There’s got to be a better way: A Q&A with Nelson Griswold

I recently caught up with Nelson Griswold, president of NextGen Benefits, to discuss the current state of the benefits industry, its looming talent shortage and the importance of mentorship. 

Our industry has a well-documented age problem, with the average age of an advisor somewhere in the mid-50s. How do you see things playing out in the next decade or so? 

A lot of people are working past retirement age, usually for financial reasons. But those in our industry tend to be a pretty affluent group of people, so I’m not sure that they will be working past retirement unless they just want to. I don’t know that there will be as much financial pressure to do it. 

Older advisors are often very status quo and resistant to change, so I don’t see the departure of that mindset as a bad thing; however, if our industry is to continue to prosper, you have to replace those who are retiring with younger advisors. We’re talking about the “salespeople” who make up our industry; the ones who have relationships with the prospects and employers and drive the business along. 

But getting younger candidates into this industry is a real struggle. We know that nobody chooses insurance as a career, but it’s worse than that. There is a documented aversion to sales in the younger generations. Millennials and Gen Z find sales to be exploitative and they hate the idea of variable compensation and commissions. They want a nice steady job where the company takes the risk, not the employee. And they don’t necessarily want to be managed and certainly not micromanaged. 

I think part of our challenge is to reframe what we are selling and then resell selling itself. Explain that it’s simply helping people make a good buying decision. People buy, the question is, what do they buy and how well do they buy? I’ve always liked that definition of sales. 

How does that definition align with what you’re seeing in the industry now and in the future?

I would argue that the status quo, fully insured plans that have long been the basis of the industry, are a dying proposition. They increase in cost every year but deliver the same or a lesser product. What else in our world does that? Basically, companies are leasing health insurance plans. When you’re leasing a car, the price doesn’t go up every year. And nobody is taking your air conditioning unit out in year three. That’s the reality for most employers though: The same health plan or less and higher deductibles and out of pocket for employees. 

I think these fully insured plans are dinosaurs. There are some companies that need them, but most don’t. They can do health care differently. 

Millenials and Gen Zs want to be part of something bigger; they want to make a difference and change things for the better. And frankly, coming into this industry to do the same thing we’ve been doing for years is not going to be very attractive to these idealistic and people-oriented younger employees. I think they’re going to balk at that. 

I think a lot of it will come down to dispelling stereotypes about the industry and focusing on the idea of the “greater good.” What steps will be necessary to make that happen?  How do you think brokerages and the industry as a whole can attract young and more diverse people to the industry?

My new mantra is “if it’s not about the mission, then it’s just about the money.” For the younger generation, the idea of just going out and making money isn’t necessarily inspiring. We all want to improve our lifestyles or have the means to do the thing we want to do, but when it’s only about the money, that’s not very inspiring. That focus on money and making a living is a turn off for a lot of younger people. So I think traditional brokerages and the industry as a whole is going to continue to struggle as long as that’s the value proposition and raison d’être. But the most dynamic part of our industry is mission oriented. Focusing on next generation benefits or value-based care is a mission for people. For the vast majority of us, this is a cause.  

When we talk about a benefits revolution, that means we’re trying to transform how health care is delivered in order to save a private health care system and avoid government-run health care. There’s a big picture here and I think that flag is one that young people will rally to as they’re made aware of it. A lot of younger brokers I know are frustrated and thinking, “There’s got to be a better way to do this. What we’re doing is stupid; we dont like this, employers don’t like this and the employees don’t like this.” Those who are sticking with the status quo are stuck in a hamster wheel where there’s no progress, you get increases ever year for the same or lesser product. How is that fun? How is that gratifying? And we haven’t even gotten to the quality of health care.

We need to pay attention to the younger people in our industry; what are they excited about? Because that becomes the template for attracting more young people. And most of them are excited about rejecting and breaking free from the status quo. They’re looking to bring transparency and align incentives; to improve the quality of health care and make it truly affordable. A lot of them are really excited that a lot of these next generation plans are eliminating the employees’ out of pocket costs.That’s helping people. That gets young people really excited. 

