Powered by acquisitions and organic growth, EPIC gears up to serve the middle market
Creating a new national insurance brokerage is a monumental challenge, but even when the biggest building blocks are in place, the work continues, says EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants President and Chief Operating Officer Peter Garvey.
One of the biggest challenges for one of the newest national insurance competitors is the assembly of a national employee benefits services platform that can allow the company to respond to the increasingly complex needs of middle-market employers, he explains.
The San Francisco-based company was launched in 2007 and has grown from $5 million to $160 million in revenue this year. The company is now ranked as the 46th largest insurance brokerage in the world, according to London-based Finaccord Market Research.
Ideas on how to become a valuable resource for clients
Summer tans are barely starting to fade and it's already time to think about getting ready for next year. Agents and brokers interested in building and maintaining a solid book of voluntary benefits business should start planning-and acting-now to ensure a successful 2016.
Finding and firming up partnerships is an important first step. "Do your research and make sure you partner with a voluntary benefits specialist that can offer your clients experience, expertise, exceptional quality and a proven track record of success working with brokers and in your clients' industries," advises Rich Williams, senior vice president of Growth Markets for Colonial Life. He says very few new entrants offer such proven end-to-end benefit services.
The search for a solution to funding retiree health care
Convincing today's workers to save more for retirement isn't easy. Young employees have the most to gain from planning prudently for retirement, but it's a tough sell to educate them about financial security issues that are decades into the future. They are understandably more focused on student loan debt and new family obligations. Eventually members of the Millennial and Gen X generations may be influenced by the angst that the generations ahead of them experience as they head into retirement, and vow to avoid their own late-in-career panic by boosting their retirement plan contributions.
The generation prior to the Boomers had its own financial struggles, including a childhood shaped by the Great Depression. Many in that generation started working shortly after World War II, and by the time they entered retirement, they did so with more confidence than their offspring who are reaching retirement age now.
