Welcome New FAB Members

I'm happy to announce that, effective Jan. 1, 2018, The Standard will have two new Field Advisory Board members:

• Karen Gardner, manager of Metro DI in New York, filling the chair being vacated by Jeff Peterson, manager of Truluma in Seattle
• Wes Bryan, GSI rep for Plus Group Texas in Dallas, filling the chair being vacated by Mike Zimmerman, manager of The Insurance Partners LLC in Kansas City

First, I want to thank Jeff and Mike for their years of service and many contributions to our Field Advisory Board. They both joined the FAB in 2014. Thanks to you both! (Although they’re not finished yet — they will finish out their terms at the end of this year).

And I want to thank Karen and Wes for agreeing to volunteer their time and effort to provide The Standard with advice on the wide variety of issues that come before the FAB.

Karen Gardner: Metro DI is a multi-generational family business that was started by Karen’s father, Len Gardner, in 1963. Karen joined the agency in 1981 as brokerage manager, and in 1986, she and Len partnered to become the first father-daughter co-general agents for Mass Casualty. Karen’s sister, Lorraine, joined the agency in 1996. Karen’s son, Jordan, came on board as a brokerage manager in 2009, and now her daughter, Lindsay, has also joined the team. Mass Casualty left the IDI market in 1999, and Metro developed relationships with other carriers and grew its IDI business steadily and significantly. Metro was appointed with The Standard in 2011, shortly before we made our move into the New York marketplace.

Wes Bryan: Wes joined the insurance industry right out of college in 2006 as a MetLife group rep. He moved to Reliance Standard as a senior group rep in 2010. Wes was exposed to IDI at Met, but Reliance Standard had no IDI products, so he began referring IDI leads to Reed Schnittker, whom Wes had known for years. The two began talking about the GSI opportunities that Wes could bring to the table by calling on his group contacts at the many benefits agencies he knew, and in December 2013 Wes joined The Plus Group Texas. In the short time since then, he has driven a substantial amount of GSI production. He and his wife, Michelle, have four children.

The Field Advisory Board as of Jan. 1, 2018 will be:

• Doug Lenhoff
• Steve Crowe
• Corey Anderson (producer chair)
• Chase Brakke (Securian chair)
• Karen Gardner
• Wes Bryan (GSI-centric chair)
• Jill Frohardt (RD team representative)

Everyone at The Standard greatly appreciates the guidance that all the FAB members provide to us as we pursue growth and excellence in the IDI marketplace.

Thanks,

Doug Waters, CLU, RHU, REBC
2nd Vice President, IDI Sales

For Producers Only