Podcasts about insurance commissioners

Sarah reflects on the insurance licensing process one year after passing the exam. Listen as she outlines her journey, how to get started, and what she learned along the way.   Contact the Agent Survival Guide Podcast! Email us ASGPodcast@Ritterim.com or call 1-717-562-7211 and leave a voicemail.   Resources: Adding Spokes to Your Wheel ft. Robert Rothschild: https://lnk.to/rothschild2025 FMO vs. IMO vs. NMO vs. MGA vs. GA: What's the Difference? https://lnk.to/asg658 Making Your Own Luck ft. Michael Krantz: https://lnk.to/krantz2025 Operating From a People-First Mentality ft. Scott Zimmerman: https://lnk.to/zimmerman2025 Summer 2025 Survival Guide: https://lnk.to/asgf20250606 What is AHIP Certification and How Do I Get It? https://lnk.to/asg672   References: “Insurance Departments by State.” Content.Naic.Org, NAIC, content.naic.org/state-insurance-departments. Accessed 10 June 2025. “Multiple Choice Test Taking Strategies.” Dmu.Edu, Des Moines University, www.dmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/MULTIPLE-CHOICE-TEST-TAKING-STRATEGIES.pdf. Accessed 10 June 2025. “NAIC - National Association of Insurance Commissioners.” Naic.Org, NAIC, content.naic.org/. Accessed 10 June 2025. “NIPR - National Insurance Producer Registry.” Nipr.Com, National Insurance Producer Registry, nipr.com/. Accessed 10 June 2025.   Follow Us on Social! Ritter on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/RitterIM Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/ritter.insurance.marketing/ LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/company/ritter-insurance-marketing TikTok, https://www.tiktok.com/@ritterim X, https://x.com/RitterIM and YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/user/RitterInsurance     Sarah on LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjrueppel/ Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/thesarahjrueppel/ and Threads, https://www.threads.net/@thesarahjrueppel  Tina on LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-lamoreux-6384b7199/   Not affiliated with or endorsed by Medicare or any government agency.

An investigation revealed that California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has been using a campaign committee to fund lavish meals and drinks. Lara reportedly spent nearly $30,000 at upscale restaurants and bars, including a $700 dinner at San Laurel in Los Angeles with Farmers Insurance Group's CEO. These expenses were charged to a campaign committee, despite Lara not formally announcing a run for lieutenant governor. Please Like, Comment and Follow 'Broeske & Musson' on all platforms: --- The ‘Broeske & Musson Podcast’ is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever else you listen to podcasts. --- ‘Broeske & Musson' Weekdays 9-11 AM Pacific on News/Talk 580 AM & 105.9 FM KMJ | Facebook | Podcast| X | - Everything KMJ KMJNOW App | Podcasts | Facebook | X | Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 806: – The National Association of Insurance Commissioners hosted its Spring meeting in Indianapolis last week.  While the event was lighter in content, there were still several important matters to discuss.Stepping in for Neil this week on our Insurance Unscripted segment, Erin Collins,  senior vice president - state and policy affairs for NAMIC, talks with three of NAMIC's policy vice presidents about the NAIC's top priorities for the coming year.This episode of the Insurance Uncovered is sponsored by Holborn.

We and our financial advisors are preparing to need money to last 30 plus years in retirement, yet we don't trust LTC insurance companies to help protect us during that time. If we think we're going to live that long, do we really believe we will remain as strong, healthy and active as we are today?  Look at our parents and grandparents. Humans slow down as we age.  Dementia is showing up in our 60s.  People are having strokes in their 50s due to stress. We need to be prepared. LTC insurance is strictly regulated by the NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) to make sure that rules are followed for marketing and claims.  Learn how our state departments of insurance protect us The America Association for LTC insurance was created in 1988 to educate consumers and support insurance/financial professionals.  You can learn a lot from them The report from Faegre Drinker on NAIC Model regulation can be found Estimate LTC premiums View current and projected costs of care where you live Schedule a meeting with me and Prepare for Tomorrow 

Stand Up is a daily podcast that I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 700 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more GET TICKETS TO PODJAM II In Vegas March 27-30 Today I have 2 great guests. I was unable to produce the good stuff and news again but I think you will like both of my guests. My talk with Rothkopf begins at 32 mins Following a 20-year career as a corporate public relations executive, Wendell Potter left his position as head of communications for CIGNA, one of the nation's largest health insurers, to show the world the dark inner workings of the insurance industry. Check out his Substack  Check out his new documentary : American Hospitals: Healing a Broken System   healthcareuncovered.substack.com He has testified before Senate and House committees, briefed several members of Congress and their staffs, appeared with lawmakers at several press conferences, spoken at more than 100 public forums, and has been the subject of numerous articles in the U.S. and foreign media. His recent book – Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans – is an expose of health insurers and a stark warning that corporate spin is distorting our democracy. Currently a senior analyst at the The Center for Public Integrity, a non-partisan nonprofit that produces original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern, Wendell is also the senior fellow on health care for the Center for Media and Democracy, an independent, non-partisan public interest organization. He speaks out on the need for a fundamental overhaul of the American health care system and on the dangers to American democracy and society of the decline of the media as watchdog, which has contributed to the growing and increasingly unchecked influence of corporate PR. He also serves as a consumer liaison representative for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Subscribe to Rothkopf's new Substack  https://davidrothkopf.substack.com/ Follow Rothkopf Listen to Deep State Radio Read Rothkopf at The Daily Beast Buy his books David Rothkopf is CEO of The Rothkopf Group, a media company that produces podcasts including Deep State Radio, hosted by Rothkopf. TRG also produces custom podcasts for clients including the United Arab Emirates. He is also the author of many books including Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power, Superclass, Power, Inc., National Insecurity, Great Questions of Tomorrow, and Traitor: A History of Betraying America from Benedict Arnold to Donald Trump. Pete on Threads Pete on Tik Tok Pete on YouTube Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page Stand Up with Pete FB page All things Jon Carroll Follow and Support Pete Coe Buy Ava's Art

Host: Tracy Shuchart for MicDropMarketsGuests: Harald Malmgren and Richard FieldHarald MalmgenHarald needs no introduction, and if I tried to read his entire resume, it would take the entire hour and then some…so I will do my best to summarize Harald Bernard Malmgren is a scholar, ambassador, and international negotiator who has been senior aide to US Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford, and to US Senators Abraham A. Ribicoff and Russell B. Long, United States Senate Committee on Finance. Following public service, he was appointed as a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Smithsonian Institution, an adviser to the Senate Finance Committee, and Professor of Business and Public Management at George Washington University. In addition, He has acted as an advisor to many foreign leaders and CEOs of financial institutions and corporate businesses and has been a frequent author of articles and papers on global economic, political, and security affairs.Currently he provides global macro research via Malmgren Glinsman Partners among other projects.Richard Field Richard Field is the Director of the Institute for Financial Transparency, an organization focused on bringing valuation transparency to all the opaque corners of the financial system and the sponsor of the Transparency Label Initiative.Since the mid-90s, he has been a leader in defining and implementing transparency in the structured finance industry. Mr. Field designed, developed and patented a low cost information system to handle all of the complexity involved in making each structured finance security transparent. In April 2008, Mr. Field wrote a Learning Curve column for Total Securitization that described the gold standard for transparency for structured finance securities. Subsequently, he consulted with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners on their July 2012 white paper on financing home ownership. Earlier in his career, he worked as an Assistant Vice President for First Bank System and as a Research Assistant at the Federal Reserve Board. Disclaimer: This material is presented solely for informational and entertainment purposes and is not to be construed as a recommendation, solicitation, or an offer to buy or sell / long or short any securities, commodities, or any related financial instruments. Please contact a licensed professional before making any investment or trading decisions

We met Andrew Mais, President of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and Connecticut's Insurance Commissioner. We talked about his role in the state and asked about expensive health insurance plans. Will the prices ever drop, and will more carriers enter the marketplace? Image Credit: Getty Images

