your current circumstances. It might be
possible you are not addressing a real
problem, which may be a select category of
advisors who are submitting lower threshold
business with you. If a percentage of your
advisors are responsible for your lower
thresholds, they may need to be notified and
addressed accordingly with options.
Many of these advisors submit the bulk of
your NIGOs or take up your case managers’
time with questions or demanding behaviors
on these lower cases. You may need to
consider dealing with these lower tier advisors
accordingly – whether it is moving them
to an e-app platform, a minimum premium
threshold that must be met, or perhaps a
change in relationship altogether.
Let’s be clear, we are not talking about your
entire base of advisors; it may be dealing with
a specific group of advisors who have been
overlooked and you allowed their business to
flow in. You have many advisors and clients
to serve, most of whom are doing very good,
clean business at a profitable level – even if it
might be on smaller cases.
If your case managers and external
wholesalers are tied down, however, from the
lower tier advisors, this prevents them from
elevating the service experience for your
more profitable advisors or advisors in your
movable middle. If you spent more time with
your movable middle, you may be able to help
elevate their overall business and service
experience and help them climb to new levels.
Some of these lower tier advisors and cases
are giving your team the runaround and
syphoning away valuable time and resources.
If your capacity is tied down on less profitable
business, it is difficult to wrap your arms
around new target markets or spend time with
advisors who are bringing in clean business.
You don’t want the morale or energy in
your operations team to be crushed because
they feel your firm is not dealing with these
advisors – and in most cases, your case
managers and internals know exactly who
these advisors are. This is not to say that
these advisors are not profitable in other
product lines or services with your firm; they
may very well be and that is an important
consideration in your analysis.
Therefore, we suggest looking at your
metrics from many different angles. You
might also analyze how many illustrations
and quotes your team is running on behalf of
these advisors to get this lower tier business.
It may be time to have a conversation.
2. ADVISOR / MARKET
METRICS
The next set of metrics to consider is
the markets your advisor or client base
comes from. Identify what percentage of
the advisors you support are property and
casualty specialists, independent insurance
professionals, benefits specialists, career
advisors, broker/dealer relationships, RIAs
(Registered Investment Advisors), CPAs, etc.
How much business and override are
generated per market and what is the average
business per advisor in these markets? If you
have a direct-to-consumer model, perhaps
you have specific target markets using your
platform such as teachers, single mothers,
or demographics with specific health or
underwriting criteria – these are all target
markets with networks that can be tapped
into to promote your services.
If it turns out that some of your markets
are very profitable, but they are a small
percentage of your overall advisor/client
base, then your external brokerage managers
may need to focus on developing a target
marketing strategy for these emerging
markets. Dealing with some of the lower
tier advisors in their unit may help open the
time needed to focus on developing new
opportunities.
As we know, some of the emerging markets
such as RIAs and wealth managers require a
highly customized point-of-sale service model
and you cannot just use traditional strategies
or sales language to build a relationship with
them. You will need to dedicate time to learn
how to design a proper support platform and
approach.
3. AGE TRENDS
The next set of metrics you might consider
is where the business will come from in the
next five to seven years. Meaning, you may
need to look at the ages within your advisor
base. How many of your advisors are at an
age where in five to seven years they may be
retiring or slowing down in their business?
There are many firms where more than 30%
to 50% of their advisors are planning to retire
or slow-down in the next few years. These
advisors are very profitable and active today,
but that may not be the case over the next
several years. Will they be as active three,
five or seven years from now and what impact
will that have on your future sustainability?
Should you be focusing on a younger base
or helping your more mature advisors with a
succession strategy?
Every BGA is unique and metrics will mean
different things to different firms depending
on your model. Looking at metrics is not
a one-size fits all strategy and there are
more metrics to consider beyond the scope
described above. Some firms work highly
efficiently with technology and can fully
support both a volume of smaller cases
alongside the more advanced cases.
...CONTINUED ON PG. 33
www.nailba.org 9