THE WHITE WING STORY – PART ONE OF A TWO PART ADVERTORIAL
BY JOSHUA SCHNEELOCH
When I arrived in the United States back in 2010 from Germany, I was thrilled to at last reach the birthplace of my father. I was hungry for opportunity and eager to continue the success I had experienced in Europe. With a background in media technology sales, I searched for a market that would give me independence and rapid growth. I soon met a fellow German transplant named Michael Wolff, a managing partner of Dickerson Insurance Services, a pioneer in the health insurance field in California. Recognizing my experience and zeal, he invited me to join his team.
It wasn’t long before I made my mark as one of Dickerson’s top voluntary benefits producers. As an Aflac wingman, my job was to build a team of producers whose goal was to offer their business clients the best supplemental financial coverage for their employees and families in the event of a severe accident or illness.
Along the way up, I discovered that while insurance is one of America’s best careers, many of my fellow insurance professionals faced persistent challenges blocking them from achieving their goals. The truth is that there is a higher rate of turnover in insurance sales than in almost any other job category. According to a comprehensive industry study by McKinsey, nearly 90% of new agents quit within their first three years, and 30% of new agents leave in their first 90 days.
These newly minted agents do not set out to fail, but face major hurdles. Of course, the highest hurdle is the mountain of administrative tasks facing new insurance agents: the dreaded paperwork, which according to many experts, eats up about 60% of the average insurance agent’s time. Add to that the difficulty of finding leads, getting renewals, managing the rapid changes in customer expectations, and keeping up with technology — you get a keen sense of the obstacle course facing new agents.
By understanding what challenges and opportunities exist, my team set out to proactively address them.
1. Balancing Administrative/Operational Work with Sales
2. Finding New Leads
3. Getting Renewals
4. Managing Changes in Customer Expectations
5. Keeping Up with Technology
Instead of being discouraged by these challenges, I saw a huge opportunity. That was how I made my mark in Europe in the media-technology market: as a creative disruptor.
I remembered what the late great Kobe Bryant once said, “Everything negative — pressure, challenges — is all an opportunity for me to rise.” With that mindset, I imagined: what if I could create a performance platform that eliminated or reduced these challenges? Then, I could become a major player in the thriving insurance industry.
That’s when my team formed White Wing Insurance Solutions with a singular goal of helping hungry and ambitious insurance agents hit their targets faster and more efficiently. Little did I know, but I was creating a hybrid startup company in the emerging insurtech sector, which refers to technological innovations that are created and implemented to improve the efficiency of the traditional insurance industry.
According to their 2022 Insurance Industry Outlook, Deloitte reports that insurers, which have been cautious in their adoption of new technology, are increasingly dependent on emerging technologies and data sources. This in order to drive efficiency, enhance cybersecurity and expand capabilities, with an intense focus on improving the customer experience by automating processes and offering customized services.
Our burgeoning sector powers the creation, distribution and administration of the insurance business. According to McKinsey, the segment emerged in 2010 and is expected to grow 41% annually between 2019 and 2023. In addition, new, technology-savvy players like White Wing are entering the insurance sector, bringing the full force of our innovative, disruptive, opportunity-laden power.
Insurtech companies such as Next Insurance, Zipari, MetroMile and Corvus Insurance blend a deep knowledge of the insurance sector with tech industry savvy to help insurance companies and brokers to simplify, become more successful and more efficient. Insurtech innovators leverage technologies like AI and data science to reduce the need for repetitive processes and tailor plan options to what each customer’s needs, streamlining the journey from inquiry to enrollment.
White Wing has carved a unique niche in the insurtech world: agent performance and growth, a significant challenge in the overall industry. White Wing was designed as an agent-to-broker performance platform. It provides business services and solutions: systems integration, professional data-driven coaching and development, back-office support and intelligence, for our target market:
As an insurance aggregator, we partner with other insurance providers and technology companies to offer a full range of insurance products to solve the increasing needs of their clients, including health, supplemental, property and casualty, life, pet, travel and more. With a larger product set, White Wing agents are able to do more for their customers and grow their own book of business more rapidly. In our first two years, White Wing has boosted the aspirations of over 600 agents.
We serve as a sort of headquarters for solo agents, enabling them to project a more capable and comprehensive service footprint for their customers. We provide a combination of high tech and high touch solutions, meaning we offer a range of tech tools to increase the agent’s overall efficiency, allowing them to focus on their end users and grow their book of business, as well as providing coaching from our team of insurance experts. In simple terms, White Wing gives agents time to do what they do best: serve their customers.
This means our primary focus is to solve the problems faced by new agents so that they can achieve success faster and more efficiently. We transform low performing agents into high performance brokers who can control their success. White Wing strives to be the “Uber” of the U.S. insurance industry, by giving agents more opportunity, greater options and the ability to grow their businesses like never before.
I was fortunate to encounter these emerging technologies in the new world of insurance, and I am eager to help other insurance professionals entering the field or those who have been discouraged by the challenges they face. Ultimately, I would like to share the power of insurtech solutions to transform an industry rich with opportunity. In many ways, the insurance industry can make the American dream come true for anyone willing to put in the work and use the tools available.
White Wing is eager to tap into the $1.2 trillion insurance industry, but more importantly to use technology to provide efficient, value-added innovations for its agents and its customers. That is the promise of insurtech, which is clearing the way to fulfilling the aspirations of many like me. That is the promise of White Wing Performance Solutions. This is part one of a two part advertorial on White Wing. Next month, we’ll outline the details of the powerful performance platform we’ve created to help ambitious, hungry agents who are shooting for the stars. We’re delighted to be the vehicle to take you there.
JOSHUA SCHNEELOCH is the founder and CEO of White Wing Insurance Solutions and White Wing Wealth and the author of the upcoming memoir, “The Favored Son, How a Black Orphan Conquered Europe on His Way to America.”
Contact: whitewinginsurance.com
joshua@whitewinginsurance.com