I would like to introduce you to Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills. She had a decent childhood, for the most part. She was raped and also gang raped, but as she learned to be unstoppable and gained strength from these experiences, she grew into a fierce advocate for women and then later for other marginalized groups. Her story is quite amazing. To me, the most amazing thing is that she is quite willing to share her story if it will help others. She will tell us all about her philosophy on the subject.   For a time she worked in the insurance arena and then went into other endeavors. Over the past 20 years she has been a coach, trainer and consultant to over 2,000 companies and, as she says, she has assisted countless more in various ways.   Barbara's story and life lessons demonstrate how someone can make the choice to be unstoppable. She lives in Mount Loral, NJ with her family. If you ever meet her, don't mess with her as she is quite proficient in various martial arts styles as you can read in her bio. I hope you gain wisdom and knowledge from our conversation. Barbara Anne is a gem and a wonderful person to talk with. I hope you feel the same.   About the Guest:   Barbara Anne is a “Solutions Navigator” and servant leader who has directly assisted over 2,000 businesses in the past two decades and provided training, coaching, and technical assistance to countless more companies, teams, entrepreneurs, and individuals throughout her career. She is the founder and owner of Purpose-Filled Solutions and Evolutions LLC, a business consulting and leadership coaching company that partners with people, leaders, companies, and agencies to find their "why" (core purpose), identify resources, navigate challenges, change mindsets, and develop and implement plans to achieve their visions of success, with an emphasis on civility, inclusion, equity, and diversity (CIED), her unique alternative to current DEI approaches. Barbara Anne also serves as Director of Compliance & Engagement for Cooperative Business Assistance Corporation (CBAC) in Camden, NJ, and hosts “What The Why?!? with Barbara Anne,” a weekly talk show on RVN Television, Roku, and more. Before her current roles, she served as the Management Analyst and Community Liaison for the U.S. White House Promise Zone Initiative in Camden, NJ, stationed at the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), and as Supervisor of Lender Relations and Economic Development/Women's Business Ownership Representative for the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) New Jersey District Office, and in other leadership roles in the corporate, non-profit, and municipal government arenas. Barbara Anne holds an M.S. in Executive Leadership, a B.A. in Political Science/ Honors with concentrations in Pre-Law and Women's Studies, and an A.A. in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Business Communications. She has completed multiple professional designations and adult continuing education certificates, including her Professional Certified Coach (PCC) certification with the International Coaching Federation (ICF), Certified Professional Coach in Executive Coaching from RCSJ, and certifications in talent optimization and implementing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. Barbara Anne serves in volunteer leadership capacities with ICF's NJ Charter Chapter and Braven, and she is a member of ICF Global, the Association of Talent Development (ATD), CDFI Women's Network, and other professional and civic organizations. The National Association of Women's Business Owners (NAWBO) – South Jersey Chapter honored her with their 2016 “Women's Advocate of the Year” award.  She is also a Second-Degree Black Belt and member of the Okinawa Goju-Ryu Kenshi-Kai Karate-Jutsu Kobu-Jutsu Association and trains in multiple other martial arts styles.   ** ** Ways to connect with Barbara:   Email: info@Purposefilledsolutionsandevolutions.com Phone: 856-313-0609 Website: https://www.purposefilledsolutionsandevolutions.com/  Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bgardenhiremills/ Purpose-Filled Solutions & Evolutions' Social Media Links Through LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/purposefilledcoach "What The Why?!? with Barbara Anne" On-Demand: https://rvntelevision.com/tv-show/what-the-why/        About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, and hello, once again. Welcome to unstoppable mindset. I'm your host, Michael Hingson. Or you can call me Mike, it's okay. Just Oh, I hate to do the joke, just not late for dinner. But anyway, here we are. And today we get to talk with Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills. Barbara Ann is in New Jersey has an interesting story and things that she's doing as a coach and other work that she is doing. And also, I'm going to give it away and she'll talk about it anyway. Barbara has had a couple of bouts with COVID. And actually just got through with one but she has a lot of wisdom about long COVID And actually already and just talking with her before we started this I learned some things I didn't know. And knowledge is always useful thing to have. So Barbara Anne welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 02:12 Thank you so much. I am super happy and honored to be asked to be your guest today. I'm really looking forward to our conversation.   Michael Hingson ** 02:23 Well, then we ought to have one right. So tell me about maybe the the younger barber and growing up and all that let's start there. It's always good as they say to start at the beginning somewhere.   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 02:34 Yes. Start at the beginning. So younger Pribram was born in the late 60s to Maryland and Joseph, a biracial couple. So when my parents got married, still wasn't even legal in some states. And I was born right here in New Jersey, Jersey girl my whole life. And my my five foot three Caucasian mom and my six foot three. Black dad, African American reef. Yeah, they met when they were in college. And while my mother's family was very, very not in any way any color in the family tree has recently improved by one to three me my father's family was always very integrated. And I was the first of four children. My mother and dad had me and my sister exactly 16 months apart on purpose. I think that's insane. I can't even imagine doing that these days. And, and then there was three other siblings that would come along the way. One of whom died shortly after birth because of complications. And it was interesting. I grew up in an apartment complex that wasn't then but is now officially designated as what you would call affordable housing. And a small little, I never thought of it as rural growing up, but they call it rural. It was Vineland, New Jersey. Ah, and it actually is the biggest city in the state of New Jersey in terms of land size, all 69 square miles of it. And but definitely in southern New Jersey. And this is at a time when a lot of the highways and systems that exist now didn't even exist in its parts of South Jersey. And it was like its own whole other world. Anybody who has any familiarity with North and South Jersey knows how vastly different the two are the right down to the accents. And you know, we you know, had a good upbringing, the Things were going well, when it's time for me to go to school, because of the time that it was was you talking about early 70s, I was bussed as part of a program to make sure that they were, you know, equally distributing children aka schools. Which was really interesting. When back in the days before there was cell phones, in fact, my parents had a party line. They accidentally put me on the wrong bus. That was fun when you're in kindergarten. Yeah. But probably one of the earliest tragic things that would happen to me what happened when I was seven. And it's interesting, because I, my mom said, I've always been a forward planner, I've always been very rational, but also very even tempered. And she likes to tell stories about how you know, at a time when I was 14 months, I spilled a bowl of popcorn and I sat there at 14 months old, individually picking up each piece of kernel of corn and putting it back in the bowl. And when I was when I started walking it at nine months, and around 1112 months, we were out walking, and I saw a dandy line and I bent over and I pulled it up, I had no idea that would kill it. I picked it up and I sniffed it, and proceeded to put it right back in its exact place where it was. And so all these years later, she still loves to tell that story because I was very methodical and particular and had my routines and my processes. And then 10 days before Christmas, just after my seventh birthday, my father was killed in a car accident. And here was my mother, at the age of 28, widowed with four biracial children, the oldest of whom was seven and the youngest of whom was only had just been born on October 27. And that would be one of many pivots, in terms of that would define my future going forward. Okay, how   Michael Hingson ** 07:09 did you how did your parents, your, your grandparents deal with you? Maybe at the beginning, you said that they on your mom's side, we're not really oriented toward having biracial or any color in the family did that mollify at all especially towards you as you grow older,   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 07:30 not till I was much older. In fact, when my dad died, my grandfather, who was an Episcopal priest, refused to let my grandmother even can be with my mother, her grieving daughter, because as far as he was concerned, she was dead to him.   Michael Hingson ** 07:51 I have just never comprehended, of course, I've been blind my whole life, baby. And I regard it as a blessing. But I've just never understood this whole issue of color, and skin color having any significance to anything. It's just crazy. But   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 08:09 for the most part, it wasn't even a thing until the mid 1800s. In terms of, you know, I can't think of his name right now, because I'm coming off of my long COVID relapse, but a British scientist, was the one who kind of artificially constructed and classified race. Yeah. And there were a number of people, including Alexander Graham Bell, who bought into some of those theories. Yeah. And but before that, it really was just more of a familial designation, in terms of what country you are from and royalty was royalty. So they intermixed all the time. You know, there was how we understand things now really, are an artificial construct, which is one of the foundational pieces of what I do in my work as it relates to civility, inclusion and equity and diversity. But in that time, my grandmother didn't come my aunt didn't come they were in Florida. My dad's family. My dad was the youngest of six and he was a sports person he had played for the Eagles, arm team and he played basketball and everybody knew who he was. And his family stepped up and stepped in by her family was non existent. I would finally meet her sister a few years after that, and we have a good relationship. I only ever met my one uncle on her side once and I have a necklace that's handed down to my mother was. Her maiden name was aptly As in former Prime Minister Attlee of England, and so they were very particular, he was very much. Interestingly, it was almost bad that he married my grandmother. He was very much a white Anglo Saxon Protestant male, who married my mother's mother, my grandmother, credibly beautiful woman, her name was Ruth Fogarty. And like, parents off the boat Irish, her dad was an Irish house in New Orleans. And, and they had three children, and my mother was the oldest of them. And so dad wasn't so thrilled and dad ruled the household. And I finally met my grandmother right before I turned 12, because there's a family necklace that's handed down through the Fogarty family line to the to the oldest female on their 12th birthday. And so she was permitted to come see us and, and transfer that to me. And then right around the time I turned 16, my grandfather decided to have a change of heart, and that he was wrong. And I would meet him a couple of times between 16 and 19. And then when I was 19, he passed us was very awkward, I agreed to go to the funeral for my mother. But that was probably actually one of the biggest fights we ever had to because I had very strong feelings about being forced to go and mourn someone that had done, what I now understood had been the things that he had done over the course of her life in mind. But I, you know, she she said, incredible person. So my mother, who I'm I've ever been, I don't know who it is, but I don't like she tends to be much more private. She watches everything I do. But I don't usually name her for her own privacy reasons. You know, she would raise all four of us on her own, she never remarried, she went back to school, because she dropped out when she married my dad, and then had me, you know, urina. She got married in February of 