Hey, it’s June! No pressure, but we think it’s high time you charted your course…
9th Annual Senior Summit: Chart Your Course and Navigate Into the Future
This year’s Senior Summit will be IN PERSON at Pechanga Resort & Casino August 31-September 2! Get the latest and greatest product solutions for your agency along with industry leaders and influencers presenting programs to help you tackle today’s challenges. Online registration is open through August 19. So it’s time to commit! Register here.
GOLF
Sacramento Golf Tourney Big Fun
We received an excellent report from the Sacramento Association Health Underwriters (SAHU) about the 2021 Annual SAHU Golf Tournament, which was held on May 21 at The Ridge Golf Course in Auburn, CA, and sponsored by Western Health Advantage. The event drew 17 sponsors, 20 volunteers and over 100 attendees. Sponsored tees throughout the course offered golfers fun, refreshments and networking with fellow industry leaders, including a Golf Cannon Hole sponsored by Ameritas and specialty Margarita Hole sponsored by Beam Dental (gotta’ love those dental people!). A gourmet luncheon sponsored by Word & Brown followed the tournament. In addition to the sponsors already mention, SAHU would like to thank: Innovative Benefits, Warner Pacific, United Concordia Dental, BRMS, Bruins Legal Document Preparation, Dickerson Insurance Services, Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health Plus, AMWINS, Pinnacle Risk Management Services, Capitol Health Management, Kansas City Life, WSR Insurance Services, Trusted American Insurance Agency and Trusted Media Consulting.
Part of the proceeds from the tournament go to the CAHU PAC to help continue local and state legislative efforts for health, financial and retirement security reform. Get more information on SAHU membership here. And consider joining the fun next year for the 2022 SAHU Golf Tournament. BTW, you can watch a recap of this year’s event here. Thanks for info, SAHU!
INSURTECH
HawkSoft Partners with Duck Creek Technologies, Offering Independent Insurance Agents Direct Connections to Supported Carriers
HawkSoft recently announced its partnership with Duck Creek Technologies, a provider of SaaS insurance core systems. The partnership enables independent agencies using HawkSoft’s management system to leverage policy and client data throughout the Duck Creek Platform. This integration gives mutual customers the ability to upload policy information directly to carriers using Duck Creek’s Producer and AgencyPortal products.
Techficient’s New Analytics Platform Accelerates Decision-Making Process
Techficient announced the launch of its CORE platform, a data and analytics solution created to simplify the sale of insurance and financial products. Designed by industry veterans, the suite of applications maximizes efficiencies and should help advisors and BGAs make better decisions. CORE is a KPI-driven, cloud-based agency management system that enables brokerage executives to gain insight into their agency. The applications take high-integrity data to create analytics that allow CORE users to understand the drivers behind case management. This approach can generate dynamic quotes, highlight top advisors, and illustrate which policy type is the most profitable. In-force policy management tools can help advisors or BGAs prevent policy lapses and can help generate new business opportunities. The software promises to help identify inefficiencies and smooth out pain points. No pain, more gain. We can get behind that.
LIFE
Interest in Life Combination Products Shifts
LIMRA says the pandemic – with all the images of elderly people in nursing homes cut off from family and friends — has made a major impact in how the public thinks about life insurance coverage. According to a recent LIMRA post:
In January 2021, more than a quarter of Americans (26%) said it was very likely they would consider a life combination product (a life insurance policy with a long-term care (LTC) insurance component) if they were shopping for life insurance. This is 50% higher than in 2019. Overall 6 in 10 consumers said it is at least somewhat likely they would consider a life combination product if shopping for life insurance.
Millennials apparently expressed the most interest in combo products. Check out the whole post here.
COVID
Silver Lining: Health Plans Learn How to Increase the Love
The pandemic did a lot of things, but here’s something kind of interesting. Health insurers were forced to come up with tech solutions for access. This increased engagement. And guess what? People like that, according to a recent J.D. Power analysis. James Beem, managing director of global healthcare intelligence at J.D. Power, said in a statement that the events of 2020 proved that “effective use of digital channels has the power to increase customer engagement, build trust, and promote brand advocacy.” He also said that while things have improved, there is much more improvement that could happen to ensure access and engagement for everyone.
Looking at the COVID Price Tag
Researchers have been busy figuring out the fall out of COVID. Case in point:
The costs of COVID-related care that was provided to Medicare fee-for-service patients for April-December 2020 totaled $6.3 billion, according to researchers.
Those are part of the findings that appeared recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine. That price tag probably sounds huge right? Well, the researchers actually concluded that COVID-19 did not have a major financial impact on Medicare in 2020. They found that the average cost of treatment was considerable among those who were hospitalized, but the costs for milder cases—which represented the majority—were relatively small. Interesting!
401K
Committee Responsibilities May Need Update
Cal Broker pal Bob Lawton has a post up titled “Updating Your 401k Retirement Plan Committee’s Responsibilities.” It’s definitely worth a read.
PEOPLE
Insurtech company Patra announced that it appointed Matt Hewitt as Corporate Development Officer. Patra says Hewitt will further strengthen its leadership team and accelerate its growth initiatives through additional channels and initiatives.
EVENTS
- NAAIA Agent Round Table Discussion: Why Should I Join? – Exploring the Value of Professional Trade Associations for Black Agents, May 27, Noon PT, Register here.
- Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) Annual Meeting, Virtual, June 7-9, Register here.
- IDF Forum, Virtual, June 7-8. Register here.
- IICF International Inclusion in Insurance Forum, June 15-17. Register here.
- SIIA Mentor Connection Forum, Virtual, June 16-17. Register here.
- NAIFA-LA, Advanced Retirement Planning Seminar, Virtual, June 17, 11:30am-1:30pm. Register here.
- NAHU Annual Convention & Grow Your Business Expo, theme is “The Path Forward”, Virtual, June 27-29, info at nahu.org.
- BenefitsPro Broker Expo, in person in San Diego, August 16-18. Save 15% with promo code RIGHTPLAN. Agenda here, register here.
- American Association for Medicare Supplement Insurance, National Medicare Supplement Insurance Industry Summit, Sept 8-10, in person at Schaumburg Convention Center, Chicago area. Info here
- SIIA 41st Annual National Educational Conference & Expo, In-Person & Virtual, October 3 – 5, JW Marriott, Austin, TX. Info here.
