Agenda

Workplace Benefits Association

Training - Relationships - Access - Information - Networking

August 3, 4 & 5, 2009

Workplace Benefits Mania 2009 Agenda 

VEBB (Voluntary Employee Benefits Board) Agenda

Paris Hotel & Casino Convention Rate - $69.00 a night

1:00 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. - Track 3 - Your Voluntary Benefits Business Needs The Right Strategic Partners  (Located in Champagne 1)

• 1:00 - 1:30 - Build A Voluntary Benefits Revenue Stream - Jim Christenson, Director of Workplace, Emerson Reid & Company

  Jim Christenson is one of the best speakers in the voluntary benefits industry right now and he is going to tell you how and why you should position Your Agency as the provider of a menu of voluntary products for the employees of your accounts, and in the process, lock out your competition. Read Jim's Biography

• 1:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. - Your Strategic “Enrollment” Partners - Jim Davidson, President of EOI Service Company, Inc.

  Jim Davidson is in the Worksite Marketing Hall-Of-Fame for a reason; his firm is one of the most respected and trusted enrollment firms in the country. He will explain why and how to turn your enrollment over to professionals and make more money with less work. Read Jim's Biography

• 2:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. - Your Strategic “Product” Partners - Neal Lucchi, SVP of Voluntary Products, HM Insurance Group

  Product Driven Vs. Needs Driven has been an area of discussion and debate since the start of the industry. In this session, Neal Lucchi will outline a strategy for engaging the employer in a discussion of what products should be included in a menu of voluntary employee benefit plans, and their relative strengths and weaknesses. Read Neal's Biography

• 2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. - Break
• 2:45 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. - Your Future Strategic "Business" Partners - Jack Kwicien, CLU, ChFC, Registered Investment Advisor, Managing Partner, Daymark Advisors, LLC and Patrick O'Keefe, Vice President M&A Northeast, Digital Insurance

  Some day you are going to want to either sell or merge your practice to maximize what you've built. We have asked M&A experts Jack and Pat back to discuss how to structure your business now for maximum payout later. These M&A insiders will identify what the most current deals, ratios and benchmarks look like in real-time. As Bo Sacks says: "It isn't ever going to be like it was, it isn't even going to be like it is." Read Jack's Biography

• 3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. - Selling The Employer - “Making Workplace Benefits a Valued Feature of every Employer’s Benefit Program” - Rhodes-Joseph & Tobiason Advisors LLC, Donna Rhodes Joseph & Pete Tobiason

  What motivates the employer to say "yes" and why do employers agree to a menu of voluntary, employee-paid products? Donna Rhodes Joseph and Pete Tobiason are are uniquely positioned to explain the thinking on the “buy side” of workplace benefits. Although employers don‘t bear the direct cost of these benefits, the employer is the key decision maker and determines whether the products will be offered to their employees. Their presentation will include a discussion of" -- An Employer’s Perspective, -- Workplace Benefits Present Opportunities Challenges for Employers, -- The Process -- How does a Best in Class employer make their decisions to offer workplace benefits, -- Workplace Benefits should be integrated into the benefit program management process Emerging issues. (You don't want to miss this session.) Read Donna and Peter's Biography

• 1:00 – 1:50 - Advisory Selling^® – Learn How Two Simple Words Can Help You Make More Money Easier & Faster! – Nelson Griswold, President of Cross-Sell Solutions LLC

Adopt a new selling mindset and use a solutions-based selling system to identify your clients’ needs and solve your clients’ problems to become a “Trusted Advisor.” Prepare for national health care reform by focusing on client needs, diversifying your product and services portfolio to broaden your menu of solutions, and creating new revenue streams and profit centers. Learn to take control of your broker/client relationships, lock in your accounts, and cross-sell with ease…and make your clients love you for it! Read Nelson's Biography

• 2:00 – 2:50 The Power Of Convergence: What The iPhone Can Teach Health Brokers About Diversifying Their Product & Services Portfolio! - Chester Bullard, National Practice Consultant, Unum Insurance