67. They had me in mid November of 68. So she decided to go back to school, she completed her associate's then her Bachelor's than her Master's. And she went on to teach at the college where she got her nursing degree. And all of that joined the military before age 40, to become a nurse. And for the US Army, reserve corps, so she did a lot of really amazing things on her own, with me, helping out along the way, as the oldest child. So I learned to do a lot of things very young, that I probably wouldn't really be able to do now, in terms of watching siblings, cooking and cleaning, and things like that, but things that were otherwise really common at the time. And another big part of our lives was the church that we raised in. And because the whole family, my dad's family, was involved on both sides, my family were involved in the clergy, but the brother and cousins that we were most close to, went to the church where we went to and so they became a huge support system for my mom. And in a very interesting indoctrination process for me, that I would spend the better part of my teens and early 20s trying to undo. So that's the very early I, you know, we went to a private Christian school on scholarship. And when my mom graduated, they said no more scholarships. So I went to public high school, and did really well. You know, but I felt like I had been kind of thrown into this weird alternative universe where I had been used to being one of the only children of color in an entire school. And now I was in a school that was pseudo integrated. Different kids tended to be tracked based on their intelligence, but also, in part based on their socioeconomic status and, and race. And on my very first day, when I went to go in with the few kids that I didn't know, into the school cafeteria, I was stopped at the door and I was told that only the white kids ate in there, I had to go to the other cafeteria with the black and Spanish kids. And I was like, what, what are you talking about? And they were like, You eaten here. And that that was not something that my high school fixed for almost another 15 years when they finally decided to assign cafeterias, and eliminate a lot of staff. But other than that, I did choir, I did drama, I did all the things that I loved to learn, had its really great friends. And then couldn't afford to go to college. Now that my mom was working, I didn't get enough aid, and I wanted to be a doctor. And so I ended up getting just enough grants to go to community college. And then I went to work full time, and we went to school full time at nights. I went to work for Prudential insurance company, and they paid 90% tuition reimbursement. And I worked there in policyholder services, answering questions for agents for 10 states. Here I was, you know, the ages of 1819 20 ensiling complex insurance questions back when everything was in these little books, we would have to pull the pages out. And to replace them to update them. We covered all of New England and most of the East Coast with the exception of New Jersey and Massachusetts along scope   Michael Hingson ** 16:36 guard. So this was like 1987 88. Yes, exactly.   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 16:40 8788 89. And, and then one of the next major pivotal things in my life happens. Having been raised in a very fundamentalist religion, I had never been involved in any kind of a sexual relationship. And I got raped. And what was interesting about it, other than the fact that it was pretty bad and it was somebody I knew, I got angry. And that's, that pivoted me into advocacy. And I became a speaker. I spoke on college campuses, I spoke at my high school. I was like, oh, no, no, no, this is never going to happen to another woman. Right? Yeah. This is just not okay. And, and then I had this whole world of advocacy opened up for me. And it's funny, I'll never forget, I ended up changing my major. Because my political science class and my sophomore year of college, the professor has put a list of all of these different characteristics. He said, Well, what describes a typical politician and he was what in New Jersey, we now call commissioners, but back then we called them freeholders freeholders held land. And we put all these characteristics on a board of what a typical politician is. And he said, Georgia class, he said, Okay, everybody, if you aren't, at least, almost all of them, if not all of these, you never, ever, ever have a chance of holding any kind of high office or elected office in government. And I looked at him in my stereotypical, defiant way, when somebody says I can't do something, and said, Oh, really. And I changed my major to political science that week. And I would later tell him after I graduated from political science honors from what is now Rowan University, with concentrations in pre law and Women's Studies. I would eventually tell him go back and tell him that he was the reason why I changed my major. And he was just so blown away. He's like, Oh, wow, I'm so odd. Really told him why. And guess what, like many politicians, he ended up having an affair with a staffer and losing his his seat and his wife in the process. So I guess he was so much more like, far too many prostitutions back then, than what was listed on the board.   Michael Hingson ** 19:31 Do as I say, not as I do.   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 19:35 When I go ahead, no, go ahead. I was gonna say when I finished college, though, my first job right out of college. As I had left Prudential to go back full time to finish, which was good because by the time I got done Prudential no longer existed. They had moved their job offices to Jacksonville and have the office that I would have worked at had I stayed there like so many people said I should. Of course they He told me he really shouldn't leave this great job. And I said, Okay, really well watch me. And so again, I answered an ad in the newspaper. And I ended up going to work for the city of Bridgeton, in my field, actually working for the city in a new role for called the Community Development Block Grant sub recipient monitor. And my job was to create the infrastructure for monitoring funds from a community development block grants that were distributed to organizations in the community as a whole host of other things. And that was the beginning in 1992, of my 31 year career, other than one, brief six year return to insurance after having my son, my otherwise 31 year career in community and economic development.   Michael Hingson ** 20:59 So you got married along the way?   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 21:02 I did, but not yet. I stayed for a while. Yeah. Which is a really great question. I, I just wasn't ready. Yeah, I, I was in this I was in this weird world of, I was too white for most black boys. I was too dark for most white boys. I was not Latina. But that was what I was most often mistaken for, because of my skin tone and where I grew up. And, and I was often just a novelty, somebody wanted to be able to say that they had tried being with a black girl. And in 2012, when I was 23 years old, that culminated actually, in a second, much more serious rape scenario with a guy that I had been seeing. Who knew about the first one, we'd had conversations about the fact that his sister had been through something similar. And then myself and a friend went to a party at his house, and they, I didn't even drink, because I didn't want to be in that situation. And yet, I felt like I was drunk. And it didn't. We didn't talk about things like being date rape drugs, and things like that. But yeah, it was, it was bad. And I remember bits and pieces, and they were just kind of joking that they all wanted to know what it was like to be with a black girl. And, um, so I was very protective of myself in many ways for many years. And when I met my husband, I was in a, I was long distance seeing someone he was seeing somebody else, we could care less. And then we would be reintroduced a couple years later. And I was at a point where I was like, I just not I can't get involved with. I've had all these bad experiences with white guys and black guys. I just know, I was seeing a guy from Puerto Rico at the time. And as my husband likes to say, he just had to convince me that he was the only thing missing from my life. So he did what every other guy who wants to be with somebody does, he became a really good friend. And then we would end up finally getting married three years after our first date, which was a disaster, by the way, because our first date was literally the day of the very first Million Man March. Oh, and I said to him, What were you thinking we had ended up getting into a political conversation and realized we were about as diametrically opposed as one could be. And that's what he thought about. What was he thinking when he asked out a young black urban professional, he said he didn't know because he didn't realize I was black. He thought I was lucky not then. And then one of the jokes of that evening that still gets repeated to this day, I said, oh, and I suppose you haven't marched? And I suppose you've marched in a militia too. And he says, well, not lately. Now he was he had been on the north on a Civil War reenactment militia militia, but my husband would really appreciate your sense of humor. So no, in spite of that disastrous first date, next month, we will have been married for 25 years and together for 28. Any he was so everything I was not looking for at the time, which is probably exactly why it worked because I after all of those other experiences I had decided to find out. And we did, we got married. And, in fact, I was executive director of a nonprofit housing organization at the time, and it was selling, it's celebrating its 25th anniversary. So we postponed our talk about understanding guy, he's always supported me and said, You go be you. We actually postponed our honeymoon, so that we could get the anniversary banquet and celebration out of the way, and then go on our honeymoon without having that hanging over our heads. So he knew what kind of person he was getting together with. And he was he was fine with that. And so yeah, and we would go on, and I would have, we would have one son. And that was another pivot. This year, I was, at this point, I'm now running an organization that the nonprofit that I was with helped start, I'm used to like going around the country, and conducting training classes in housing counseling, and homeownership education for housing counselor is for the federal government on going all these great places. And then along comes this son, who God purposefully gave me to prove I have absolutely no control over anything. I remember Oh, my gosh, it was it was something else. And remember, and of course, you know, being a slightly older mom, at this point, I'm 33. Having a geriatric pregnancy just didn't sound right. At all, I'm like, Oh, my God, I've I've tested I'm sitting there in tears one day, like, how is it that I could testify and in front of the state legislature and congressional hearings that I can't get this kid to go to sleep? What is wrong?   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 27:10 got through it. I went back to the insurance industry. took a pause. 