Our family enjoyed a few weeks of vacation on Bornholm. As we were milling around, a handful of ideas for future blogposts occurred to me; I also took tons of photographs. I thought I would share some of these pictures, and summaries of potential blogposts, here. Bornholm is a small island in the Baltic Sea, …
I love the business of insurance brokerage and employee benefit advisory. I wrote a blog post about it here. Even though I stepped away from agency leadership last year, as I relayed here, I continue to consult with some employers, insurance agencies, and other organizations (e.g. biotechnology firms). But, I miss being “in the mix” …
An important part of my business between 2010 and 2017 was pension advisory. The role of an advisor to plan sponsors was evolving as regulatory reforms were placing employers under higher scrutiny as ERISA fiduciaries. Questions that retirement services professionals had to consider included: “What should our process look like for investment selection and monitoring?” …
The exponential information age is like a verbally incontinent person: he talks more and more as fewer and fewer people listen. Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Bed of Procrustes As a young businessman consulting clients, I recall feeling a tension between two forms of advice from elder consultants. The first form was to always prepare for …
Over the holiday, I spent time reflecting on my time in the insurance brokerage industry. One interesting area that drew some of my attention was the sale of Zenefits to TriNet Group Inc. I was personally invested into the impacts of Zenefits on our legacy employee benefits brokerage as Zenefits experienced its meteoric rise; The …
One person, on doing well by others, immediately accounts the expected favor in return. Another is not so quick, but still considers the person a debtor and knows the favor. A third kind of person acts as if not conscious of the deed, rather like a vine producing a cluster of grapes without making further …
“In life, as in chess, forethought wins.” Charles Buxton I have enjoyed the game of chess since learning the rules from my father as a young boy. I remember my dad playing the game with me and describing the importance of “looking ahead to subsequent moves.” He would take an eternity considering his moves and …
The Loughran family lived next door to my grandparents in Paramus, NJ when I was a child. I have memories of sneaking, as a young boy, across the grass over to Mrs. Loughran’s backdoor to pick a few candies from a dish in her living room. Mrs. Loughran apparently shared that, when she asked me …
My career became my hobby at a (relatively) young age. I found my way into insurance as a licensed salesperson for Northwestern Mutual when I was a junior at Penn State University. Like most people, I did not begin my career with an objective of finding a pathway into the industry. In retrospect, though, I …
I had an inquiry from a friend earlier this week about my impressions of eHealth, Inc ($EHTH) as a possible investment. I was aware of the existence of this broker, but never looked closely at the business. So, I offered to take a look. I have been interested in the continued investments being made into …