New federal identity theft laws now require U.S. companies to implement extensive measures to protect sensitive data. Despite a looming August 1, 2009, compliance deadline, few businesses are even aware of the federal mandates and the hefty fines for non-compliance. Brokers can take advantage by helping clients and prospects become compliant with these laws and regulations with a free, turnkey compliance system. Enhance your “trusted advisor” image, create a lucrative new revenue stream, and get clients to open prospects’ doors for you with what amounts to a Federally mandated referral program. This opportunity represents the next mega-market in insurance. Read John's Biography

• 8:00 a.m. - 8:45 a.m. - What The Enrollment Business has Evolved Into And What It Will Look Like Going Forward - Pat Galla, President of Enroller Resource Center

  Pat Galla is at the top of the enrollment business and will explain what you should be doing right now and what you will need to do to survive in the future. Read Pat's Biography

• 8:45 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. - Enroller Best Practices: Ensuring You Get Paid / Commissions Vs. Per Diem / Expenses / Licensing and Finding Jobs Year Round -  David Sherman, Regional Director  EOI Service Company

  Enrollers face many business challenges in their work. This session will be a discussion of enroller best practices that are important to all enrollers: Should you work on commission or be paid on per diem, and if so, how much. Who pays for licensing and how can you get licensed in multiple states? How should expenses be treated, who pays them, and what is fair? Our session presenter will provide time-tested and field-proven solutions to a checklist of critical questions that enrollers should be asking themselves before each assignment. Read Dave's Biography

• 9:45 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. - Break

• 10:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. - The Voice Of The Enroller - John Pyka

  Enrollers fill an important and vital role of the voluntary sales process but their presence is too often invisible and their  voices are too often unheard. This will be an open forum half-hour with a roving microphone so people can hear what you have on your mind. Read John's Biography

9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. - Track 6 - Mini Medical / Limited Medical Plan Sales & Marketing Extravaganza
These types of plans are generating a great deal of interest and activity in the marketplace and deserve a place in the benefits discussion with every employer. (Located in Champagne 1)

• 9:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. -Mini-Medical / Limited Medical Plans Plan Design & Competitive Strengths and Weaknesses

  This session will highlight the plan designs, features and benefits, commissions, administration issues, etc., of Mini-Medical / Limited Benefit Medical plans. It will start with the status of the uninsured working population, and explain the differences in, and the variety of, limited benefit health insurance plans (mini med; fixed payment; and supplemental). Read Robert's Biography  Read Tim's Biography

• 9:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. -  Is This The Easiest Sell In The World? – Discover The Health Insurance Product That Can Lower Premiums, Increase Benefits & Boost Your Income! – Bob Hart, President and Owner of Paragon Partners & Ken Holderbaum III, Managing Partner of Key Benefit Resources

  With innovative use of Supplemental Medical Gap Plans, you can hold down – or even reduce! – your client’s health premiums while actually enhancing employee benefits. Learn, too, how a gap plan can help you not only introduce voluntary benefits into an account but get you 100% employee participation in the voluntary benefits!

• 10:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. - Mini-Medial / Limited Benefit Medical Plans & Critical Illness Plans @ The Workplace By Robert S. Shestack, CES, Trion National Practice Leader, Workplace Benefits and Jimmy Hersman, VP of Consumer Healthcare Services, H&G Benefits and Mark Keck, Executive Vice President. TriHealix

  Mini-Medial / Limited Benefit Medical Plans & Critical Illness each have their compelling stories and benefits, but when you combine them into a single offering, you really have a powerful message. These three industry leaders will share the tremendous success they are having in today's marketplace with this innovative and timely grouping as well as discuss a turnkey solution for real time mini med, gap and limited benefit plans administration, premium collection, and real-time claims adjudication. Read Jimmy's Biography Read Mark's Biography Read Rob's Biography

