In this throwback episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers and co-host Kyle Houck interview Greg Zahn, AVP of Multiline and Digital Sales at Highland Capital Brokerage. Greg talks about his career in the insurance industry and the significance of life insurance. He also discusses the benefits of understanding the disability policy in life insurance, and the value of digital tools in creating systems that are more accessible.
Episode Highlights:
- David introduces Greg Zahn. (1:29)
- Greg shares his background in the insurance business. (2:02)
- Greg says that most of what they do at Highland will make sense as to why he works on a digital footprint, and what he does for PNC and benefits organizations. (2:21)
- Greg shares the goal of their company. (3:01)
- Did Greg work initially in life insurance after college? (4:42)
- Greg says that his experiences led him to understand many aspects of life insurance. (5:52)
- Greg shares that one of the key elements of life insurance is a disability. (12:41)
- Greg mentions that term insurance is a great and easy solution to get the death benefit done. (13:43)
- What is the significance of disability? (15:45)
- Greg shares that there are plenty of options about disability to where a business can have a disability policy for their customer, or their employee. (16:57)
- Greg mentions that life insurance has a significant aspect when it comes to cash value inside the permanent policies. (17:53)
- Greg shares that when it comes to death and disability, facts and figures are helpful, and sometimes they like stories of where things have gone wrong, but at the end of the day, helping them understand that a minor cost compared to a major issue is vital. (24:02)
- Greg thinks that having a network is a big factor. (28:05)
- David says that most financial planning companies out there are beholden to their products, and they are not regularly the best thing for the situation. (29:54)
- Greg shares the beauty of brokerage. (31:05)
- Greg mentions that Easy Life is an electronic application system and a client-facing tool. (34:54)
- David mentions that they have the Easy Life widget on their Florida Risk Partner website. (37:13)
- What are the biggest obstacles that Greg has come into when trying to engage with firms like them? (42:38)
- Greg explains the methodology with Highland Capital Brokerage. (44:20)
- Greg mentions that they have a new digital tool coming out that is more educational. (47:13)
- Greg says that Highland Capital Brokerage has support systems that can help those transactional opportunities and don’t bury you in opportunities that are not cost-effective for you to work on, but at the same time making sure that you’re visible. (47:50)
- David says that the thing he likes about digital more than anything else is the analytics that he gets from it. (48:45)
- Greg thinks that being digital, being aware, being connected, and the data in understanding how to read it is vast. (50:58)
Tweetable Quotes:
- “The ability to help individuals find the right solution for their family and their needs, and work with insurance professionals that may not traditionally do life insurance is an awesome thing to do every day.” – Greg Zahn
- “If you don’t have a good partner that you can trust that’s going to deliver the right solutions to your customers, then don’t go into it just to chase money, do it for the right reasons.” – Greg Zahn
- “Google is not the most helpful thing for good objective research, but customers do it. So make sure you understand, really work around the value, and anyone that’s bringing a soul product, and not the market is not really truly bringing value to your customer solutions.” – Greg Zahn
Resources Mentioned:
- David Carothers LinkedIn
- Kyle Houck LinkedIn
- Florida Risk Partners
- The Extra 2 Minutes
- Greg Zahn LinkedIn
- Highland Capital Brokerage