{"id":337,"date":"2021-03-16T15:06:28","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T15:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/episode-4-tim-ash\/"},"modified":"2022-08-15T11:50:41","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T15:50:41","slug":"episode-4-tim-ash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/episode-4-tim-ash\/","title":{"rendered":"Episode 4 with Tim Ash, CEO at Ash Brokerage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 180px;\" src=\"https:\/\/anchor.fm\/beyond-the-challenge\/embed\/episodes\/Episode-4-with-Tim-Ash--CEO-at-Ash-Brokerage-es1a37\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Host Sandy and Kevin Dougherty speak with Tim Ash, CEO at Ash Brokerage about the challenges and innovations faced by Insurance carriers and producers in a new virtual selling environment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Read the Transcript Here<\/h2>\n<div style=\"overflow-y: scroll; max-height: 400px; background: #eee; padding: 20px; border: 1px solid #ddd;\">\n<p class=\"p1\">(intro)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>Beyond the Challenge is a podcast where executives in the insurance and financial services industry share their insights and experiences. Hosts Kevin and Sandy Dougherty talk with today\u2019s top business leaders about what keeps them up at night and the biggest opportunity organizations can capitalize on today. We encourage you to listen, share, and subscribe to our program.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>Kevin and Sandy Dougherty each have over 20 years of experience in insurance and financial services, corporate leadership, and executive search. They\u2019re the owners of Global Corporate Solutions and Global Corporate Leaders. Global Corporate Solutions partners with organizations to gain efficiencies and contain costs. Global Corporate Leaders partners with organizations to enhance and evaluate talent.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>Beyond the Challenge podcast is sponsored by Exactuals, perfecting payments and the data driving them.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>Welcome to Beyond the Challenge. Here are your hosts, Kevin and Sandy.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">(interview)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Sandy:<\/b> Today, we are talking with Tim Ash about the challenges faced by insurance carriers and producers in our new virtual environment. Tim, can you tell us a little about yourself and your background?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Tim:<\/b> Thank you for having me on your podcast. So, a little bit about myself. I\u2019m a Fort Wayne, Indiana, native, born and raised, haven\u2019t really been out of Allen County very much in the 50 plus years I\u2019ve been on this earth. And married, have three children, had our first grandchild. And I\u2019m a second generation in the family business of Ash Brokerage. My father started it. We\u2019re celebrating our 50th anniversary so, in 1971, my father, Jim Ash, founded the company and, you know, we treat this organization like it\u2019s a startup. Even though we have 50 years of history, we\u2019re constantly looking for ways to evolve, grow, change, and meet the demands of both consumers, advisors, and the insurance company partners that we distribute and work with. So, I\u2019ve only known this industry. I\u2019ve been doing it now for 30 plus years, and when you get to over 30, you get to add the \u201cplus,\u201d you don\u2019t wanna give the exact number of years but, all fun aside, it\u2019s the only industry I\u2019ve known. I am very passionate about it. I think it does terrific social good. And our organization, from its humble beginnings to today, has grown to nearly 450 employees, of which around 300 are based out of Fort Wayne, Indiana.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Sandy:<\/b> Thanks, Tim, and welcome to Beyond the Challenge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Kevin:<\/b> Tim, all sectors face challenges, but in insurance and financial services, the list seems especially long, between regulatory changes, economic uncertainties, rising consumer expectations, and a virtual selling environment. Can you tell us a little bit about the new trends you have been witnessing in the industry as a result of COVID-19 pandemic and does more uncertainty bring opportunity?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Tim:<\/b> Well, that\u2019s a good opening question, Kevin, and I\u2019ll start with the second one, \u201cDoes more uncertainty bring opportunity?\u201d You know, I\u2019m a big believer that we\u2019re all going to be going through many types of disruptions in our lives, whether that\u2019s our personal or professional lives, and certainly I do believe that the more disruptions there are, the more opportunities there are to solve. The world doesn\u2019t stop just because things have changed and, whether they\u2019re political, economic, pandemic related, you have to keep marching forward and charging forward. And so that\u2019s, you know, that\u2019s really what we\u2019ve done and some of the things, to your first question, that we\u2019ve been witnessing in the industry as a result of COVID-19, we\u2019ve seen processing changes, you know, underwriting change. We\u2019ve seen insurance companies using more data and information to underwrite risks versus the traditional approach. We\u2019ve evolved very much in how we interact with our advisors and I\u2019d like to say we\u2019ve become more of an education-oriented company. You know, I could take the whole podcast and talk about a lot of these things but there\u2019s just been an enormous amount of change and with that change has come a lot of opportunity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Kevin:<\/b> What is your opinion about the future of distribution as we know it today?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Tim:<\/b> The future of distribution as we know it today is going to change dramatically. The insurance companies that we, you know, that we interact with are going to find it more and more challenging to be dealing with smaller organizations that don\u2019t have the technology, don\u2019t have the linkage, and so we\u2019re going to see, I believe, a consolidation take shape in the distribution space. Whether you consider us a brokerage general agent or an independent marketing organization, doesn\u2019t matter the label, we think there\u2019s going to be significant consolidation. We\u2019re also seeing it within banks, broker dealers, RIA firms that they want to work with fewer and fewer firms because of the complexities with new regulation and compliance, the requirements for privacy and security, understanding data, and they want to have one source and one resource for us to provide those services and many smaller firms have not invested to be able to provide that level of service. So we\u2019re seeing that today. I think in the next three to five years, you\u2019re gonna see dramatic consolidation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Kevin:<\/b> What do you see changing in insurance and financial services over the next three to five years?