![]() Randy Pifer, an insurance agent from Grand Junction, Colo. ![]() However, a greater general awareness of the need to connect with clients via digital sales channels is no doubt the primary reason for the increase.Īdvisors have been slow to adopt digital marketing, but we’ve seen a recent surge in insurance advisors investing in their training in these methods. One reason suggested for the increase in LinkedIn users is that LinkedIn was perceived as the professional social network, whereas Facebook and Twitter were seen as more personal and non-business oriented. In four short years, more than half of those who expressed no interest in using social networks had become regular users of select online media. Though three in 10 continued to express no interest in social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, a clear 53% of producers had become LinkedIn users. Fifty-seven percent said they had no interest in using these sites at all.īy the fall of 2013, this had changed radically. In 2009 only 18% of producers surveyed by LIMRA used social networking sites such as LinkedIn. ![]() Thanks to digital marketing tools like LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook, hundreds of agents stepped up to the plate and got ahead of the curve, offering the much-needed information and occasional hand-holding required. Then NAHA went even further, offering a 10-course program that enables individuals to become certified on the ACA reforms, after which successful graduates would be listed online under its Find an Agent feature.Įasily accessible web and social media tools also allow brokers to fulfill the growing demand for general knowledge about Obamacare and clarity in the insurance choices offered. NAHA launched an ACA decision support tool online that enables brokers to do customized reform impact analysis on particular business segments. He held seminars to educate existing and potential customers about nuances of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and came back every two weeks to provide updates on the latest regulatory reforms being handed down in the nation’s capital, sometimes on a daily basis. Harte’s company pulled out the calculators to determine the penalties their clients might face for ignoring Obamacare mandates. “I can assure you that employee benefit brokers across the country are transforming their practices to help their clients with the challenges of healthcare reform and allow their business to survive after reform,” says Thomas Harte, president-elect of the National Association of Health Underwriters and president of employee benefits broker Landmark Benefits, Inc., of Hampstead, New Hampshire. They needed someone who could answer their questions, explain the options, and walk them through it. The tens of thousands of health care customers who experienced frustration, delays and difficulties accessing the official website, needed somewhere reliable to turn. The dizzying array of choices, computer overload, and constant online glitches has created an enormous opportunity for proactive producers to address a growing need. Some hedged their bets and diversified, going into such things as property and casualty.įor others, however, the shift in the health care playing field presented an opportunity. The knowledge curve was too daunting for these brokers and agents, many of them senior producers. This sounded a death knell for the 40,000 insurance brokers and agents who sold insurance the old-fashioned way (office visits, phone calls, mailers and the like).Īs a result of the health care reform law and its economic impact, between 20 nearly 11% of insurance agents planned to leave the industry, according to a survey by the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU). About five million people per day visited as the Obamacare registration deadline neared. Agents and advisors were slow to adapt to the Internet at first, but they have found an unlikely bedfellow - the Affordable Care Act.
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