DIBroker East / Eskra & Associates

Disability Insurance For Life

Disability Insurance

Thanks for a great 2015 to our top Sales Partners

  by  DIBroker East

I had planned to post this a couple of weeks ago, but was distracted by a phone call from MetLife on the way back from the Keys. But I will post it anyway since I want to acknowledge our leaders in sales for 2015. We invited them to Key Largo for a couple of days of fishing and hanging out.  Three of our dibroker east Sales Partners (we have nine all told), Clarke Morris, Tim Murray, and Michael Tyler qualified for our reward trip. Clarke Morris was the over all winner–congratulations!

The three have rather different styles for how they run their businesses. Clarke wanders all of the Southeast, from Mississippi down to South Florida and up to North Carolina, working with more brokers than any of our other Sales Partner. Tim has a smaller, but very successful group of brokers primarily in the Tampa and Central Florida area. He has been very successful with brokers who target doctors in residency. Tyler (too many Michael’s to keep track of–so he is “Tyler” for us) partners frequently with Group Sales reps and often goes on joint calls with his brokers, and has a real expertise in voluntary GSI.

Tyler he caught two beautiful snook in the Keys backwaters. 

Michael Tyler caught a beautiful snook--30 inches
Michael Tyler caught a beautiful snook–30 inches

We spent the better part of a day fishing amidst the aquamarine waters of the back country Keys. Our  guide, Lain Goodwin (http://www.dirtywaterscharters.com/), navigated the shallow waters and narrow channels of the small islands and outposts of mangroves with a skill that impressed us all. He sped us through winding, narrow channels all the way to Crocodile Lake (we didn’t enter because it is protected). Without a GPS and a knowledgeable navigator, I am sure we would still be out there. And as my brother Michael noted, “he brought just the right mix of quiet and conversation,” and of course we caught fish because of him. If you ever need a fishing guide in the Keys, Lain is a great option.

We also were witness to a mud circle, mine first. I had heard of these, but had never seen one except on youtube–so cool to witness. A mudcircle is created when bottlenose dolphins swim in a circle in shallow waters stirring up the mud to confuse mullet (a type of fish), which then jump into the air making them an easy meal for the dolphin. You can catch a very dramatic version of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzfqPQm-ThU

The food from our days in the Keys was fantastic. The first night we went to Pierre’s (http://www.moradabay.com/pierres/). Tyler and I both tried seafood curry with Himalayan Black Rice. Just the right level of spice to allow the flavor of the seafood and the sauce to come through. The wine and the service (a nice woman from Bulgaria of all places) were excellent–it was a celebration.

Tyler was a sales rep for Metlife before joining dibroker east. Given the recent news about MetLife suspending their disability insurance sales in September (and letting their underwriter and sales force go), I am imagine he is happy to have made the move.

In any event, we are grateful for their hard work and hope that they have a great 2016.

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MetLife to suspend IDI sales Sept 1st

  by  DIBroker East

My second blog post was planned as a happy retelling of our reward trip this week to Key Largo for our top Sales Partners here at dibroker east (Clarke Morris, Tim Murray, and Michael Tyler qualified)–that will have to wait.

Kieran Mullins Senior Vice President at MetLife sent out an email today announcing the suspension of individual disability insurance sales at MetLife:  (W)e have decided to suspend Individual Disability Insurance (IDI) sales, effective September 1, 2016. This date will be the final date to submit business, with the final date to place business on October 31, 2016. This suspension affects the fully underwritten IDI line under U.S. Retail. The Group, Voluntary & Worksite Benefits business will continue to manufacture and sell Group Disability Insurance/Guaranteed Standard Issue business as they do today. 

We are disappointed by this news and saddened for our friends at MetLife who will be out of a job. MetLife has an excellent individual product, excellent underwriters and a strong team of support, starting with our rep Chris Ginocchio.

From conversations we have had with folks at Metlife, they are not planning to sell the block of business and say the block is performing well–this could bode well as a sign that they plan to return to the market in the future. But at this point, they don’t seem to be making a firm commitment to that.

MetLife’s product has been an important of our portfolio. We do business with nine disability insurance carriers, but they have consistently been in our top three, and have been a strong partner whom we had come to rely upon. We only hope that the suspension is short and that they return to the market with a renewed effort and focus.

The number of carriers in the IDI market has been pretty  steady in the last decade and carriers report a good return on investment–and they all seem to have weathered the financial downturn in 2008 without too much stress. But the market is a fraction its size in its heyday (say the ’80’s). It is not good for the market as a whole to lose a strong player such as Metlife.

I remember a number of years ago when Steve Brady of the Standard Insurance Company was visiting our office. Metlife had only just started to be a real player in the independent brokerage market. I recall Steve making a comment along the lines of…”If MetLife ever got really serious about the individual disability insurance market, they could dominate it.” The had gotten more serious, and from what we are told, it is a very profitable line of business for them. Now they are saying that they don’t have the resources to develop in the internal systems they need to support individual disability insurance sales. Pennywise, pound foolish?

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Welcome to the Initial DIBroker East Blog: Buy-Sell

  by  DIBroker East

Welcome to my initial blog for dibroker east/Eskra & Associates.

This blog will show up occasionally when something interesting happens in the disability insurance world that I want to share with you.

I was hoping to get my father, Mike Eskra, Jr. to take on this blog. He was a bit of a legend in our industry and a consummate marketer—and he loved to write (his book on Disability Insurance is a testament to that). Sadly, he passed away unexpectedly in September 2015. This blog is dedicated to him.

I want to start this blog with an unsung product in the disability world—disability buy-out.
Often, often, often we can see clients who have are the owners of small business, and often (though not often enough), they will have a buy-sell agreement that covers what happens to the firm in the event of the death of one of the partners. And often, they cover the risk created by that agreement with a term life insurance policy—great. So far, so good.

But so,so often, the agreement will also cover disabilities (which a good agreement should), and that liability with not be covered by a disability policy—but it can and often should be.

A number of carriers have excellent buy-sell products, including MetLife and the Standard. But the Principal Financial group has just released a new version of their buy-sell product (“DBO”) that has really fantastic pricing, and it now allows for one-way buy-outs.

If you have clients who own a small business and who have partners, talking with them about buy-sell needs is very important, and now is a great time to do it.

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