911 happened. I remember you. I remember seeing interviews with you on Larry King. And you know, one of the reasons why we chose our son's name, Colin, which is, the original Greek word for courage was after that happened, because we had, as you probably I know, you can relate based on having heard your story. I worked in Trenton and so there were people, a lot of people would commute by train. So someone I grew up with was lost. Very, very close friend of ours, his cousin was lost. But then there were other people that were actually supposed to be there that I was friends with, for various reasons that, like interviews were cancelled. A friend of mine who worked in Jersey City was supposed to cross over to work for Wall Street Journal, he was supposed to be there that morning, it got postponed to that afternoon. So many people that had so many close brushes. And so Colin seemed like a really good name. And, but it also drastically affected our funding as a nonprofit, because all the organizations where we were basically redirected already committed funds to World Trade Center efforts. And which is why to this day, I'm still firmly believe in cash accounting, and not the cruel accounting. And I went back into the insurance industry for six years. And it was fun. And I was underwriting manager for a company here in New Jersey. And and then, we unmerged with our parent company merged with another company and a whole bunch of changes started happening. And I ended up going through my next major pivot. I decided to leave a role where I was having a lot of difficulty with someone who was actively sabotaging my work. And so I decided to take a lateral move left a team of 19, several of whom were in extreme tears to help go create another department. And that behavior continued constant, what we would now call bullying but there was no such thing as bullying in the workplace. Right? And that would culminate in him. physically assaulting me on the job in a conference room full of leaders in front of witnesses. And he herniated all the discs in my neck. And what was really interesting about that is all of the other things that I had been through. They were emotional, and it was easy to recover. But the physical injury that I went in for a while I, my neck got everything swelled up so much I couldn't walk, I couldn't feel my feet. I couldn't function it was was incredibly painful. All of my C spine discs, were either damaged or bulged. And you would think, with so many people having witnessed it, it would be a no brainer, he would get fired. That's not what happened. Yeah, I was gonna ask. Yeah. That's not what happened at all. I would later find out through notes that he was giving a an a one time final warning, but this person had had a history of inappropriate behavior. And everybody would just chalk it up as to being that person. And so he had been there 20 years I had been there, three, and they decided that I was the one that needed to go. And they did what we used to call an insurance terms and other corporate terms called circle the wagons, protect their jobs. And that got ugly, very, very ugly. And Lisa Halloran was my hero. She was my, she taking the job was supposed to be a director was downgraded to a manager, which then downgraded me from management to consultant. And so she had only been there six months when this happened, she had transferred from another office. And in full integrity, she stood by me. Even when she personally was threatened, she stood by me. One point, she was told by the Vice President, I'm trying to save our jobs, you need to get in line. And she said, I would rather lose my job and be able to sleep at night, and do what you're asking me to do. And fortunately, for me, even though that left knee permanently partially disabled, I was able to find specialists, they did pay for one disc to be replaced. I did, New Jersey has binding arbitration, and the company pays for it. So there's not really much of an incentive for a binding arbitrator to actually rule in the favor of an employee. And they had argued in court that assaults were not not considered eligible for arbitration, but then tried to argue, in arbitration, that assaults belonged in court and the judge saw right through it and sent them all and joined everybody together, inviting arbitration and what was interesting is they lost. Wow, they lost and what what the ruling basically was was that the assault aside the way I was treated, including having ignored blatantly and openly admitted to ignoring their own grievance procedures process, that they had made a bad situation worse. And the funny thing is, then they then filed an appeal. At which point the arbitrator scathingly said, what part of binding arbitration Didn't you understand when you asked for binding arbitration? And they would eventually shut down all New Jersey operations. I, there's lots of rumors, I won't speculate. But yeah, almost everybody lost their jobs, all the way up to the top, including the New Jersey president. And I went back into government nonprofit work, and that's where I've been ever since.   Michael Hingson ** 34:26 You know, it's the insurance industry is a fascinating place. The reason I said early on that you joined in the insurance world in 1987 1988. Something like seven years before around 1980, maybe 1979. Probably 1980. Somebody in the National Federation of the Blind, which is the largest consumer organization of blind people, was at a meeting of insurance people Sitting next to a person from Prudential and said to this person, I think it also had to do with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, but anyway said, you know, insurance companies won't provide life insurance for people who are blind. And this guy said, Yeah. And the person who I knew said, Well, why don't you do everything that you do based on evidence to actuarial statistics and evidentiary data? And you have mathematical models for everything? And the guy said, Well, absolutely. That's how we make all of our decisions. And my friends said, Well, can we see the evidence that says that blind people are a higher risk? And the guy said, Sure, no problem. Six months went by, without any indication that there was anything. And finally my friend said, so where's the evidence? And the guy from Prudential said, Well, we were working on it. We haven't found it yet, but it's there. And my friend said, you don't have any do you? You have been discriminating against blind people and other persons with disabilities is it eventually expanded. But you've been doing that simply based on prejudice, and a mistaken belief that we're a higher risk without any evidence to show for it. And on the other end, we as blind people know, we're not a higher risk. Well, what that eventually led to was a campaign in every State of the Union at the time, I was living in Massachusetts. So I ran the effort for the state of Massachusetts for the National Federation of blind in Massachusetts. But to get every state to pass a law that said, you can't discriminate against blind or other persons with physical disabilities, unless you can provide actuarial statistics or or evidentiary data. And to this day, of course, no one's been able to because it doesn't exist. Yeah. It wasn't scientific at all. It was prejudice. Yep.   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 37:00 Absolutely. Absolutely. And my husband had worked in that industry for a while. And yeah, and it both in the life insurance, but also in health and also in property and casualty. To be honest, at one point from in 95, and 96, I had gone back to insurance company, because I was recruited from a nonprofit specifically to help with a pilot program where they were reentering the urban environment to because they had stopped insuring in most cities, urban environments, because of flat roofs, and the fire risk that they support that they had. And my boss, an amazing person, his name was, Andre Howell had conceived of this idea that if we worked with people to help mitigate risk, we think that they'll actually perform well. And he was right. And we worked in a very specific target targeted neighborhood of Philadelphia, and offered like free inspections, and all kinds of things. And, and part of my job was to track the performance of that. Now, this was for all state at the time, and I will name them because at that time, they had lost more money in Hurricane Andrew than they had made in the history of the company. Yeah. And this is a program that they would eventually roll out across all the states. And I had been serving on the National Insurance Task Force which dealt with access, availability, and affordability, affordability of insurance and regional or in a metropolitan as well as rural areas, because there's a big issue with rural areas too. But interestingly, a division of theirs decided not long after I got there that they were going to start mass canceling and a non renewing policies in the state of New Jersey. And the actuarial logic behind it was they looked at all of the people who had had not an accident, apparently you get an accident every five years, they looked at all the people who had not had an accident within a five year period determined that they were due and decided that they were going to use a loophole in a tooth what was called the two for one law. For every two g non renewed you could take one new customer and they just started, guess what group hasn't had a car accident within a five year timeframe. Disabled people, seniors and those who only use vehicles for pleasure use. So here I was in the government relations divisions of a company whose state subsidiary was mass, non renewing disabled and non working individuals. We had agents that were losing clients like 90 a week, and of course, those individuals were taking other business with them, I've never. And this is on the heels of them having gotten in trouble because somebody had made a very inappropriate comment about why they wouldn't cover repairs to a property for a same sex couple. So it was a rough period for them that they would eventually overcome. But really just, that was some of the eye opening for me in terms of why my advocacy needed to be so much broader than just around women. So   Michael Hingson ** 40:28 is that what sort of really led you into dealing with the whole issue of inclusion and equity and so on?   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 40:36 Yes, because I had now at this point, I had worked. in Bridgeton, I had worked in Cherry Hill Township, I had worked in Camden, I had worked in Philadelphia, looking at all of this, I'm seeing all this happening, I'm looking at people use numbers in ways that they should never have to use them because they had their own proprietary insurance score. And I had to know that model. So I had to know what went into it, so I could teach it. And I realized that the problem was so much bigger than even the different things that I had in my life that were intersectional in terms of being a female being a woman of color, you know, I wasn't even dealing with the disability yet at that point. And, but just other things, and, and hearing the way people would talk about people, as groups and status as individual human beings.   Michael Hingson ** 41:34 You know, it's, oh, go ahead.   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 41:36 No, go ahead.   