Today, the difference between good and bad in product offerings is minute. Carriers that help our members differentiate in this very commoditized marketplace understand the need to provide value that extends beyond a competitive product offering. The market demands, as table stakes, competitive product, compensation, financial strength, service and underwriting.

Our multi line (Life, Annuity, Critical Illness, LTC and DI) approach is designed to allow our member organizations to provide one stop fulfillment. This allows advisors at the point of sale to spend less time focusing on where to go and more time on productivity.

We spend time focusing on not only the competitive product set and compensation, but also on the very important aspects of service times, risk management, financial strength and ability to grow the business, for both the carriers and for our members, incrementally.

A key test that we employ is the relative ability of our carriers to help drive growth across all lines of business. This is consistent with our goal of becoming the premier marketing organization in our channel of distribution.

We believe the true differentiator is alignment with carrier providers that seek to drive organic growth in the marketplace, rather than simply focusing on taking market share.

We look toward our valued carrier providers to understand the demands of our channel of distribution and find ways to provide impact beyond focusing on the traditional table stakes requirements.

As we have mentioned, focus is a key element to driving success in a very commoditized marketplace. To that end, we have shifted our priorities to support a smaller list of key Strategic Carrier Providers who view the market opportunity in a like minded way.

We will continue to have unparalleled access to a broad range of providers across all product lines, but believe we need to focus on a relative few relationships that see market opportunity in today’s turbulent environment.