• WORKSHOP:  Four Simple Steps to Attract New Clients, Maximize Client Value & Boost Your Income By Cross-Selling Voluntary Benefits The Right Way – Nelson Griswold, President of Cross-Sell Solutions LLC

  One of the most least-understood aspects of voluntary benefits is just how valuable voluntary benefits and, especially, a VB enrollment can be to HR. Most producers just don’t realize that the associated services, not the voluntary benefits themselves, are the key to selling the employer on a VB offering. This is powerful knowledge that can transform cross-selling failure into cross-selling success. Read Nelson's Biography

  In this intensive workshop, Nelson will reveal the insider secrets to cross-selling voluntary, including:
  ·   the one secret to cross-selling voluntary to HR with no objections;
  ·   the two reasons most brokers won’t cross-sell voluntary (and how to overcome them);
  ·   the Top Five Mistakes brokers make in cross-selling voluntary;
  ·   the simple formula to calculate your voluntary revenue stream;
  ·   how voluntary benefits can solve major problems for HR at no cost to the client;
  ·   the inside dope about the commission split with enrollment firms; and
  ·   the three secrets to a successful – and profitable – voluntary enrollment.
   

1:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. - Track 8 - Enrollment “Smackdown” (Located in Champagne 1)
In this market the sale isn't made until the products are enrolled and the premiums deducted, and everyone has an opinion on how that should take place. 

• 1:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. - Face-To-Face: Paper & Laptop Enrollments - Kimberly Sexton, Vice President, Total Benefit Communications - An Ascensus Company

  This is the traditional method and you know how hard it is to break tradition, and for good reason: it is time tested and field proven. Read Kim's Biography

• 2:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. - Internet Enrollments - Lyle Griffin, President, Selerix Systems Inc.

  Anybody who tells you that Internet enrollment is as good as face-to-face is just selling you something. Perhaps the biggest value of electronic enrollment (Internet and face-to-face) is in helping you secure the enrollment conditions that maximize participation. Since your customers have come to expect it, you probably won’t get in the front door unless you offer electronic enrollment. Contemporary electronic enrollment solutions increase your flexibility by enabling self-enrollment and assisted enrollment over the Internet, call center enrollment, and face-to-face enrollment – all simultaneously. When done well, Electronic enrollment expands your market reach, reduces costs, and maximizes sales. Read Lyle's Biography

• 2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. - Break
• 2:45 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. - Inbound / Outbound Telephonic Enrollments, Ronald Kleiman, President of BenefitVision, Inc.

  Ron Kleiman is also in the Worksite Marketing Hall-Of-Fame and has innovated a method of talking to every employee without having to see them face-to-face? He will explain how a benefits guide is developed for each employee and reviewed via telephone with tremendous participation ratios. - Read Ron's Biography

• 3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. - Eric E. Miller, President, Hyperlink Insurance Solutions

  Eric will be discussing technology in the insurance industry and how to engage technology to have a positive impact on your business.  Technology does not produce business.  However, with the right technology that fits your specific business and at the right price, you can dramatically improve your bottom-line with little to no change in your current business model. Read Eric's Biography

• 1:30 – 2:30 - Become Indispensable To Your Client! – How To Write Yourself Into Your Client’s Benefit Plans For The Next Five Years! - Jack Kwicien, Managing Partner of Daymark Advisors LLC

  Use Benefits Strategic Planning to differentiate your benefits practice and become a strategic partner with your client. A five-year strategic plan will ensure the continuity of existing client relationships and boost client retention. Create new revenue opportunities and produce a roadmap with your client for future plan changes that makes needs analysis and product recommendations easy. Elevate your role from “Salesperson” to “Trusted Advisor.”

• 2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. - Break
• 2:45 - 3:45 - Beat The Competition & Increase Your Profits - How You Can Add A Valuable And Highly-Desired HRO Services Solution To Your Existing Agency Operation - Raymond A. DiDia, CEO, The Team Solution, Inc.

