 can be found at www.TheInsurTech100.com. More detailed information about the companies is available to download for free on the website.

BRAVO

Aflac Employees Honored for Doing Good and Giving Back

Last year, 461 Aflac employees logged more than 16,450 hours of volunteer work for a variety of charities, including the American Cancer Society and the Girl Scouts. Now Aflac announced it is publicly recognizing the top-12 employee volunteers for service to their local communities. Recipients will be honored with a customized sign placed in their yards and a contribution to their charity of choice. The employees who will be honored are all based in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. If anyone were in California, we’d tell you who they were. 🙂

PEOPLE

SF’s Newfront Insurance Expands in Employee Benefits Space with Tennis

Newfront Insurance, a San Francisco-based tech-enabled, full-service brokerage, announced its hired Dana Tennis as a principal & employee benefits producer.  Dana joins Newfront from Marsh & McLennan Agency. As a client sales executive, Dana was instrumental in the growth of technology, professional services, and life sciences industry sectors.

EVENTS