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Tim:<\/b> I would say consolidation is going to be a very large topic on both the insurance company side of things as well as the distribution side. You have historic low interest rates and that puts a tremendous amount of pressure on insurance companies that are selling products in a spread, when they make their profits on spreads, or they have capital intensive products, low interest rates make it very difficult for insurance companies to produce a profit so I think you\u2019re going to see insurance companies changing the types of solutions that they\u2019re putting out there and shift more of the guaranteed portion and go to more current assumption and things that are less capital intensive. We just see that currently. And with continued low interest rates, that\u2019s where the market is gonna be forced to. I also think you\u2019ll see more mutual companies stand out and want to grow and expand because of their capital structure, their patients and their return profiles versus stock-based insurance companies. You\u2019ll see more and more private equity enter into the space, as we\u2019ve already seen. So those are the changes that we see forthcoming in the industry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Kevin:<\/b> What are some of the strategic decisions that carriers are facing today?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Tim:<\/b> They\u2019re facing, I would say, in the strategic decisions, the challenges that they have are where do they invest their dollars for the future, for the growth? Technology is one of them. How are they going to embrace and invest in technology that\u2019s going to bring them up to current standards to engage with what that consumer demand is today? And I will say this, I would say many insurance companies are well behind other industry. If I were to look at the investment management world or you look at banking, you see the tools and technology that they have incorporated. Insurance companies are behind that and will need to catch up so I think that\u2019s gonna be a strategic decision that carriers have to decide upon. Another is, I think, their focus. Where, instead of being a provider of multiple products or product categories, they\u2019re gonna need to tighten their story and get into those things where they can have a dominant presence, have scale, because I do believe, as I stated, interest rates are going to play a very \u2014 it\u2019s gonna be a very challenging time for carriers to manufacture product and do so in a profitable way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Sandy:<\/b> Tim, how has COVID-19 changed your digital transformation strategy and what changes are you seeing from carriers around digital transformation since COVID-19?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Tim:<\/b> Our digital transformation strategy really didn\u2019t change from COVID-19. It accelerated the plans that we had for that. We were already doing and had moved to virtual wholesaling about two and a half to three years ago and that was something that we saw on the horizon to improve our effectiveness and be in front of more advisors and show up when they needed us in the manner in which they did and through technology we found to be very effective and efficient. The other thing it has done is it tested all of our technology to be able to work from home. And within less than eight hours, we went from having 400 people in offices to having 400 people in their homes working and our technology worked flawlessly. You would not have known that we were working from home. So, we made investments in infrastructure and COVID-19, as I mentioned, was an accelerant in our digital transformation. It didn\u2019t define our strategy, it just accelerated it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Sandy:<\/b> How do you see carriers dealing with their tech debt and investing in new technology and how are you at Ash dealing with it?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Tim:<\/b> Well, carriers are handling the, you know, Fintech and Insurtech investing, I think, in different ways. Many of them have Insurtech and Fintech funds and we\u2019re seeing a lot of insurance companies putting money into new ventures, new technologies, I think, to find ways to make it easier to transact, own, manage insurance and financial services products. How we\u2019re dealing with it is we have consistently in our history set aside a certain amount of our budget, a pretty significant portion, I might add, into R&amp;D, and technology is at the center of it. And so we embrace new technologies, in fact, we like to consider ourselves leaders in that space, whereas we see the industry has lagged in that adoption or investing, so we\u2019re definitely making significant investments in that and see that being an ongoing and continuing thing. It will not stop.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Sandy:<\/b> We\u2019ve all heard the saying, \u201cData is the new oil.\u201d As companies are investing more and more in data technology, can you share, in broad strokes, the types of investments you\u2019re seeing?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Tim:<\/b> We\u2019ve made investments in business information, business intelligence, and data analytics technology that overlays all of the submission and information that we have and interacting in the placement of insurance and we made that investment now going on around three to four years ago and we\u2019re seeing very, very positive returns come from that investment. It\u2019s enabling us to interact and be smarter in working with our end consumer \u2014 excuse me, our end customer, who is the financial advisor, and also sharing that interaction with the insurance companies. So we are constantly providing feedback and our information that comes from our data is broadly used with the insurance companies and with the advisors that we\u2019re doing business with.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Sandy:<\/b> How do you show ROI on new digital technology?