One of the bright spots in Omaha, Neb., every June is the College World Series. It's a great sporting event that attracts thousands from around the country, including dozens of brokers who specialize in selling benefits. And in addition to attending games, many of them choose to visit our office for our CWS Broker Roundtables.

At these sessions we don't have a set agenda, aside from a few questions to prompt discussions (“what's on your mind” is the essence of the discussion). This gives our home office team the opportunity to hear from brokers in an open-ended format.  So what's on their minds? During our discussions we received a great deal of insight in this area, and can boil down the concerns to a big three.

In brief: health care reform, the economy, voluntary products, and … repeat ad infinitum. One item, health care reform, is an imposed driver of change for brokers and their clients. The second, the economy, is an environmental force driving employers to seek efficiency and pricing economy. The third, voluntary benefits, is driven to increased prominence by the first two partly because both health care reform and the economy have squeezed broker margins.