The Broker's Voice: Jennifer LaTour: VP Client Engagement - MZQ Consulting

Hey, welcome back to the Broker's Voice. I am excited this week to have a good friend of mine on somebody who she and her company are taking on the world and doing some amazing things in the insurance industry. But before we get there, I do want to make a quick, quick plug for our sponsor agency annex. Listen, if you are an insurance agency, there's a good chance your website is not up to snuff. In fact, there's a good chance your website still says today what it said five years ago. And the way websites have been built, the way or what websites need to be saying has completely shifted. So if, you know you need an upgrade to your website, you know, you just need a dang new rebuild. You need to get ahold of Steve Kanka and the guys at the agency annex. They built my website. I couldn't be happier. They have done amazing things for me. In fact, I am putting Steve's email right here. Get a hold of Steve right now. If you need a website designed specifically for the insurance industry, if you need to build a website, you want to build a website that becomes the extra salesperson you never knew you had. Get a hold of Steve right now. You will not be disappointed. All right, let's get into this week's episode of the Broker's Voice. I can't wait to bring on the one, the only Jen Latour of MZ Consulting. Jen, how are you?

I'm good, Andy, how are you?

Good. Now, most people in the industry, if they have a pulse and they are not living under a rock, they know who MZQ Consulting is. But let's talk a little bit about Jen Latour first. For the people out there listening, watching, have no clue who you are, tell us a little bit about yourself.

I'm Jen Latour at work. I am the vice president of Client engagement at mcq, which means I kind of had my hands all over the place. I live in Florida. I'm in Lady Lake, Florida. I have been in and out of the industry for the last 20 plus years. Not aging ourselves at all. Have three kids. My mom lives with us and, yeah, just happy to be here.

And you're a Florida State Seminole?

I am.

So for any Florida State alumni listening in, she's one of you. And for those that have no clue where Lady Lake is, it's just outside of Orlando, right?

Yes. I'm about 45 minutes away from all of the theme parks.

Got it.

I mean, I spend most of my time there, like everybody always.

You brought up a good point. You've been in and out of the industry. Most of us did not get in the industry by design.

Right.

I'm curious, how did you find yourself landing in the insurance industry?

So I graduated from law school, and of course I was like, I'm going to save the world. So my first job was at the public defender's office, and I tried saving the world for a little bit more. My husband was a federal agent, so we moved around a lot. So I came into a job in Atlanta just as a benefits compliance person. Didn't know anything about our industry. I had a legal background, so they thought that was good enough, and the rest is history.

Wow. So one thing I love about you is, you know, you and I have had several discussions about personal branding, and the topic that comes up a lot is I view you as a mom in so many ways. Right. You are a mom to your children.

Yeah.

Right now you're actually a mother to your mother who's living with you guys right now.

But could you agree you're also McQ's kind of a mother to the insurance industry?

I'd say 100%.

Describe that a little bit.

What does that mean to me? That means that I am always there when they need me. Right. So whether it's questions on benefits compliance, whether it's trying to figure out the latest and greatest on mental health parody, what ARPA means, I try to be that calming, reassuring force to our broker partners. They are now expected to be the experts of everything, right. To their clients. They're supposed to know all the things all the time, be on top of it, and there is only so much they can do. So I like to think, you know, again, as that resource for them, you know, come make it easier for them. Just like, you know, when you go to your mom when you're stressed out, like, she's supposed to make it, like, okay, wait a minute, let's refocus, let's get there. And that's what I try to do with our broker partners, because it is a lot. And, you know, they have their superpowers, and I always say, I have mine, and when you need them, come find me.

You know, I love how you said that, because I think anybody who's listening could go, yeah, I went to my mom because mom always told me everything was going to be all right.

Yes. And when. And I also. When it's not right. Just like you hope your mom would like. Okay, I love you, but no, you shouldn't have done that, or no, you should have called me a lot sooner than right Now. But we'll fix it. We'll fix it.

The one thing apparently mom can't say is, sorry, too late. I can't help. Let's go there, though. I mean, compliance. When it comes to compliance and all things insurance, I think there's a lot of advisors that like to try to brush it under the rug.

Yes.

Because you, you just said it's not their area of genius. And let's be honest, for a lot of brokers, if it's discomfort, if there's discomfort involved, they don't go there.

Right.

What are some of the common.

