New York Life’s Mark Pfaff Promoted to Executive Vice President
One of the class acts in the New York insurance industry is New York Life’s Mark Pfaff, and the National Underwriter is reporting that Mark was just promoted to Executive Vice President of the US Life and Agency division of the Company. I met Mark for only about twenty minutes or so many years ago when I was interviewing around, and I’m certain he doesn’t remember me. Nevertheless, I recall being surprised at the way Mark brought to the table the qualities of sincerity, candor, warmness, and a no-nonsense business style, but without being brusque. Too many agency managers can only lead their agencies through scare tactics and intimidation; Mark leads his sales force via the true qualities of leadership: personal confidence in himself, knowledge of his company, their products, and competitors’ companies and products; treating his people as individuals and recognizing and distinguishing hard working agents who need support and guidance, from those who are blowing smoke or sell unethically.
Here’s a clip from a 2005 New York Life press release announcing Mark’s promotion to Senior Vice President:
NEW YORK, N.Y., December 14, 2005 — New York Life Insurance Company announced today that Mark W. Pfaff has been named senior vice president in charge of the Agency Department. Mr. Pfaff, who is currently senior vice president of the company’s agency field force in the Northeast Zone, will lead the Agency Department in the Manhattan-based Home Office, replacing Paul B. Morris who will be retiring in January.
Mr. Pfaff joined New York Life in 1985 as an agent. In 1988 he became a sales manager and in 1994 was promoted to managing partner for the Vermont General Office. In 1997 Mr. Pfaff transferred as managing partner to the Park Avenue General Office; later that year he was promoted to agency vice president of Northeastern Agencies. In 1999, he became the zone vice president of Northeastern Agencies, and in the fall was asked to take over the Manhattan General Office as managing partner. In April 2004, he was named senior vice president of Northeastern Agencies overseeing the recruitment, training and development of managing partners and partners, and made responsible for the sales production and overall supervision of the zone office and general offices within the Northeastern Zone. He won the prestigious President’s Trophy and scored a perfect 4.0 rating on the Company’s GPA system.
Mr. Pfaff holds a bachelor’s degree from Manhattan College and an associate’s degree from Westchester Community College. A native of Pearl River, N.Y., Mr. Pfaff and his wife, Claudia, reside in Charlotte, Vermont with their three children.
So here’s a guy who started as a sales rep, like most of the readers of this blog, and 24 years later is in the inner circle of one of America’s most prominent and well respected corporations. Congratulations Mark!
IRS Offers Criminal Amnesty to Offshore Account Holders
The IRS announced the other day that they were willing to forgo criminal prosecution of US taxpayers who held (and failed to report and pay tax on) accounts held offshore.
As reported by Thomson Reuters/IRS,
IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman has announced what is in effect a settlement offer for those that voluntarily and timely disclose unreported offshore income. Those meeting the terms of the offer will have to pay back-taxes and interest for six years, and pay either an accuracy or delinquency penalty on all six years. They will also pay a penalty of 20% of the amount in the foreign bank accounts in the year with the highest aggregate account or asset value. In other words, 20% of the highest asset value of an account anytime in the past six years. However, those who come forward on a timely basis will not face criminal prosecution.
Penalties and interest will be painful, no question about it. However it seems like a prudent move insofar as the Service has (or is in the process of) receiving data from foreign banks and financial institutions on US citizens which had been protected under foreign government secrecy laws.
Medicare Hospice Benefits
Here’s a pamphlet (at the bottom) from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services which explains the benefits of the Medicaid program for people who are terminally ill. The program is is known as Medicare Hospice Benefits, and unfortunately is one of the most underutilized of all the Medicare programs, especially in New York. If you’re not familiar with the term, here’s how several authors writing for The New York Academy of Medicine define Hospice:
Hospice is a program of care for persons in the last phases of an incurable disease and their families or caregivers. Eligibility for this benefit is predicated on a physician’s estimate of prognosis of 6 months or less and the presence of one or more progressive illnesses. The goal of hospice is to manage the physical, psychological, spiritual, social, and practical issues that present as a result of the dying process and continue for the family in the yearlong bereavement period that follows death. Hospice is provided in both home and facility-based settings by an interdisciplinary team of professionals—physicians, nurses, medical social workers, therapists, counselors, and volunteers—who coordinate an individualized plan of care for each patient and family.
MetLife Getting No Love From the Market
I thought my buddy was joking last week when he told me “MetLife is at $11.50!” Are you kidding?! No, he wasn’t. And only a few weeks before that, MetLife had been downgraded by one of the ratings agencies. What’s going on? Even a casual observer of the industry can recognize MetLife is the best run company in the sector, and as a market leader outclasses just about every other company in the insurance business. The answer is, I think, that most analysts simply do not understand the insurance business and are not willing to put in the time and effort to dig deep under the hood, and simply follow the herd mentality when it comes to looking at the financial services sector.
At an insurance conference sponsored by JP Morgan last week, few of the speakers were positive on the industry, although there were some notable exceptions. One of the fellows running the meeting; I didn’t catch his full name (he’s referred to as “Jimmy”, I believe), did distinguish MetLife as one of the bright spots in the industry. I’ve excerpted a short segment of the conference call, FYI:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
At the conference, MetLife executives Eric Steigerwalt and John Rosenthal presented a nice powerpoint showing in great detail why the company is so well positioned, and the analysts and ratings agencies are just missing the boat when it comes to rating their company. Listen to this short clip from Eric Steigerwalt; of course he’s in a room full of friends and colleagues so must be cordial, but I think the undertone is “hey guys, you just don’t have a clue!”:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Long Term Care Disclosure Bill Introduced
New York State Assemblywoman Ann Margaret Carozza, from Bayside, Queens, is a trusts and estate attorney and an active member of the local bar associations. Assemblywoman Carozza introduced recently bill number A6423B, titled “An act to amend the insurance law, in relation to disclosure of coverage in a long term care insurance contract.”
NYS Assemblywoman Ann Margaret Carozza
The purpose of the legislation is to make it more likely that purchasers of LTC contracts are made aware that the daily benefit provided by the LTC policy is probably only one-half of what will actually be needed for care in a New York City (and surrounding) facility. The bill would amend Section 1117(b) of the insurance law to require disclosure to the client regarding:
Read more
Flight to Quality Bodes Well for Insurance Advisors
It wasn’t so long ago when few people wanted to listen to boring insurance salesfolk talk about their boring products and pokey rates of return. In a truly unfortunate way, and hindsight being 20/20, of course, the state of the market is driving people to once again see their insurance advisor as their only true “trusted advisor.”
Insurance and Financial Advisor writer Keith L. Martin writes in this article how industry executives are forecasting a strong 2009 as consumers drive back to quality and stability and away from fortune-telling. This, of course, means now more than ever the insurance advisor is well-positioned to get back to the kitchen table and talk to people about the fundamentals of financial planning. Martin quotes K. Rone Baldwin, executive vice-president and chief operating officer for The Guardian as saying:
“This environment plays to our industry’s strengths. The guarantees and protection we offer are more attractive than ever in the current environment. There is the opportunity for insurers to differentiate themselves as a place of safety in a world more concerned with risk than ever before.”
AALU Director of Policy and Public Affairs
Sarah Spear, Director of Policy and Public Affairs for the American Association of Life Underwriters (AALU), points out that two-thirds of American households already own a life insurance policy or annuity contract. Spear continued:
“We need Washington, D.C., to know that we are a solution to a problem versus the problem,” she said. “We want a seat at the table, not to be on the menu. Insurance advisors are the ones people turn to in times of crisis to be sure they are OK.”
How right you are Sarah!