Michael Hingson ** 41:37 It's amazing, just how, as I said, Before, people do as I say, not as I do, how people behave, you know, and most people don't think about their own disabilities, all of you who have eyesight, and I've said it several times on this podcast, have a disability as well, your light dependent, just wait till the power goes out in the building, and you got to go off and try to scrounge for a flashlight or a smartphone. The thing is that, because so many people think that eyesight is really the only game in town, our society collectively, has worked really hard to make light on demand, a fact of life everywhere. And so we've spent basically 145 years developing this technology to make light on demand available, pretty much in a ubiquitous sort of way. So most of the time, you have light on demand until you don't like when I was in a hotel in March. And I've seen it other times since then, before being a building and settling, the power goes out and people start to scream and they don't know what to do. And the fear comes in, and I'm sitting there going so what's the problem? The the issue is, you guys are light dependent. And the reality is disability should not mean a lack of ability, because it's not. Disability is a characteristic that every single person on the planet has. And what we need to truly understand and do is to recognize that the characteristic manifests itself in different ways for different people. It doesn't mean it's not there. So let light cover up your disability, but you still have it. And you can say all day long, you don't. But you do. But but we're too arrogant sometimes to really address that and deal with it. And it's so unfortunate, when that happens so much in our world today. But but the fact is, that's that's the way it is. And so I talk about it, probably more than some people would like on the podcast, because I want the message to be heard by everyone. That disability does not mean lack of ability, and everyone has that characteristic in one way or another. For my part.   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 43:51 Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. No, no, no, I was gonna say AB so lute Li and I loved hearing you talk about it, on the podcast that I listened to in the speeches that I listened to. Because disability disabled individuals are among some of the most discriminated individuals in this country. And that's planet. And, you know, when you were talking about what happened to you as a child in terms of what the doctors told your parents, you know, a lot of people don't realize that in this country in this country, till as recently as 1979. They were sterilizing women to keep certain women from being able to reproduce, because it will pollute the gene pool with disabled disability character, and   Michael Hingson ** 44:37 there were courts who backed that up. Yes. And supported eugenics like that. Yes, exactly.   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 44:43 And so, you know, I mean, depending on it had I didn't born in a different state, God knows what would have happened. Yeah. But you know, in California was one of the biggest ones. And, you know, a lot of people don't know that because we don't talk About those parts of our history, but whether I was paying attention, I'm really good at listening. And I realized that it's naturally human beings tend to want to group things. They all want to be seen as individuals, but they want to put everybody else in groups. And you could say, you know, people talk about, you know, different immigrants being stupid. I'm sorry, How many languages do you speak? Because they may be struggling in English. But most, most people I know, who have immigrated here know at least one if not five, or six. My Spanish is terrible got Mexico, to for my honeymoon. I mean, people who have all these diverse people, we are all wonderfully and perfectly made, depending on whether or not you believe in God, we've written to flee imperfectly made in God's image. Yeah. And if the Bible says God makes no mistakes, who are we to think that any one else is any less? More superior, less, less superior? Or that we're more superior than anyone else?   Michael Hingson ** 46:19 Well, except that in Oh God, George Burns said that he made a mistake, because he made avocado pits too large. Yeah. Oh, my God to sneak that one in.   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 46:34 Which is funny, though, only. But   Michael Hingson ** 46:37 I hear exactly what you're saying. The fact of the matter is, and kids especially I was talking with someone earlier today. And we were we were doing another interview, and we were talking about children and growing up and how kids are, are fun loving, they are full of adventure. And they don't have all of these agendas. And it's so unfortunate that we teach this in so many ways to children, and they grow up with these these horrible attitudes to a large degree, and there's no need for it. Children aren't evil. But we make them that way.   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 47:17 Well, we could say that about a lot of things, right? I mean, a thing is a thing. It's, it's how we use it. Now, children are born a blank slate, it's what we write on it. Right. And the younger, we can undo that the better. And which is a huge part of you know, you know, like I said, my third pivot was was my most recent pivot after going to grad school. Because I was determined, I was going to get that master's degree before I turned 50. And then getting long COVID. I was like, Okay, you're still here. What are you going to do with this? And I said, well, since grad school, I've been talking about it, because here I am this black female who's been, you know, the first list the first you know, first black female here at first black female there because I was lighter skin, I was palpable, which gets into a whole other issue. And I didn't say quote, unquote, sound black or growing up, the black kids would say your family talks white. Half of my family is white, all my cousins are all interracial. That was my way my dad's family was three possible shade. So it was just normal to me. But then in the post Obama era, it was a little bit more normalized. For a while, oh, if I had $1 for every time somebody said, Oh, she speaks so well. I'd be very, very rich. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 48:45 if I had $1, for every time somebody said, you're amazing. And of course, what they're really saying is, especially for a blind person, you know.   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 48:53 And so after getting COVID, and realizing I was still here, and seeing the spotlight shine on all things that were broken with our health care system, and then some, for anybody who was a person of color, who had an existing disability. Some of the things that I experienced. I actually had to I was like, Mom, you deal with the hospital, you're a nursing professor, you're Caucasian. They're not listening to me. You just deal with it, because they're not listening to me. Because there's so many of us continue to have to deal with ongoing symptoms before anybody would acknowledge that that was a real thing. The and so many people who are in the disability community, we're right in there with us. We're all in there together finding each other and social media and Facebook groups, because no one would listen to us. Mm. That's when I was like, Okay, it's, you're still here, you're here for a reason, it's time to get vocal about everything that's broken in this country about how we treat each other in general. And as the person of color in many organizations back when it was still called affirmative action. And having been part of integrating teams and corporate and government agencies, and seeing the narrative shift. Over the years, I was already getting concerned. And then when everybody was exposed to what so many of us knew, in the death of George Floyd and others, while everybody else said, Okay, stand up, this is a time for celebration, people are finally going to live, learn, change is going to happen, companies are issuing pledges everywhere, we're finally going to get the change that's been coming. And me, I'm on a webinar, still in very deep throes of long COVID with massive cognitive issues. And I said, here's my concern. And I meant to say backlash. I said, the black lashes coming. And that stuck. I see, I see, give it time. People know, when things aren't authentic. People know, when change is being shoved down their throat, people don't like being told that they're responsible for things that they didn't have happen. And saying, Now, you know, how it feels to be me is not the right response for that. And people started reading books about anti racism and all these things I said, I'm telling you, and then I repeat it, I said, I'm gonna keep using the word the black lashes coming since 2021, on record in a webinar. And now we have what we're seeing in Florida, and other states, and book burnings, and Supreme Court decisions. And all of these things as the pendulum swings back from one side to the other. And companies are eliminating diversity, equity inclusion programs, and people are leaving this fairly new kind of practice, for lack of better words. I mean, they've been, it's been slowly been evolving from diversity, diversity, inclusion, diversity, equity. And, and I've been saying for eight years, we're doing it all wrong. doing it all wrong. At no point, in over 20 years, if I ever brought a new hire into a situation without first addressing what needed to be addressed in house to create the environment that would make it possible for them to succeed, we should be doing it differently. And then, of course, after my assault, I was like, we have a serious civility issue. Just in terms of me, you can only legislate how people treat each other so much. But we have serious civility issues going on in workplaces that aren't being addressed, for all of the wrong reasons, across different groups. And it's time that we get our houses in order in terms of civility, then focus on creating the inclusive environment that it should be, then look at the equity issues within that environment, then you bring in the diversity hires that you want to bring in to help your company capitalize on the 30% return on investment that most companies that are diverse actually experience when they are run properly. In a truly, you know, culture add way, and then everybody can succeed. Otherwise, they're just hiring somebody that person comes in, they can't function, they quit. Everybody throws up their hands and says, Oh, well, we tried it didn't work, move on.   Michael Hingson ** 53:46 Tell me about purpose, build solutions and evolutions, if you would.   