Year-End Potpourri

In my own experience and of others I have known, no announcement of achievement evokes more positive feedback from policyholders than that of the NQA. All other awards and symbols attest to ones prowess as a salesperson, and there is nothing wrong with that. But the NQA attests to the “quality” of an agents business. In this instance, the “quality” is the policyholder and customers of all stripes like to think of themselves as quality. The NQA award says, in effect, my policyholders are a touch of class. One of our local agents, now deceased, used to send his NQA announcement and his picture to our local paper every year and they always printed it. Other awards were ignored for the most part. Try ityou will like it.

One of the reasons I have advocated regulation of our business by the states rather than the federal government is that the 50 states each provide a laboratory for experimentation and innovation. Over the years a number of initiatives taken by various states have not lived up to expectation and were abandoned. A network of state regulations requiring companies to rise to the strongest part of each is, I still believe, stronger than a single strand of regulation emanating from Washington.

Tennessee provides a case in point. Ten years ago Tennessee embarked upon an ambitious health care program for its citizens patterned somewhat after federal proposals being discussed at the time. From published reports that I have read, “TennCare” has been a big disappointment, if not a disaster. The program has been rife with lawsuits and far more costly than anticipated. It has deprived other state agencies of needed funds and is generally regarded as being in worse shape today than a decade ago. It is far better that we learn such lessons in a single state than in the country as a whole.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, the AFLAC duck is being somewhat muzzled for the time being. While the loud-mouthed duck has done a superb job of becoming a recognizable ad icon and lifting recognition of its sponsoring companys brand to 90% from 12%, the result has not translated into increased sales. Name recognition is important in advertisingand cutesy symbols like Budweiser frogs and Texacos noisy black birds are good at achieving it. But at some point, the consumer wants to know “whats in it for me?”

About 25 years ago when the International Association for Financial Planning (now the Financial Planning Association) was the new kid on the block, it tried to do by fiat what it couldnt do in the marketplace. To put it briefly, it pushed legislation that would have made it difficult for anyone but its members to sell financial products. It didnt work. Last September, a new initiative along the same lines was launched. It is one thing to tout your own virtuesbut quite another to do so while demeaning others. This will bear watching.

Happy New Year!

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, January 6, 2005. Copyright 2005 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.