NAILBA Perspectives - July/August 2014 - (Page 30)

member profiles InsurMark Steve Kerns Based in Houston, Texas, InsurMark has been a NAILBA member since 2013. Founder and CEO Steve Kerns provided input for this article. About the Agency Founded in 1983, InsurMark is a respected insurance marketing organization with independent advisors in all 50 states. The company specializes in the distribution of financial products, including fixed indexed annuities and life insurance products. In 2002 and 2012, Inc. Magazine named InsurMark one of the fastest growing companies in America. The organization has contracted more than 20,000 financial advisors since its inception. Long recognized nationwide as an industry leader, InsurMark was one of the founding organizations in 1987 of LifeUSA (known today as Allianz), as well as an original member in the most exclusive and innovative distribution entity in America-the Annexus Group. What makes your organization unique? We've been in business for 31 years now, and the foundation of our business is also our tagline: "Delivering Promises." We don't over-promise and under-deliver. We have an incredibly strong service platform, and we deliver on all of our promises: whether it's strong carriers, competitive products, value-added marketing systems, or better business practices. We also do a great deal of research on any product before we bring it out to our distribution system. We're more of a boutique IMO. We're primarily an annuity marketing organization but we also have a life division. We have a contracting department and a case design department. Last year, we processed 89 percent of the apps that were written through our organization, 30 perspectives JULY/AUGUST 2014 InsurMark senior leadership, from left: Darieke Hemphil, Steve Kerns, Tony Sufuentes, Jeff Maxey so we function like a home office. We're not a large company-we only have about 40 employees, but 10 of those have been with us for more than 10 years. In the annuity marketing business, that's a long time. So, we have a lot of stability, and we're very family-oriented-and I know everyone says this, but it really is a fun place to work. That's how I think we're different. What type of advisor are you trying to attract? We want to work with the advisor who believes in the three-legged stool: whatever they sell or provide is good for the customer, good for the company, and good for themselves. We don't want a commission-oriented advisor. We're not a commodity, cheap-term type of company. We're more about bringing value to our advisors. With our current recruiting efforts, we're looking for the holistic advisor. We want an advisor who wants to offer a safe money solution for their customer through guaranteed principle, fixed annuities, fixed indexed annuities, legacy and estate planning through life insurance and assets under management. Where do you see your organization in the next 5-10 years? I personally believe we are at the very beginning of a very strong fiveyear run in the annuity business. I think between 2014 and 2018, we're going to see incredible growth in that area. One of the major reasons is because broker-dealers and RIAs are beginning to more readily accept the indexed annuity offering. I think five years from now, we're going to be bigger than we are today. I think we're going to grow at 20 percent or more every year for the next five years, possibly even more. It depends on the foothold that we get with broker-dealers. How does being a NAILBA member benefit you and your business? Although I was a member many years ago, InsurMark just joined the association last year, so we're still trying to figure out where we fit and how we can help. We see them as a great resource for our life division, whether it's through the carriers and people we meet or the better business practices and new marketing methods we

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NAILBA Perspectives - July/August 2014

NAILBA Perspectives - July/August 2014
Contents
Chairman’s Corner
CEO Insights
Social Skills
NAILBA 33 Preview
NAILBA Charitable Foundation
Life Happens
The Remote or Virtual Office
Member Profiles
Mooers Award Nominations
Agency Successor Networking Group
Agency Resources
BGAs Leading Technology Through Connections
Reading Ahead
Calendar of Events
Index of Advertisers

NAILBA Perspectives - July/August 2014