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 53:49 Sure. It's a purpose built solutions and evolutions while I was in grad school, and I've been doing coaching internally and externally, since 1997. And I was asked, in grad schools, what as part of one of my classes to come up with a two or three word way to describe what I am from a professional standpoint. And I described myself as a Resource Navigator. And because so many of my roles involved, either giving the answers or putting people into the direction where they could find the answers. And so I had been doing everything that you're not supposed to do as a business as a side hustle. And Maryam with long COVID I go ahead, I finally get my international coaching Federation certification that I've been putting off for 12 years. And my coach says, When you get to start a business, you've helped like 1000s of others when you can actually do it yourself. And I figured, okay, so put was filled solutions and evolutions was originally going to be purpose filled solutions and evolutions navigators. But I've refiled the service mark to drop the the navigators, even though I still use it. Solutions navigator was already taken. So I was like, well, everything I do is coaching around the purpose. Once your why what is your core purpose? I know mine, mine is helping others figure out theirs, and then achieve it. And after about three weeks of analysis, paralysis, and finally settled on purpose built solutions, and evolutions, a company that would offer the coaching that I had been doing, but also capitalize on my years of experience in various leadership roles, from supervisor up to Executive Director, as well as my Masters of Science and executive leadership and all that I had learned in grad school with a big focus on fixing what I felt was broken with what I call civility, inclusion, equity and diversity. And my company's turned to in June. And I have a team of consultants that support me, and a young woman that I hired from a program that I served as a leadership coach in breathe and shout out to Braven, which is a fellowship program for college students. I brought her in as an intern, and then hired her as my team. And she was a young woman who came here at the age of three, as part of her parents trying to escape Mexico. And she's DACA. And she's going through the citizenship process. And she couldn't find a job in the DEI space. And so we after a number of things, I asked her apologize for the parking. After a number of meetings, I asked her, Okay, we've had all these conversations about what I feel is wrong with the tape all of the information that I gave you, and then I want you to go and I want you to research and I want you to come back and tell me how you would redo my inclusion, equity and diversity program. And she came back. And she said, I think we need to start with mental health and physical disabilities. So this young woman who herself was an immigrant, who had was given carte blanche to look at everything that we should be looking at as part of a program that focuses on inclusion, equity and diversity, had every reason to throughout her life to come back with any number of options. And that's what she came back with. And I said, Okay, would you like a job as consultant? And how would you like to help me take take the lead and developing this program, and that's how paving the way to civility, inclusion, equity and diversity was born. Wow.   Michael Hingson ** 58:09 Well, that is pretty cool. And, and you're even making enough to pay her and everything, huh?   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 58:14 I am. That's a blessing. Unfortunately, it works out she's she's part time consultant. She just had her and her husband just had their second baby. And she's on maternity leave right now. But we did our first official full public offering of the program in June, it was very well received, people were blown away. They learned things, of course, that they were never taught and about everything from how the messages are even being manipulated to you know, you know why it's so important to see every person as an individual being and someone who I love Louis Brandeis Griggs was the one who I stole the spelling of it from because I would always say people want to be human beings. And he would always capitalize the B E. In being and so paving the way to civility, inclusion, equity and diversity, a new way of be in, in workplace and in life is our our most comprehensive flagship training program, who   Michael Hingson ** 59:24 have been some of the people who had the most influence on you as you're going through life.   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 59:31 My mom obviously has been one. I mentioned a couple of Lisa Halloran who stood by me when she had everything to risk. I have to ride or die. Best Friend's one. Unfortunately. Kathy Jagger passed actually. It'll be here next week. She was also a rape survivor and we met when I was 19. She was a little bit older too. She was 32. And we bonded and she was my best friend and mentor in so many different ways. She was the reason I went to work at Prudential. We went through all kinds of things together. And you know, she will she I referred to her as one of the greatest loves of my life. And the other one, her name is Maria Callahan, Cassidy, who she relocated to an amazing new position at Richmond University only weeks before Kathy passed. So I lost I fortunately didn't lose Maria, it's, it's hard because she's not here. But these are both people that I've known since my teens and have definitely shaped who I am. My son, actually, I've learned so much from him. My son is neurodiverse. He likes to say he's not on the spectrum. He broke the spectrum. Well, that's can and and, and he is hysterical and funny and incredibly talented and incredibly brilliant. And helping navigate the public schools where we live. And watching him continue to still get back up even when he was pushed down. Because in our school district, if you are not in the box, you're basically out of luck. So we had to get an attorney for our son when he was only in third grade, to fight for his rights, and the he knows himself. And really, his biggest challenge is he has something called dysgraphia. He can recite things verbatim, but you could give him that same thing to copy, and he struggles to copy it. And that was a very difficult educational experience for him. But now he's a mechanic, he's training to be a mechanic, he wants to own his own mechanic shop, he has a lovely girlfriend, Collins girlfriend is Ariel, they've been together since they were 14 and 16. And now they are 19 and 21. Going on 20 and 22. And she is the daughter I would have chosen. I call her the daughter I got to choose. And I've learned so much because of her a lot of her upbringing is very similar to mine, they say we've we're very careful to make sure it doesn't get weird. But they say you end up with somebody very similar to your parent. Ariel and I have definitely have a lot in common and and then I would be remiss if I didn't say my husband because even though we have a definitely have our different political beliefs. He has really just unleashed me. He, one thing he stands very firm on is equal pay for women after watching some of the experiences that I go through and he is constantly up, go do it. You got to do this, you got to speak up up, you've been offered a show. I should mention Joe Cole, Antonio, my coach, she is the one who did push me off the cliff to get my show by saying I'm booking you on a local talk show. So that you have two weeks, you have a couple of weeks to get ready to go announced your business is finally open. That's the other reason why purpose filled solutions and evolutions came in. But these are some really all unique but very interesting teachers in my life. So   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:36 tell me really quickly if you would about your talk show.   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 1:03:39 My talk show was an offshoot of Joe pushing me off the cliff, ironically, and we joke because Joe is my husband. But Joe is my coach and also probably one of my closest friends at this point. To Joe to Joe's once God wants J O. And Jo booked me on this talk show called Morning Coffee and gave me a couple of weeks. She said I know you can incorporate a business within 72 hours. I've seen you do it. You're going to do it. And so sure enough, on July 2 of 2021, I went in there. My business was two weeks old. And I announced and introduced myself and my one intern to the world. Somebody else who my son's girlfriend and told them about what I was looking to do and how I was going to change the world and the narrative and be a coach and offer services that I couldn't offer in my day job. And they came back to me and said the response to your episode was so amazing. Do you want to do a show? I was like, I was like I've always been the person on answering the questions or writing for government officials who are answering the questions. I've never been on that side of the mic. They said, Well, what do you think I said, Let me think about it. And I was originally going to call my blog, what the why? Kind of like instead of WTF, WT w. And I said, I have an idea. If you give me full control over who my guests are, would you be interested in doing a show called What the Why, and it would be conversations with diverse leaders from all walks of life, all races, genders, disabilities, ages, and I would interview them about what their purpose in life was and how they figured it out. And the station manager said, huh, yeah, let's do it. And so right now I'm on a brief hiatus because the station is in the middle of a move, but I'm in my second season. Of what the why with barber and and I have, I'm hoping to have you on in like, third season because you are so friggin awesome. And not because you're blind. You're just freaking awesome. Period. You just amazing. I'm completely and utterly amazing. But I have interviewed the smallest of businesses. My oldest guests had been in their 80s. My youngest recently was eight. He is a he's a math genius who video of him doing complex math at the age of three went viral. He was invited to join MENSA fours. Mom submitted it and he was accepted at age five. He and She both have long COVID Cynthia, shout out to Cynthia ad Nagin her brilliant son, Aiden. They're both brilliant. And she founded a health equity agency. And he is officially the paediatric spokesperson. He does not know he does not know his IQ. So cute. He had literally just turned eight a couple of weeks before I interviewed him in August. And one second, he's telling me what I need to understand about quantum singularities. And then the next second is holding up pieces of clay saying look at the ribbon I made. And he's what's funny about the interview we did is all three of us were having a level of a COVID flare up. So all three of us were having cognitive challenges. So   Michael Hingson ** 1:07:24 it was like a fun show.   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 1:07:25 It was fun. But you know, when you're with an eight year old, you roll with it. Yep. And we just kind of laugh with but he's, he's amazing. He is training to be a chess champion, because COVID has affected his ability to do outdoor sports. And he's homeschooled with a pod of other little young geniuses like Kim. And but I got to talk with the Sunni meet. One of the people I got to interview was the biker from the village people, ah, and the first woman to be the president of the National Association of government guaranteed lenders and, you know, some local elected officials. But then like, I found out a whole side to my hairdresser. And, and his story as a small business owner who's getting ready to hand it off to his daughter, now that he's in his 60s and I know what his journey was like and how his grandparents stood behind him as a black straight male wanting to do hair.   Michael Hingson ** 1:08:28 There you go. So you have lots of lots of people. I have one more question for you. This is a very crucial question. How tall are you?   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 1:08:38 five foot six.   Michael Hingson ** 1:08:40 And how tall is your husband?   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 1:08:42 five foot eight.   Michael Hingson ** 1:08:44 Ha we did not follow in our parents footsteps. Okay, I just wanted to check that out.   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 1:08:49 But here's the flip side to that though. Yeah, they were both named Joe. My dad was a Joseph. My husband is a Joseph.   