Challenges you see brokers running into when it comes to compliance?

Exactly what you said. Right. It's. It's like it's ever changing. Especially in the last year and a half. I mean, gosh, there's been so much legislation, so much, so many changes, more so than any time in my career that I can remember. And just keeping up with that, you know, and then broaching the conversation because, you know, a lot of times being in compliance is not cheap. Right. It's a little bit expensive. You know, it's. It's not something that employers think they need to spend their money on. So I find when I'm talking to our broker partners, they want to have that conversation. It's the confidence to know what they're talking about and to really broach. Okay. They're already spending money on their medical plan design and all those fun things. Now it's one more thing they're asking their groups to spend money on. And that's daunting, especially now, the way the world has been the last year.

Knowing that a lot of agencies and the producers that work at those agencies avoid that conversation. What are some of the common mistakes you see agencies making when it comes to just handling compliance?

They don't handle it right. They don't even have the conversation. So right there, they're already behind. Because, you know, there's always somebody lurking in the background who wants to steal your clients away. Right. So they'll come out and they'll do the scare tactics, right? Like, oh, you're going to be penalized if you breathe the wrong way. And now the employer is sitting there, the client, well, wait a minute. Why didn't you have this conversation with me? And it could have just been as easy as, hey, you know, here's my friend Jen Latour. I want her to explain to you why this is important. You know, we do that all the time for our broker partners. It's not to sell. It's More just to educate. And if they're afraid to have the conversation, I'm more than happy to. Our team is more than happy to. But that's like the biggest challenge is they don't even want to talk about it. So then somebody either scares their clients into going with them because of the unknown, or now the clients are mad because. Wait a minute, you know, you withheld. Why didn't you tell me?

Yeah, and you bring up a really good point. Do you think some advisors even hesitate to bring you guys into the conversation because there's that fear that you're not on our team? There's just that hesitancy to bring the outside expert in. Would you agree that's true?

I agree that's true. And I sometimes, you know, not. Not every time, but often we'll be ready to have that call. And it's, you know, that fear that we're going to call them out for not telling their clients something. Right. And I always say, listen, let's have this conversation, broker. And I first, what have you told them? What have you not told them? And there have been a few times I've been on client calls. And they'll say, well, why didn't we know about this? And, you know, we'll just say, well, you know, it's more prevalent now, or, you know, you're now at that size, you know, whatever is really true for that conversation. Right? We're not going to ever lie and say, oh, it just came up. But really make it in the best. And put the broker in the best light. Like, hey, the minute they became aware of this, they called me in and now we're talking to you about it.

I think there's a very important lesson most advisors need to hear in that is that sometimes you. It's okay to pass the microphone to somebody else. It always is, because it makes you look just as good. And I think there's that fear that if I let somebody else be the subject matter expert, it's not gonna, it's gonna. It's gonna detract from my expertise or, heck, to your. What you just said, they may even call me out and make me look bad. And it couldn't be farther from the truth that, listen, if you are bringing in the right experts who have an expertise in a certain subject matter, it is imperative it makes you and your agency look better.

And that's how I always start a call like that. So if it's a group I've never spoken to before, I'll always say, if it was you And I'd say Andy's the expert on all the things, but even the experts need an expert sometime. And this is our niche. And you know, he knew that you needed this help, so he brought us in again to make you our partner look in the best light. You know, we are not here to steal your clients away. We're here to make you all look good for your clients.

Well, and you approached another subject that quite frankly irritates me is I just had a conversation with a client of mine who has a carrier in their specific state that is being sued for kind of unfair practices around how they're pricing their premiums. And that that's causing brokers to literally go around and reach out to prospects to use that as a wedge to say, hey, has your broker talked to you about this? Hey, if they broker, why not? They should be. And then they want to drive that fear of, of the unknown in just to win the business. And I think the same holds true with compliance. Oh yeah, I hate watching it. Just the sad part of it is it works. But watching brokers who take the next shiny metal object and then they use it as fear to go prospect, to try to drive the wedge between the current broker and that client. And I, to me, it's a short term tactic that doesn't lead to long term success. And so compliance definitely falls into that category of oh, all this to be a part of your strategy. It can't just be a shiny metal object to win business.