• 9:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.. - Are you on the "Internet" yet? - Social Media is not optional anymore. Debbie McGrath, Chief Instigator , HR.com Limited

  Facebook, Linkedin, Insurance Campus, and Twitter are the new "single-card" system. Debbie McGrath has managed a very large social media site for HR people for several years and will share inside secrets for making this new communication option pay off for you. Read Debbie's Biography

• 10:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. - Explode Production with Sound Business Practices - Gloria Willis, President, Gloria Willis Consulting LLC.

  This session will explore the key elements for success: alignment, time mastery, mindset. Participants realize that exploding production is based on aligning all of the key elements on a consistent basis along with effective communication and the right actions. Most of us already know that improvements in time management, personal development and selling skills can double your income, the secret is a process for making it happen. Read Gloria's Biography

• 9:30 - 10:30 - Help Yourself By Helping HR – How Providing Billing Services To HR Can Solve Client Problems & Make You Money! - Rob Thurston, President of HR Consulting Group, Inc.

  If the government taxes health benefits, cuts or eliminates your health commissions, and kills a lot of voluntary benefits, how will you make money? Learn how to play a consultative role with clients and offer them solutions that they will pay you for. Providing HR with Billing Services can help you solve pressing problems for HR and create a new revenue source for your practice. Read Rob's Biography

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 a.m. - Track 12 - General Session (Located in Champagne 1) Benefits Advantage Plus - This session will explain an easy and effective method for opening new accounts and guaranteeing face-to-face enrollment opportunities - James Ouimet, President, James Consulting Group And Walt Podgurski, CEO, Insurance Broadcasting & Workplace Benefits Association   Door Prizes

VEBB (Voluntary Employee Benefits Board) Annual Meeting
8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. - Finding Success in Today's Economy (Located in Champagne 2)
Note: Membership and meeting participation In VEBB is limited to carriers only [home office or field].
There is a separate fee to register and attend the VEBB Meeting on Wednesday.

•  

   

  8:00 - 9:00 a.m.	Continental Breakfast	Champagne 2
  9:00 – 9:30 a.m.	Welcome – Diana Thulin, VEBB President
  9:30 – 10:30 a.m.	Industry Panel Discussion – Success Stories Hear what industry experts Ron Agypt (Aflac), Robert Frary (Symetra Financial) and Robert Morhauser (NGL Insurance Group) say about the current economic situation and its impact on the voluntary market.  Has it impacted revenue?  Relationships with clients and brokers?  Ability to win new business or retain existing business?
  10:30 - 10:45 a.m.	Break
  10:45 - 11:45 a.m.	Product Innovation Share with fellow conference attendees any new riders, features or products designed to fill a need or exposure due to the current economic environment.  Any product innovation to meet market-specific needs? (i.e., aging population/retirees, job changers, new technology…)  Learn more here!
  11:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.	Break
  12:00 – 12:30 p.m.	LIMRA Using findings from multiple LIMRA studies, this session examines the recent economic downturn.  How are trends affecting the U.S. insurance industry as a whole?  What has been the impact on voluntary/workplace sales?  Our discussion will address these and other related questions.
  12:30 - 1:30 p.m.	Lunch
  1:30 – 2:30 p.m.	Enrollment Services What unique enrollment services have clients requested due to the recession?  What challenges are you experiencing with your enrollment platforms?  What do you consider when determining which enrollment services to offer, and have requirements changed due to the current economic environment?  Share your experiences and hear if others have the same.
  2:30 – 2:45 p.m.	Break
  2:45 - 3:45 p.m.	Underwriting: Are You Buying or Selling? How has the current economic environment impacted underwriting?  Are you considering different businesses or niche markets now?  How do you balance sales pressures with risk management?  Learn best practices from your peers.
  3:45 - 4:00 p.m.	Break
  4:00 - 4:30 p.m.	General Session, Closing – Diana Thulin
  4:30 – 5:30 p.m.	Reception	Champagne 1

  
  
  VEBB Annual Meeting Registration Fee - $225.00  - Click Here To Register