NAILBA Perspectives - March/April 2015 - (Page 24)

member proﬁles The Milner Group Seixas "Chad" Milner III Based in Lawrenceville, Georgia, The Milner Group has been a NAILBA member since 1999. Vice President Seixas "Chad" Milner III provided input for this article. About the Agency When it comes to brokerage agencies, The Milner Group is truly a pioneer. Founded in 1958 by Willis J. Milner, Jr., The Milner Group was the ﬁrst brokerage agency in the South. In 1979, the agency hired computer programmers to design a multi-company application processing system-the ﬁrst of its kind in brokerage. When NAILBA created their prestigious HD Mooers award, Seixas Milner was the ﬁrst selected recipient. When choosing an insurance broker to pilot their imaging and uploading systems, three carriers chose The Milner Group to be their ﬁrst. Today, The Milner Group is a full service insurance brokerage agency providing impaired risk, life, annuity, health, disability, and long term care insurance products to agents nationwide. With 50+ employees, this trail-blazing brokerage agency continues its legacy of innovation and change. What makes your organization unique? We've been in this business for a long time, and we've had continuous, steady growth. We're approaching our 60th anniversary, and three generations have run the agency over that time period. I don't think there are any other brokerage agencies that have done that. It's deﬁnitely unique that we've involved so many family members to continue our agency's growth. We have about eight family members who work in the business on a daily basis. What type of advisor are you trying to attract? All types. We service the independent agent, although they're called ﬁnan- 24 perspectives MARCH/APRIL 2015 Assembled staff of the Milner Group cial advisors now. We've stuck to life insurance as our primary product, so the majority of ﬁnancial advisors we serve now are independent agents that were at some point or still are part of the career system. That's our core business. We also have some strategic alliances with several broker-dealers and some banks. I see that as being more the future of the growth of our business. We'll continue to maintain our core business, which is relationship-driven with independent advisors. But in the future, in order for us to continue growing, I think we need to focus on strategic relationships, be it with broker-dealers, banks, or wire houses. We've already been fairly successful with it recently. Where do you see your organization in the next 5-10 years? I went to a LifeMark meeting about 8 years ago, and a speaker there said brokerage is going to change in the next ten to 15 years, and if you don't cause the sale to happen, you're going to be irrelevant. That really stuck with me. I thought about that: How do we cause the sale to happen to be relevant and really add value to the distribution? Because the reality is we're a middle man, so we've got to add value to remain relevant. When I looked at ﬁnal expense, I thought I could add value by creating a better lead for agents. Three years ago, I started North American Senior Beneﬁts (NASB), which is under The Milner Group umbrella. Today, NASB is one of the top ﬁve ﬁnal expense companies in the whole country. The key to our success is that we are ﬁnding ways to make the sale happen. We started our own mail house, and we can print and mail up to a million pieces a month. So we've got a direct mail platform, and we generate leads for our agents. For continued growth, I'm going to continue to ﬁnd ways to cause the sale to happen. We've got to help agents not just with an administration, underwriting, support, and consulting role, but also to help them get in front of more clients. So we're going to

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NAILBA Perspectives - March/April 2015

NAILBA Perspectives - March/April 2015
Contents
Chairman’s Corner
CEO Insights
State of the Industry Panel
NAILBA Charitable Foundation
Life Happens
Member Profiles
Agency Successor Networking Group
Get STREAMLINED
Reading Ahead
Calendar of Events
Index of Advertisers

NAILBA Perspectives - March/April 2015