Published by Chris Wisinski on February 25th, 2020

The great Bo Schembechler once wrote, “If you do not like people, you will not take the time to get to know them, and if you don't get to know them, you will have no idea what scares them, what inspires them, what motivates them.” As the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines, I’m sure he had football and his players on his mind, but what he said also applies to business and, especially, to voluntary benefits.



What Bo wrote about getting to know people is a critical piece of what draws me to work in voluntary benefits. Our industry requires a number of moving parts working together to drive success. Success is built on the relationships between those moving parts. And, at Trustmark, I’ve found a company that understands the importance of those relationships and the need to understand our clients and partners.

Think about it; if your benefits offering isn’t vetted by understanding the client’s need or your enrollment partners aren’t in sync – the likelihood of a case succeeding drops significantly. You need to trust your partners, you need to understand your clients and you need to have a carrier partner willing to listen to everyone involved. As Bo also wrote, “The team, the team, the team.”

If it wasn’t obvious already; yes, I love football. And, aside from the teamwork that applies to both football and the world of voluntary benefits, there’s another thing that I enjoy that you encounter in both: winning. To me, winning in the world of voluntary, is solving a client’s challenges. With voluntary benefits, it’s amazing all the ways you can tackle (pardon the pun) an employer’s challenges with voluntary benefits as the starting point.
  • Employee protection – For starters, you can enhance a benefits program to make a difference for employers looking to attract and retain employees while offering much-needed protection to employees. Voluntary products like disability insurance and life insurance can be a game changer for employees.
  • Communication – As part of the voluntary enrollment we can help make sure employees are maximizing what their employer is offering. Both for the employees themselves and for the employers, this can be a huge benefit.
  • Ancillary programs – The communication we provide can also be a starting point to introduce new employer-sponsored programs or enhance existing programs. Times after time, I’ve seen under-utilized 401(k) or wellness programs take on new life by raising awareness with the communication provided by   
  • Benefits management – Far too often, I see employers working with outdated systems or using tedious manual processes to manage their benefits. The burden on employers and their HR staff is a huge inconvenience. With voluntary benefits, you have opportunities to smooth out some of these processes, making life easier for employers and their employees.
It’s all these tools and all these people working together that drives me day in and day out. Delivering these wins for clients and their employees while developing relationships and working as part of a collaborative team is what I’m all about. Best of all, I now get to do it as part of a company that focuses on relationships in the same way that I do. It’s the kind of team that even coach Schembechler would be proud of!

Contact me to start discussing your voluntary benefit needs!