N America News May 2017

48 NORTH AMERICA NEWS / MAY 2017 , Gentry Partners is a life insurance broker and consultant that works with clients, producers, family offices, attorneys, accountants and family advisors to provide life insurance products for estate planning, retirement planning, charitable planning and business owner insurance needs. GPworks in all states with a network of producers and professionals with its main office in Chicago, Illinois. Insuring the Future GP was founded and is managed by Debra Hoag, who has more than 27 years of experience in the life insurance industry as a personal producer, general agent and insurance carrier executive. Debra understands the insurance products and the underwriting and is personally involved with the carrier underwriters and executives to work towards the best results for all the clients. How does Gentry Partners differentiate itself from other brokerage firms? In one word… Service. While Gentry Partners has the products, advanced sales support, medical underwriting support, and competitive payouts, the firm is typically defined by the level of service it brings to each of its producers. Gentry understands the mentality of the large producer, their service expectations, and the problems that their cases typically bring (seniors, impaired risk, large lines of insurance/capacity issues). It is in these situations that the firm’s experience and service, particularly in the underwriting realm, truly shines. In more than 75% of these cases, it is necessary for Gentry to negotiate on the client’s behalf with each carrier. Gentry was created to support a limited number of high-end producers and, as a result, the firm’s staff has a personal relationship with each. Each case is manually handled and considered a VIP case. Rather than trying to support a large number of brokers, Gentry prefers to focus on ‘good business’ brought to it by producers that are known and trusted. In addition, as many brokerage firms focus on the quantity of cases they process, Gentry has found that these firms tend to focus on a limited number of insurance carriers and are generally lacking in support for the higher end, advanced markets. Gentry is staffed with experienced professionals with diverse backgrounds (including careers with insurance carriers, wire houses, broker dealers, brokerage firms, and the Internal Revenue Service) that helps its producers to stay on top of innovative concepts, new and enhanced products, and changing regulations/legislation. What kind of markets does Gentry work in? The firm has found that its relationships as a GA, FMO, MGA, BGA, with more than 30 life insurance carriers, has allowed it to be most effective with large jumbo cases and/ or medically impaired insureds. Consolidation of the reinsurance market and lowered carrier retention has resulted in jumbo cases being diversified over a larger number of insurance carriers with which many producers do not have an existing relationship. Gentry selects carriers based on product performance as well as capacity. When building a large line of coverage, the firm finds it is important to work with all carriers due to the competitive nature of the underwriting market. Clients need to access internal retention carriers, in addition to carriers with reinsurance binding, and generally, will need someone of influence with the carrier to encourage them to use that internal retention. As a result, Gentry’s most valued assets are the relationships it maintains with the multiple carriers it represents. What kind of support services can Gentry provide? Gentry’s staff provides producers with an array of support services including licensing, advanced market support, case design, product analysis, competitive analysis, new business processing, medical and financial underwriting support, and compensation. The firm works with licensed producers on all product lines including term, universal life, whole life, variable life, fixed and variable annuities, disability, and/ or long term care insurance. Gentry’s staff also has extensive experience in evaluating and working with premium finance companies and the life settlement/secondary market. The Registered Representatives at Gentry Partners, Ltd. offer securities through First Allied Securities, Inc. (FASI), a full service independent broker dealer based in San Diego, California. With FASI the Registered Representative can sell general securities, mutual funds, variable annuities, variable life, limited partnerships and private placement. In addition, FASI allows their reps to sell life settlements through approved outlets. First Allied Securities, Inc. clears through Pershing, LLC. How does Gentry make use of technology? Gentry has made a significant investment in technology to help make its producer’s jobs as easy as possible. Among the many software platforms Gentry uses are: • Albridge Wealth Management allows for web-based portfolio accounting and management. • SmartView provides the producer pending case data, licensing, contracting, commission date (coming soon) and reports, and gives representatives data access 24 hours a day, seven days a week through a secure and confidential web access. • VitalTerm is the industry’s leading term insurance comparison and quoting system. It offers an extensive database of products, flexible technology and a high level of service and customization • VitalLTC is a long-term care quotes and feature 1702CA73