QUE SERA, SERA    Whatever it will look like, brokers prepare for 2014 Today's benefits brokers look toward next year's health insurance mandates with the sense of inevitability, mystery and hope conveyed in the 1956 song "Que sera sera," popularized by Doris Day. They'd like to have a better idea of what the future will look like under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), but with 10 months until mandatory coverage kicks in, the government has yet to clarify key elements of the public health insurance exchanges. Whatever will be, will be. While they wait for government regulations to be spelled out, brokers who have a serious commitment to employee benefits are doing more than waiting to see what the future will bring. They are looking for ways to prepare their clients now. Take, for example, Senn Dunn of North Carolina (featured in a profile story on page 36 in our January issue). Two years ago, in a discussion of the changes that could come about under mandatory health care insurance, CEO Gray McCaskill described his firm's approach this way: "We're running to the fire." Senn Dunn is a property/casualty-based agency with close to 150 employees and four branch offices. It's been around since 1927, but entered the employee benefits market only 14 years ago. Since then, its benefits business has grown to 40% of the firm's revenue. About two-thirds of the agency's property/casualty customers also are benefits clients. Click here for the complete article …

PLAYING TO ITS STRENGTHS    California agency's benefits division leverages P-C relationships to spur growth Employers are always concerned with costs, but when group health plans restrict rates and plan designs for small employers, just looking for the lowest premium among a handful of health plans is not likely to make much of a competitive difference. Attentive, personal service can be an important differentiator, according to executives at Cavignac & Associates in San Diego, California. Founded in 1992 as a one-person commercial property/casualty insurance broker by President Jeffrey W. Cavignac, the company has grown into a local leader in insurance and risk management with 40 employees, specializing in small to mid-sized employers in Southern California. The firm's employee benefits practice, a more recent addition to the brokerage's services, has been one of its fastest growing areas of new business, and it now accounts for about 17% of revenues-about $1.4 million-generated by five full-time employees. Principal and Vice President of Employee Benefits Patrick Casinelli, RHU, REBC, established the agency's employee benefits practice in 2002, starting with a few years of agency sales experience and a mandate to provide employee benefits services to the existing roster of commercial property/casualty insurance customers. Click here for the complete article …

10 STEPS TO ATTRACT THE BEST AGENCY TALENT    Leadership is not a luxury-it's a vital necessity As an industry, we are at a crossroads. The path that agency principals choose to follow will no longer just determine the degree of success they enjoy; it will determine their ability to survive. While it may be tempting to sit back and try to learn from the successes and failures of others, this is not a time to be playing "follow the leader." Now is the time to lead. A recent Forbes magazine article presented a disturbing truth: Despite the fact that leaders tend to think they have their attraction and retention of talent under control, interviews of their employees tell another story. • More than 30% believe they'll be working someplace else inside of 12 months (and, according to a MetLife study, 60% of the high performers feel that way). • More than 40% don't respect the person they report to. • More than 50% say they have different values than their employer. • More than 60% don't think that their career goals are aligned with the plans their employers have for them. • More than 70% don't feel appreciated or valued by their employer. Those statistics should be alarming to leaders in every industry. Given the challenges being faced by independent insurance agencies, they should be downright terrifying. Never before has the ability to attract and retain the highest level of talent been more critical than it is right now. This is no longer just about the degree of success; it is about survival. Click here for the complete article … VOLUNTARY BENEFITS: POWER TO CHOOSE    Aetna serves up a robust menu of voluntary products with strategic support for agents and their clients No doubt about it: In today's employee benefits world, voluntary rules. In response to rising group health premiums and uncertainty about the impact of health care reform, employers of all sizes are exploring ways to offer benefit choices that appeal to employees and don't break the bank. The growing popularity of voluntary benefits is spurring carriers to create new products, and it's also opening doors for property/casualty agents and brokers. Offering marketing support, streamlined enrollment, and top-notch employee communications, carriers are eager to forge ties with P&C producers whose business clients constitute a ready-made market for voluntary offerings. That's definitely the case at Aetna, which offers a robust menu of voluntary products and provides an array of tools and resources to support producers. Aetna targets entities that employ from as few as two to more than 3,000 workers and provides a voluntary hospital plan, group accident and group critical illness coverage, dental and vision insurance, life and disability coverage, and a plan that pays a fixed-dollar amount for routine outpatient and inpatient health services. Joe Murgo, a 30-year veteran of the health care management industry, heads up SRC for Aetna's voluntary segment. Asked to comment on current trends in the voluntary market, he responds: "From a macro perspective, the most significant trend I see is growth. In 2011, sales were $5.5 billion, up 4.5%, and the market is now estimated to be between $19 billion and $26 billion. Click here for the complete article …  Click here to unsubscribe This message was sent by The Rough Notes Company, Inc., 11690 Technology Drive, Carmel, Indiana, 46032 1-800-428-4384