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Tim:<\/b> We measure return on investment in new technology in a variety of ways. We built our own agency management system and data analytics that sits on top of that technology. So, we measure things like cycle time, placement rate, number of touches, the efficiencies that we gain from making the investments in the technology. I can use one simple example, transitioning to just one simple thing like e-delivery. We measured that. It improved our cycle time by five business days and improved our placement rates by around 3 percent and those two small numbers meant nearly seven figures of bottom line impact. We are constantly looking at how do we invest, but more importantly, how do you measure that return that you get on your investment in technology and we\u2019re doing it in a variety of other ways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Kevin:<\/b> What is the best decision that you made that had a positive impact on your career?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Tim:<\/b> The best decision that I made in my career was probably around 20 years ago. As we were starting to grow, we probably had around 50 people, I made the decision to start something that\u2019s become a core foundational thing in here and that\u2019s called our Friday morning meeting. I\u2019ve delivered over 1,200 to 1,300 Friday morning meetings to our entire staff so it\u2019s, to me, the best decision was creating and keeping and connecting to a culture and a team, bringing a purpose-driven approach to what we do and why we do it, and having our people see the importance that they have in delivering the products and services that we offer. We\u2019re not just here doing a transaction, we\u2019re here impacting lives, and that\u2019s become core and foundational to our organization and is a hallmark of our culture and our core values.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Kevin:<\/b> What advice would you give to someone looking to get into the insurance and financial services industry?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Tim:<\/b> The advice I\u2019d give someone entering the financial services industry and\/or the insurance industry is, well, first of all, I would say, I think you\u2019re making a smart move. I believe there\u2019s going to be an abundance of opportunity in this particular industry, whether you\u2019re going into financial planning, wealth management, insurance, or a combination of the three. But I would say that you have to have patience. You need to commit to it and give it three years. The first year, you\u2019re going to, you know, you\u2019re gonna skin your knees, and the second year, you start to get your stride, but by the third year, if you stick into it, you\u2019re gonna have and be a part of an industry and a career that gives you time, freedom, flexibility, and the ability to impact people\u2019s personal situations and just do this magnificent social good. And so that would be the advice that I would give.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Kevin:<\/b> From a business standpoint, what keeps you up at night?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Tim:<\/b> What keeps me up at night from a business standpoint is \u2014 and I think that question leads to what are you worried about. I don\u2019t go to bed worried about this business. What I go to bed thinking about and that keeps me up at night is how excited I am about opportunities. I can\u2019t turn my brain off to think of the many ways that we could be doing more and more things. And I\u2019m \u2014 having been in this business 30 plus years, I\u2019m more excited today about our opportunities for growth and impact than I was when I first started. So that\u2019s what keeps me up at night is positivity and more opportunities than we can shake the proverbial stick at.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Kevin:<\/b> What is the single best opportunity that the insurance industry can capitalize on today?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Tim:<\/b> I would have a hard time placing it on a single best opportunity. I would say there are multiple things. One is education. We have a large protection gap that\u2019s been talked about in the industry for a long time but without educating the consumer and creating awareness around owning life insurance or doing financial planning or retirement income planning. There needs to be more of that. The second thing is the industry has made it too complicated to acquire, own, purchase, and service insurance products and it has to be simplified. It also has to be integrated. It has to be integrated into that individual\u2019s life and\/or that advisor\u2019s ecosystem. And that\u2019s where I think \u2014 those are the top two things I would indicate. And the third is we are going to go into the next 10 years with very, very big headwinds, I believe. I believe we\u2019re gonna see income tax rates go up, capital gains rates go up, estate tax rates returning and going up. I don\u2019t believe we\u2019re going to see, as we have experienced the last 10 or 12 years, an increase in the DOW or the S&amp;P fivefold, and I think the industry manufactures products that can help Americans, that can help people with a lot of these concerns. So, the industry needs and can capitalize on that. The tax advantages we enjoy in life insurance as an example is just one. So that\u2019s how I would answer that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Sandy:<\/b> Tim, thank you for your time today. It\u2019s great to learn more about how carriers can turn economic uncertainty, rising customer expectations, and technology challenges into better customer solutions and higher profits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">(outro)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>Thank you for listening. Please make sure to subscribe and share so we can stay in touch. If you would like to learn more about how Global Corporate Solutions and Global Corporate Leaders can help your organization recruit the best talent, increase your diversity, and save money, please visit our website at www.thegclgroup.com.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Host Sandy and Kevin Dougherty speak with Tim Ash, CEO at Ash Brokerage about the challenges and innovations faced by Insurance carriers and producers in a new virtual selling environment. &nbsp; Read the Transcript Here (intro) Beyond the Challenge is a podcast where executives in the insurance and financial services industry share their insights and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcasts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":488,"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions\/488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}