Strategic Vision Publishing

Ep #55: Shifting from Commissions to Fees – With Mike Grinnell and Kirsten Tudman

By David Saltzman Shift Shapers Podcast 2 Comments

Commission compression is causing advisors to rethink their business model – especially looking a few years out. One option is to shift to a more consultative fee-based motif. Our guests, Mike Grinnell and Kirsten Tudman of CPI-HR, are among the handful of advisors at the forefront of this shift.

They join us today to discuss the impetus for the change as well as some lessons learned along the way. They also take us through what the employer conversation sounds like and what kind of questions and objections advisors can expect. We also explore some of the current state regulatory barriers and how those might change. Listen in to learn more and to kickstart the fee-based discussion in your practice or agency.

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

Mike and Kristen’s background as traditional commission-based producers.
Their “Aha!” moment.
How ACA affected their practice.
Their typical client.
Whether the shift to fees work with all clients.
How the state statutes and regulations play in the process.
Whether they have a written agreement and what is included.

Featured On The Show:

www.cpihr.com

Listen To The Full Interview:

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Ep #53: Reinventing the Sales Cycle – With Matthew Wood

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Our guest this week believes that to it is time to reinvent the sales cycle. If we look at the employee benefits distribution process over the past fifty years, we’ll discover that it has not changed much and is still very manual, inefficient, and time consuming.

Matthew Wood, VP of Sales & Technology at Lidac, believes that technology and an end-to-end managed sales cycle is the answer for advisors who are being asked to do more with less. On this program we explore the opportunities presented when the process is completely reimagined.

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

Whether the traditional product-to-sale model is obsolete.
How technology can help with the sales cycle.
Post enrollment considerations.
Whether this is a new motif for core medical or just for voluntary benefits.
If the total cycle can be shrunk to a few days.

Featured On The Show:

www.lidac.com

Listen To The Full Interview:

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Ep #52: Using Innovative Solutions to Contol Costs – With Christopher Fisher

By David Saltzman Shift Shapers Podcast Add new comment

In today’s market, employers expect their benefit advisors to bring them new ideas to control costs. Our today’s guest, Christopher Fisher, Founder & President of BenefitsAlly, finds companies that are doing unique things that can take employers beyond the traditional method of increased employee responsibility.

We discuss the three hallmarks of “intelligent health care solutions”. Chris believes that advisors who use those ideas and come up with creative solutions are going to thrive, and those who continue on the same old path will soon fade away.

Our conversation also explores new ways that benefits advisors can leverage historical data and make strategic recommendations to reduce future costs. Since this is a new conversation for many advisors we talk about how to broach that discussion with employers and how to provide them with concrete solutions based on the analysis of that detailed, granular data.

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

Whether or not cost shifting is a dead strategy for dealing with employer spend.
What “intelligent health care solutions” are.
How billions in venture capital will change tools in our markets.
The 3-step process for evaluating employers’ benefits.
How we can transition from a rear-view mirror use of data.
How to help employers use cost data at the employee level.

Featured On The Show:

Listen To The Full Interview:

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Ep #51: Mastering the ACA Compliance and Regulatory Maze – With Arthur Tacchino

By David Saltzman Shift Shapers Podcast Add new comment

ACA and its blizzard of ever-changing regulations has created a challenging environment for even the most proficient advisors. We asked Arthur Tacchino, Chief Innovation Officer & Principal of Sync-Stream Solutions, to discuss those challenges and to examine some of the ways advisors can master and profit from providing their clients with expert and timely advice.

Arthur is a lawyer by education and also serves as an assistant professor of health insurance at The American College. His concentration has been highly focused on this area of practice and has made him one of the leading subject matter experts on this ever-changing area.

In addition to discussing the compliance process, we also learn about the three phases of the process at the client level: analysis and modeling; decision making and documentation, and implementation and monitoring. Don’t miss this informative discussion that will give you some insight on how to operate in today’s evolving marketplace and help you prepare yourself and your clients in case of an audit.