Each quarter, UBA's Senior Director of Strategic Solutions, Brian Leighton, conducts calls with UBA's Strategic Carrier Alliances (SCAs) together with John Behn, UBA's Senior VP of Partner Relations, and a member of the Strategic Partner Committee. The purpose of these calls is to maintain an open line of communication with our SCAs and discuss financial performance and opportunities for improvement.

Overall, UBA's production for 2019 with all of our Strategic Carrier Alliances is down 13% year-over-year, which is a concern. Through Q2 last year, UBA was down nearly 4% year-over-year, yet we ended at an overall increase of 14% year-over-year. We are asking that all UBA firms focus their efforts on writing your clients' ancillary, voluntary and medical stop loss business with our Strategic Carrier Alliances. It should be noted that our carriers support UBA financially to a significant degree, so we want to, in turn, support them with our business.

We share the results of these calls twice per year. This is a brief summary of the calls through the second quarter of 2019.

Colonial

• Colonial is having a good year with UBA – sales are at $4.1 million through Q2 2019 compared to $3.67 million for the same period in 2018, up 12%.
• Colonial began selling individual dental in 2018 and wrote a total of $27 million. They are continuing to gain momentum with that product over their standard plan. Watch for more information to be sent to Partners soon.
• New Whole Life and Term Life products were introduced in 2019.

Guardian

• Guardianhas written $11.6 million with UBA, compared to $17.9 million through Q2 2018. This is a decrease of 35%, but activity is stable year over year and the close ratio is up 33%. Guardian is pleased with results, which are similar to the same period two years ago but don't include large cases that were sold in 2018.
• Guardian is conducting a review of their bonus program for 2020. Changes are expected, and we have requested a UBA-specific enhancement to that program.

The Hartford

• The Hartford sales stand at $3.23 million, up 3.2% year-over-year. Close ratios are up by 15% for their under-500 life market for UBA, and they are satisfied with that grwoth. Of concern is activity in the large group space (500+ lives), which is down 29%.
• Jonathan Bennett is the new President of the Employee Benefits division.
• A focus for The Hartford for the balance of 2019 and 2020 is leave management. They are the one SCA for UBA that covers the full spectrum of leave management, including offering workers' compensation coverage.
• We requested that The Hartford provide an enhanced bonus for UBA Partner Firms, and they have announced an increase of 0.25% for new sales and persistency, effective January 1, 2020,

Mutual of Omaha

• Mutual of Omaha sales through Q2 stand at $6.1 million, down 14% year-over-year. On a positive note, UBA's retention is running at 96% versus their average of 92%, which is allowing Mutual of Omaha to grow with UBA.
• Mutual of Omaha was awarded the UBBIE award at the 2019 UBA Spring Conference.
• A focus is improving their dental network and service, bringing in-house all facets of their dental program, starting with customer service and followed by claims. The goal is to become a top 5 dental carrier nationally.
• Another focus for 2020 will be education around the changes in paid family leave programs by state.

Principal

• Principal sales reached $4.95 million with UBA through Q2, down 22% year-over-year, but they are pleased that lines of coverage sales have increased 13%.
• Principal is offering a program to help Partner Firms get to their Platinum status to increase revenue.

Reliance Standard

• RSLI sales stand at $1.4 million through Q2, down 45% year-over-year, yet RSLI's block is growing with UBA based on strong retention and the growth in salaries reflecting increased billing.
• Voluntary benefit upgrades have been completed and they are growing their voluntary business. RSLI now has four regional voluntary specialists.
• RSLI is building their regional resources to back up their local offices and enhance the service offering to all clients.

The Standard

• The Standard is off to a very good year with UBA. Sales stand at $4.33 million, up 251% year-over-year and their block stands at $33 million, which represents 6.3% growth in 2019 year to date.
• They are offering a population risk management solution for clients with The Standard's STD (insured or ASO) and LTD through a partnership with HCMS Group. The risk assessment is provided free of charge for clients with 1,500 lives, though exceptions for cases below 1,500 lives will be considered. Should the client want nurse case management to focus on the top 5% of individuals driving the majority of claims, the cost is $100 PEPM for employees that choose to participate.
• A reminder that the UBA aggregated bonus from The Standard requires $25,000 of new business in order for UBA to qualify.

Sun Life

• Sun Life racks their business on a February 1 through January 1 basis. For 2019 through Q2 (Feb. 1 - July 1) sales stand at $1.34 million versus $7.5 million for the same period last year.
• The UBA Stop Loss Coalition block stands at $40.05 million, and discussions took place on strategies to grow that business.
• Sun Life has hired Jennifer Collier as their new Head of Stop Loss and Health. She comes to them from Cigna.
• Sun Life is offering a 2% discount on medical stop loss pricing if ancillary business is sold to the same client at the same time.

Symetra

• Symetra sales with UBA stand at $13.2 million, up 30% year-over-year. Stop loss represents $11 million of figure, compared to 2018 when production was split evenly between stop loss and ancillary business.
• Ancillary business is down significantly due to the lack of large case sales for 2019 to date.
• Symetra has enhanced their critical illness, hospital indemnity and gap products to afford greater flexibility to employees.
• They are focusing efforts to grow their "LAD" (Life and Disability) business by hiring two to three new reps per year and better managing their block through renewals with no rate increase for good performing cases.

Unum

• Unum sales reached $2.5 million, which is flat year-over-year in new sales, while the block is growing through pricing adjustments and high level of retention.
• Unum has created connectivity with Workday and Oracle for their HR Connect platform for expediting EOI and easing HR's responsibility. Other connections are under consideration.
• Their My Unum employer portal has been introduced for HR to access forms, billing, policies, etc., with enhancements for ease of use.
• Unum offers LeaveLogic, a platform to educate employees on everything related to leaves, and eases the burden on HR. Ryan Murphy of AHT Insurance was very impressed and is introducing the product to a client now. The cost is $0.95 PEPM.

Voya Financial

• Voya sales stand at $9.1 million, which is an increase of 3.2% year-over-year. They have enjoyed a 20% growth in their block with UBA.
• Voya has introduced their HSA product designed to increase employees' awareness of their HSA and how it works, and to assist in investing those funds to maximize returns.

VSP

• VSP was not able to provide sales for the year to date, but has been able to report that UBA's block stands at $28 million.
• VSP's UBA-specific bonus program for sales form May 1 through July 1 netted positive results (12 sales), with another special program to run for cases written October 1 through January 1.
• We discussed the value in writing directly with VSP versus through a carrier. Greater flexibility and customization can be offered when working directly with VSP.

Our SCAs have all expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to share what's new and learn about UBA initiatives on these quarterly calls.

Special thanks to the Strategic Partner Committee members who participated in the calls:

• Ryan Murphy, AHT Insurance
• Jack Hemb, Hemb Insurance
• Lambert Hsu, Benefit Pro Insurance Services
• Scott Clemons, The Clemons Agency
• Brian Luciani, Blueprint Benefit Advisors
• Kevin Rush, The DeHayes Group

 Questions? Contact Brian Leighton at bleighton@ubabenefits.com or 312-416-3675