I think the industry can still attract some talent with the old approach: “This is a great career, you can support your family…” But I don’t think they’re going to inspire people very much. I think the real attraction is the opportunity to change the world for the better. The group that we see most receptive to these next generation models and strategies are young brokers who are looking to become consultative advisors and are tired of just being order takers. There’s an old saying: run your flag up the flagpole and see who salutes. And the people we see saluting are often the younger advisors. Teaching old dogs new tricks is tough, but on the other hand, one of the top advisors out there is Randy Hansen, who has been in business for almost 40 years. You recently interviewed his son, Nick, for Face of Change. Well, Randy is as forward thinking as Nick is; there’s no generational gap there and they’re both on board, but it took Randy a couple more years to get there and to decide he was comfortable with these new ideas. But he and I had a conversation and Randy asked, “How do I tell clients and prospects that I don’t plan to retire anytime soon? Randy said he’s having too much fun.

The real energy, though, is often coming from younger advisors who are chomping at the bit but a lot of times, they’re attempting to do things that aren’t necessarily in line with the business practices of the brokerages where they work. It’s a different model that these younger advisors are interested in. That’s going to create some conflicts; we’ve seen several advisors who have left their agency and started their own because they weren’t allowed to do what they felt they should be doing.

So the ideas and strategies that are exciting to young advisors who are currently working in our industry should be our template for attracting young people. We need to expand on that and take it out to the college students who are getting ready to graduate and are looking for a way to make an impact and to help change the world for the better. Otherwise, it’s just a good way to make a living. 

This is a very complex industry that can be hard on newcomers.  Many industry groups, including your Mastermind program, provide great value to advisors by building a network of peers. What role can established advisors and benefits professionals play in providing guidance and mentorship? 

I don’t think there’s anything more valuable in anyone’s career than mentorship. Whether you’re a craftsman,  working in the trades or a benefits advisor, having a mentor is key to not only show you how to do your job well, but how to advance in your career and get the attention of the people who can give you a promotion or expand your skillset or improve your situation.

I didn’t really have a mentor in my career, and looking back, there were a number of decisions I made where I’m pretty sure a good mentor would have said, “No, don’t do that.” It would have saved me a lot of trouble and would have allowed me to avoid some missteps. 

I spoke with an advisor yesterday who said he’s only as good as he is today because once a week for five years, he was a driver for an older advisor, in order to shadow him. He got to watch him run meetings, he listened to what he said, he talked to him in the car afterwards, he got quizzed every week and he gives him most of the credit for where he is today. That’s a great example of what mentorship can do. 

Peer-to-peer mentoring has a ton of value, too. It’s not as formal; it’s simply sharing and collaborating. Getting ideas, information, object lessons and horror stories from your peers so you know which way to go (or not go). And then there are more formal approaches. For example, I run an intensive executive mentorship program where we’re talking multiple times a month. It’s designed to take an advisor from where they are, move them along the path and help them decide where they want to go. 

But as far as the next generation, I recently launched a new scholarship program where I gave away $15,000 mentorship programs to 10 young professionals who have been in the business for five years or less. When you’re new to the industry, you’re not sure where you’re going; you’re not sure what your options are. 

This is a way for these younger professionals to get a sense of what’s best for them. Here are my goals. How can I achieve them? Mentors share their expertise, their knowledge of the industry, and their contacts. I once heard someone say, “It’s not what you know, it’s who knows you.” And that’s an important distinction, because I know who Bill Gates is,  but he doesn’t know I exist, so that provides no value. But if someone knows you, they go from being someone you admire or follow to someone you can shoot an email to and ask a question.

If you’re young in the industry, you’ll know about industry thought leaders and veterans, but they certainly don’t know you. That’s the role of a mentor, to say, “Let’s go have lunch or get on a call so I can introduce you.” That’s a big piece of what a mentor can do for a mentee. 

Are there any other things that a mentor can provide?

Younger advisors need to know that there is a status quo model and if you’re comfortable with that, there’s certainly opportunity there, but if you want to do it differently, if you want to be a part of the change that’s going on in our industry, you need to find a mentor who is doing that and who can walk you through and show you mistakes you can avoid. Often, the best way to avoid something is to hear from someone who already made it. And then learn where are the opportunities to really make a difference and how do you position yourself to be a part of this change in our industry. 

If you were offering advice to someone who’s new to the industry or who’s thinking about joining this industry, what would you say? How would you convince them they should join?

There is no other role or advisor to a company that affects every employee. Not just the finances of the company, but the life and health of the employees. When you learn about the opportunities out there to really save the company money and be more profitable and pay employees more, while also providing the employees with better health care and less or no out of pocket costs, no one else has that opportunity other than benefits consultants. No one else can have the same impact or the same opportunities to help not only the company, but the employees. That’s pretty powerful. And you get a nice paycheck – it’s not an either/or. This isn’t the peace corp; you can help people. You can do well by doing good.