Michael Hingson ** 1:08:57 There you go. And what's your son's name?   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 1:09:00 Colin   Michael Hingson ** 1:09:01 Cartwright. You said that Yeah. Well Colin Joseph. Okay. So there's a Joseph in   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 1:09:05 all of them in my dad was was rather dark for a mixed race man. All three of them are avid outdoorsman. In my husband's not into the same kind of football basketball. My dad was but all three of them were hunters. Okay. married to former vegetarian. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 1:09:24 there you are. If people want to reach out to you maybe learn about your coaching and and get in touch. How do they do that?   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 1:09:31 They can find me on LinkedIn. BGardenhiremills. And you spell it sure it's B G A R D E N H I R E. Mills. I'm on all forms of social media. And honestly, if they can get Barbara Anne garden Hire Mills if you Google that and What the Why it pops up the show airs on RVN R V N television.com as well as roku. And then I believe I forwarded you some some other links to the website. I'm not going to spell out our whole ridiculously long website because I'm actually I actually bought the URLs to shorten it. So   Michael Hingson ** 1:10:26 how do I find it on Roku?   Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills ** 1:10:28 I believe rvn because I don't have Roku that's why it's there. Yeah. But if you go on Roku you should be able to find the channel for RV and television is supposed to be on the Roku channels are and I'll check out under the Roku channels otherwise, RV and television or there's access to it directly from my website, which is my entire name spelled out a moment of weakness. It when I was having COVID Happy hypoxia which is really not happy. But I thought somebody said to me, Oh, let it you just name your website, your company and I thought, Oh, sure. Yeah, well, yeah, well, as if my name isn't long enough purpose built solutions and evolutions because you can't have an ampersand and a website.   Michael Hingson ** 1:11:08 No, that's okay. I'm gonna go hunted down on Roku though. That'll be kind of fun. Awesome. Well, I want to thank you for being here. And I want to thank you for listening. I love to hear your thoughts about today. This has been a lot of fun and firebrands, life and lessons are definitely worth paying attention to and I really value the time that we got to spend. I'd love to hear your thoughts, please feel free to email me Michaelhi m i c h a e l h i at accessibe A C C E S S I B E.com. Or go to www dot Michael Hingson H i n g s o n.com/podcast. To listen to more podcasts. But you can also find us wherever Podcasts can be found. And wherever you listen, please give us a five star rating. We appreciate it. We appreciate your insights and your comments and value them greatly. Now, of course, both Barbara Anne for you and for you listening. If you know of anyone who want to be a guest on our podcast, please let us know. We're always looking for more people to come on our podcast. I'm sure that Barbara Anne could talk to you about talk shows and in finding guests. So whatever. We'd love to hear from you and we really value your time and that you took the time to be with us today. And Barbara Anne one last time. T

In this episode, Tiffany Grant shares her wealth of knowledge on uncovering hidden funds that could be rightfully yours. From unclaimed property to undelivered refunds, she covers it all. With Tiffany's expert guidance, you'll learn how to navigate official government websites, including the IRS and USA.gov, and specific databases, such as the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. She also highlights credit unions as a potential source for unclaimed deposits. But here's the best part - Tiffany stresses that all these resources are freely accessible and that individuals can do the research themselves without paying external companies. As she says, why pay for something when you can find it yourself? Tiffany shares her personal experience of finding an old paycheck through this process. And don't worry about missing out on any future unclaimed funds because Tiffany recommends periodically checking for them. As a special treat for our listeners, Tiffany has a limited-time offer for her Budget Nirvana course (regularly $297) - a program designed to help you achieve financial bliss by optimizing your budgeting skills. So don't wait any longer and start your journey towards finding quick money with Tiffany today!Every Tuesday, Tiffany answers one of your submitted questions. To submit a question for an upcoming episode, visit https://www.moneytalkwitht.com/asktiffany. Connect with TiffanyWebsite: https://moneytalkwitht.comFacebook: Money Talk With Tiff Twitter: @moneytalkwitht Instagram: @moneytalkwitht LinkedIn: Tiffany Grant Additional Links & ResourcesSearch for your unclaimed property (it's free) – National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA)MissingMoney.com | Search for Unclaimed PropertyRefunds | Internal Revenue ServiceHome Page | Pension Benefit Guaranty CorporationNational Association of Insurance CommissionersNeed life insurance? Reach out to Acquania EscarneHow to find unclaimed money from the government | USAGovNCUA - National Credit Union AdministrationBudget Nirvana CourseDid you find any money as a result of this episode? Get In...

Welcome back to NABIP's Healthcare Happy Hour podcast! Earlier this week, NABIP submitted a response to a request for information, or RFI, from the tri-agencies on coverage of over-the-counter preventive services. But in addition to that, NABIP Director of State Affairs Max Karlin is making his official podcast debut to discuss his experience at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, more commonly known as NAIC, last week.

Our guest on this episode is Lawrence Eichen. Among other things, he is a self-employed attorney, a speaker, and a coach. While he has been successful he endured internal conflicts he will discuss with us. He has over 25 years courtroom experience dealing with civil and criminal matters. He also is quite skilled at conflict resolution as you will discover. Wait until he tells us about his negotiation formula, E=MC5. We learn that Lawrence became plagued by Imposter Syndrome. He tells us why he came to have this syndrome in his life as well as how he came to overcome it. As he explains, Imposter Syndrome is not a mental disorder, but rather it is truly a phenomenon. He will discuss why he would describe this condition as a rash and he talks about the “ointment” he created to address it. Overall, I very much loved my time with Lawrence. I hope you will find this episode relevant and interesting as well. About the Guest: Lawrence D. Eichen, Esq. (Pronounced “Eye-ken”) Lawrence Eichen is a self-employed Attorney, Professional Speaker, and Coach. He has over 25 years of courtroom experience handling a wide range of civil and criminal matters. Mr. Eichen is also a highly skilled Mediator adept at conflict resolution. Mr. Eichen's litigation and mediation experience led him to develop a winning negotiation formula E=MC5 , which is a proven method to obtain excellent negotiation results. He has resolved well-over 1,000 cases during his career. Lawrence's resultoriented approach to success, stems from his experience inside and outside of the courtroom, including his own journey of self-discovery. Although he had substantial outward success practicing law, internally, Lawrence often found himself experiencing Imposter Syndrome (a phenomenon whereby one fears being exposed as an “Imposter” for not being as competent or qualified as others think). By addressing chronic doubt and rethinking internal messaging, he developed the ability to defeat imposter syndrome. As a result, he became a more confident attorney, a better business owner, and a more peaceful person. He now engages audiences by delivering inspirational speech presentations, which include providing practical advice and techniques on the topics of Mastering the Art of Negotiating and Defeating Imposter Syndrome . In addition, as a certified Rethinking Impostor Syndrome™ coach, he provides individual and group coaching to professionals, executives, and small business owners. Mr. Eichen is a licensed Attorney in New Jersey and a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association, New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators, National Speakers Association; and Association & Society Speakers Community. He is also certified in EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) and a member of the Association of EFT Professionals. A lifelong all-around competitive athlete, in his spare time “Ike” (as his sports buddies call him) can be found playing golf, tennis, or ice hockey. Ways to connect with Lawrence: My website is www.FirstClassSpeaking.com LinkedIn profile is ,https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawrenceeichen/. About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes **Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. **Michael Hingson ** 01:25 Thanks for joining us today, we get to talk to Lawrence Eichen. And he's got a great story. He's an attorney. And we will say away from the lawyer jokes I mostly promise. But but you never know. You know, if you want to tell some you can, Lawrence , I'll leave that to you. But he's got a great story. He's a negotiator. He's a speaker. And we get to talk about a lot of things including imposter syndrome, which is something that I find pretty fascinating to to learn more about. So we'll get to that. But Lawrence, welcome to unstoppable mindset. Thanks for being here. Lawrence Eichen 02:00 Oh, my pleasure, Michael. And I'm really looking forward to our conversation. **Michael Hingson ** 02:04 Well, so let's start. And as I love to ask people to do why don't we start by you maybe just telling us a little bit about you growing up and in all the things that younger Lawrence was? **Lawrence Eichen ** 02:15 Okay. Well, let's see, I grew up, I'm the youngest of four children. So I have three older sisters. I grew up in Rockland County, New York. So um, you know, still feel like a New Yorker more than somebody from New Jersey, even though I've lived in New Jersey probably for over 30 years now. And I grew up, basically, I guess, typical stuff that you did as a kid back then was, you know, you go to school, you come home, you put your books down, and you go outside, and you play sports. And that's really what we did growing up. And I was lucky to grow up in a neighborhood where there was about eight of us. And we played everything, you know, every every day and on the weekends, really, whatever sport, you know, season was, was going on, we did it and we made up our own games like Well, kids do. And basically, you know, that my childhood was, you know, was a little bit stressful at times, because there was some real dysfunction in my family growing up. But, you know, for the most part, I'd say it was a typical, like, you know, middle class, suburban, family upbringing, you know, school and sports was really what I what I did as a kid growing up. **Michael Hingson ** 03:33 As a kid, did you get to spend much time in the city? Did you guys go there very much. Did you go any games or just spend any time in the city? **Lawrence Eichen ** 03:42 No, I really didn't get into the city as a kid, really. Our