Right. Because then what happens when you win the business? Then you don't know what to do with it. Right. You've now scared them. But then what do you, how do you help them? And you know, I've been with MCQ since the beginning of McQ. I always tease I was employee number four behind some family members, but myself and the firm's philosophy, like we will never get on a call to scare people. Right? I mean, we want to talk about penalties. Some of them are really real. In some cases, you know, ACA reporting in the beginning, everybody was like, oh, how are they going to enforce that? Now we get those penalty letters. That's real money. But there's a difference between having a conversation and educating and just throwing out numbers to scare people and to sign the bor.

I like that. You know, and by the way, there is nothing wrong with being employee number four, because I'm sure employee number four at Google, Facebook and Apple are not very upset right now.

Let's talk about that. It would be hard to be believed there are agencies out there who have no clue who MCQ is. But for the few out there, tell us a little bit about MCQ Consulting.

So MCQ Consulting was started by Jennifer Berman, which a lot of people know, of course, and Jim Spiegel. So if you imagine the mind of an ERISA attorney and a systems engineer. So he literally put Hubble into space. He was part of that program. I love saying it. I'm like, oh my gosh, like compliance. Never mind Hubble. We did start off as an ACA reporting company because at the time, yeah, maybe the payroll companies were going to do it, but we're not really sure. So they started the company with that in mind. And then in 2016, when the administration changed and ACA was really, let's face it, right, who knew what was going to happen with it. Jennifer and Jim were like, okay, now what? So then we took our ERISA hats and said, okay, there's all these other compliance services that people really need, especially smaller groups to stay compliant. And from then on, that whole side of the world, if you will, at MCQ happened. And so now we do things like non discrimination testing, you guys hear me all the time with the mental health parody analyses. All the, all the compliance things you can think of, we handle on that side of the House. So we still do ACA reporting. That's still very important. Make sure you file. But it evolved from that.

Awesome. Let's wrap it up with two questions.

Yeah.

Well, back to coming out of law school, you had probably not an inkling you were going to get in the insurance industry?

Nope.

But is there anything you look back at when you were getting out of law school, finishing up, that you go, that you take today. Fast forward today to your time at McQ. Is there anything you, you learned back then that you still apply today?

Maybe not so much learned, but the gut to always want to help people. Right. Whether it's saving the world. When I got out of law school, I dealt with the juveniles. Right. And defending them. And yes, of course, what we do today is very different than that. And not so much as life and death, but really just advocating.

For people who need that help explaining things. You know, again, you have a scared kid who doesn't know why they're there. I mean, you know, we always say, oh, you know why you were there. But when you're looking at a 15, 16 year old and they're there, you see how much of a baby they really are. And again, not to, not to equate my brokers as babies, but you know, when you, when you're talking to them and you have that fear and you have somebody really afraid, like, wait a minute, I might, I might lose my client base, right? Or I did something, or I'm not sure this, it's really just that advocating, you know, for the defendant, of course, on that side, but on our side, now you know why this is so important and educating and really being that comfort, if you will, like, okay, I know it sounds crazy, but let's talk it down a few notches. And that's, you know, I was definitely, you know, I'm going to save the world and I didn't do it that way. But I'm hopeful on this side at least makes people sleep a little better at night.

I'll say. You are still just one employer, one broker at a time, right? Let's finish with this all important question. Compliance. Ever evolving, ever changing. It's hard for any broker to stay on top of it. We are talking literally on May 3rd. This will go out in a few weeks. What is one topic today from a compliance standpoint that if brokers need to have on their radar right now? What is it?

Mental health parody.

And why, why is it important?

Because the penalties are real. Like the DOL has made this an enforcement. The Biden administration has made this a priority for enforcement. This is not something that's just going to kind of go away. You know, people always ask me on the wrap documents, well, you know, the deal going to knock on the door, Ah, you know, I'm a compliance person. You always want to be prepared. Mental health parody is for real.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, Jen, thank you for taking your time to join the Broker's Voice today.

Thank you. I love it.

From FSU to the ATL to the mzq, all things acronyms, this is Jen Latour. And if you're listening in, guys, take her word as a warning. They're looking to create, they're looking for fines right now. Compliance is not something you can mess around with. Most importantly, if you fail to talk about it, somebody else will. And all that's going to result in is lost business. And so, Jen, one last time, thank you. Thank you. And if you're listening in, guys, when clarity and confidence collide, you know what happens. Massive action happens. Go make it happen today.

Take care.