NAILBA Perspectives - November/December 2015 - (Page 18)

member profiles The National Benefit Corp John T. Gilbert Based in Des Moines, Iowa, The National Benefit Corp has been a NAILBA member since 1993. John T. Gilbert, Vice President of Business Development, provided input for this article. About the Agency The National Benefit Corp (TNBC) is an insurance marketing organization focused on providBud Kirke ing first-class service and building long-term relationships with financial services professionals. The agency was founded in 1977 by the late Bernard M. (Bud) Kirke, CLU (1924-2004). An Army Air Corps veteran and Drake University graduate, Bud served the life insurance industry for more than 50 years. During his career, he earned numerous awards, including the prestigious Mooers Award, which he received from NAILBA posthumously in 2004. Although TNBC started off as a grass roots agency, it quickly grew into a leading life and annuity brokerage organization. In the mid 1980s, TNBC made the leap to serving institutional clients in addition to insurance producers. This was a transformational moment for the agency as there were not many BGAs focused on institutional business at the time. Since then, institutional business has remained a major focus for the agency. TNBC has grown from a couple of employees back in the 1970s to more than 30 employees today. Although TNBC has moved locations several times, the agency is still based in Des Moines and remains family owned and operated. Bud's son Thomas Kirke, CLU, is currently a principal along with Thomas Gilbert, CLU. Thanks to Bud's leadership and vision for the agency's future, TNBC continues to thrive today. 18 perspectives NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015 What makes your agency unique? First of all, we remain focused on working with institutional clients. TNBC has been focused on the independent broker dealer marketplace and institutional market place for 30 years. This focus allows TNBC to be a part of the complete financial planning process and it helps to minimize the transactional part of the business. Secondly, we've placed tremendous importance on developing technology platforms for our producers to use. For example, we offer a customized insurance CRM to help producers manage their book of business. We also built a homegrown agency management system that helps us provide an enhanced level of service to our producers. Our agency management system is expressly designed for the type of business we do: it's built to run a BGA, so we're not taking some off-the-shelf management system and trying to fit it into the insurance business. We built this system from the ground up, and it's designed for life insurance, annuities, DI, long term care, case management, licensing, and commissions and the way all those pieces fit together. We feel that's an advantage. When we want to make a change or update our agency management system, we do it internally. We don't have to go to an external company and wait in line to have something customized for our CRM. This custom-built system gives us real-time and enhanced service levels for our producers. Lastly, our agency is unique because we're focused on the human aspect of the business. There is no phone tree here; we still have a live receptionist. We strive to make sure every producer who calls us gets to talk to a live human being who can address their current concern or problem. That's extremely important to us. Our staff at TNBC also offers a ton of experience and a wealth of knowledge, which we think is a differentiator from some of our competitors. Where do you see your organization in the next 5 to 10 or even 20 years? I think we will continue to find the balance between introducing our producers to technological innovations that will help them streamline their business while remaining focused on the human element of the business. We believe our business will always be one that requires human interaction. I don't think we'll ever get to the point where our producers will be able to do everything electronically, especially when it comes to the area of life insurance. People say life insurance has to be sold not bought. You have to create that need and desire for the client to want to help their family, so we'll strike a balance and focus on developing tools our producers find valuable while keeping a human presence here for them to interact with. We will continue to develop the relationships we've worked so hard to build over the years. How does being a NAILBA member benefit you and your business? First and foremost, it's really important for all of us associated in this business to have a unified voice. I think NAILBA provides that in their own efforts and certainly with the recent joining of forces with AALU as it pertains to lobbying. Some of the products we sell are being closely

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NAILBA Perspectives - November/December 2015

NAILBA Perspectives - November/December 2015
Contents
Chairman’s Corner
CEO Insights
A Conversation with Robert O’Neill
NAILBA Charitable Foundation
Member Profiles
Agency Successor Networking Group
Life Happens
NAILBA 34 Program Preview
Evaluating Your Carrier Relationships
Calendar of Events
Index of Advertisers

NAILBA Perspectives - November/December 2015