family didn't do stuff like that. I didn't get into see too many games. You know, I grew up was a Knicks fan, and a Rangers. Rangers fan. I'm still a Rangers fan. Very much these days. I try not to be a Knicks fan. It's hard to watch the Knicks. But actually, they're doing halfway decent this year. And I was a Mets fan. But I didn't really get into too much into the city as a kid growing up at all. So I was really more relegated to the television, watching sports. And just as a family, we never really went into New York City. So it wasn't until later on in my life, you know, more college years and post college years that I took advantage of the city because we were only about you know, 45 minute drive, you know, without traffic. And you can get into New York City, which was you know, a phenomenal experience once I did eventually get into this city. **Michael Hingson ** 04:44 Did you take the train in? **Lawrence Eichen ** 04:47 Often I would take the train in. I actually eventually was working in the city at 1.1 port one port early in my free law career and used to commute by Train into the city, which is not a fun experience for anybody who's a commuter into New York City knows that. **Michael Hingson ** 05:07 Yeah, it can be a challenge. Although I'm amazed that when we lived back in New Jersey, and I would go into the World Trade Center and into the city, I would often meet people who came everyday from Bucks County, a lot of the financial folks and so on would come from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and they had two hour train trips. And either they had discussion groups or cliques that that communicated and spent all their time on the trains together, or people were in working groups, and they did things on the train. But it was a way of life and they didn't seem to be bothered by two hours on the train each way at all. **Lawrence Eichen ** 05:44 You know, it's funny, you do get into a routine, so I can identify with that, because you become numb to it after a while. And back when I was doing it, and I'm sure a lot of people that you were talking about doing it, you know, there were no, you know, iPhones and iPods and things that are so convenient now to take advantage of listening to a podcast and all this other stuff, you basically read the newspaper, or you read a book. And you did as you say, you know, you get acclimated to it, and I kind of think of it as just becoming numb to it. But looking back, you know, for me, it was sometime when I first commuted in, it was door to door about an hour and 45 minutes. And both ways. And it really does take a toll after a while on you because you realize, you know, you really spending a lot of time and energy commuting. And I didn't have like a group of people that I was commuting in maybe maybe I would have enjoyed it more. I was just like your typical commute or just taking a seat and trying to make the best of it. So for me, I don't miss it at all. I don't miss the commute into the city by train at **Michael Hingson ** 06:59 all. Yeah, I can understand that. I know. For me, it was about an hour and 20 minutes door to door unless there was a train delay. But I took a car from where we lived on trails in court and Westfield to the New Jersey Transit Station, which was part of the Raritan Valley line, then we went into Newark, to the past station then took the PATH train in. So it was broken up a little bit. But for me, again, as you said, iPhones, were starting to exist a little bit, but not a lot. So I really didn't have access to a cell phone a lot when I was traveling into the city. So I did read a lot, and spent a lot of time doing that. And I enjoyed it. But still, it it was a lot of time that you couldn't spend doing other things. But with the fact that for me, it was broken up with a couple of trains that everything else, I guess, you know, I survived it pretty well and can't complain a whole lot. **Lawrence Eichen ** 08:01 You know, you're reminded me I can remember muting in 1986. And the Mets were in the World Series and being on the train. And when I took the New Jersey Transit, there was no Midtown direct from where I was taking it from, you had to go down to Hoboken and then catch the PATH train to the World Trade Center. And I can remember being on those commutes when the Mets were playing. And you could just somebody had a radio, you know, somebody on the commute had a transistor radio. And that would be the only way that you knew what was happening in the game. And like he could almost, you know, overhear those what was going on by somebody else's radio. But it was it was just so interesting. Looking back now how limited access was to immediate information that we take for granted today. You know, there was no Internet, there was no as I said, No iPhones No, none of the stuff that exists today. But you know, like anything else, you just kind of you didn't know what you were missing? Because you were just living it at the moment. **Michael Hingson ** 09:06 Yeah, and of course, the real question is, was that a blessing or a curse? And I'm not convinced. Either way on that because we are so much into information and so much immediate gratification. Is that a good thing? And I think there are challenges with that too. **Lawrence Eichen ** 09:21 Yeah, I would agree with that too. Not to mention, it's very difficult to have a conversation with certainly with younger people that are glued to their phones like 99% of the time. It's like if you get somebody make eye contact with you. It's almost like a moral victory sometimes. So I agree with you that the access to information can you know get out of whack and out of balance and I think there is a real loss certainly in interpersonal communication with people that are just looking at their phones down, you know, they're looking down you see pictures all the time. If you see photos or just the even videos on the internet, you'll see a group of kids, you know, walking home from school together, and there's like 20 kids all walking together. But every single kid is just looking down at their phone, there's no interaction between them, or they're even at a sporting event, right. And you see people like looking at their phones and not even watching the live sporting event that they're at. So **Michael Hingson ** 10:21 go figure. And, you know, for me, I, I like to interact, although when I was traveling into the city, you know, I just had a seat and my guide dog was there. And I read a lot. We weren't part of a group. But if anyone would ever wanted to carry on a conversation, I was glad to do that as well. But I, I'm amazed, and I actually said it to somebody on one of our episodes of unstoppable mindset. I said, I was amazed at how kids in the back of a car would be texting each other rather than carrying on a conversation. And this person said, Well, the reason is, is they don't want their parents to know what they're talking about. Yeah, that itself is scary. You know? **Lawrence Eichen ** 11:06 I can understand that. And it's kind of funny. And texting, you know, look, people text right in the house, right? You take somebody else has downstairs, you know, there was a lot I will say texting, there are some really amazing benefits of texting. There are no it's not, I'm not against technology and the advancement of technology. It's just, you know, in the right place in the right time. It's, **Michael Hingson ** 11:28 it's it's communication. And that's an issue to deal with. Well, so where did you go to college? **Lawrence Eichen ** 11:36 I went to college, SUNY Albany, in the beautiful town of Albany, New York, which is really known for cold winters. So I can still remember walking home from the bars back then, you know, the drinking age back then was 18. So when you went into college, you know, you were it was legal to drink. And the bars would stay open till four in the morning. And I can remember walking home when I lived off campus, you know, at four o'clock in the morning, and literally just the inside of your nose freezing, the mucous lining of your nose would raise on the way home, it was that cold and windy. So yeah, that would I don't miss those cold winters. But College is a whole different store. **Michael Hingson ** 12:25 Well, yeah, there's a lot to be said for college. I've spent time up in Albany, we visited Lockheed Martin up there and some of the military facilities where we sold tape backup products. And I remember being at one facility, and we were talking about security. And the guy we were talking to reach behind him and he pulled this hard disk drive off of a shelf, and there was a hole in it. And I and say said, Let's see this hole. He said, This is how we make sure that people can't read discs, we take discs that have died or that we want to get rid of all the data on and we take them out in the in the back of the building, and we use them for target practice. And the trick is to get the bullet to go through the whole dry. That's funny. Yeah, the things people do for entertainment. I'll tell you, Well, what, what did you do after college? I gather you didn't go straight into law. **Lawrence Eichen ** 13:24 No, I didn't actually I started out as a computer programmer, because my degree was in computer science. So I worked as a programmer for a few years. And then, you know, long story short is made, made some stupid decisions, quit my job when I really shouldn't have and then did some other jobs in the computer field, like selling computer software. But I wasn't very happy doing that. And ultimately, that's when I decided to go back to school full time and go to law school. So I worked for about four years after college before I went back to law school. **Michael Hingson ** 14:07 Why law? **Lawrence Eichen ** 14:10 Hey, hey, I'm still asking myself that question. Why? Well, there you go. No, really, it's one of those things for me it was my one of my older sisters is an attorney. So I think there was that connection to law. And my aunt was a judge in New York In New Jersey also. So there were some family, you know, connections. I probably had some other cousins that were attorneys also but I think I honestly for me, it was like I really didn't know what to do with myself. A friend of mine was studying to take the LSAT, which is the entrance exam to get into law school. And no, I think I just thought to myself, You know what, maybe if I go to law school, I can sort of like salvage my career. I really didn't know what to do with myself. And, um, you know, I came to find out that many people that end up in law school really are ending up there because they don't know what else to do it themselves. I'm not that person that went to law school, like with this dream from childhood to be a lawyer and all that. It was more like, I don't know what else to do. And it was a way for me to rationalize, well, maybe I can do something and still salvage a career. And so I just took the exam with the idea that well, let me see how I do. If I do well on that, you know, then I guess I'll apply. And if I apply, I'll see if I get in. So you know, one thing led to another, I did do well on the exam. And once I did well, on the exam, I was kind of guaranteed to get into law school based on my score on the entrance entry exam. And so I applied to a couple places got in and then you know, that I ended up going to law school. Where did you go, I went to Rutgers law school in New Jersey. And the reason it worked out for me was that by that time, I had moved to New Jersey. And the reason I moved coming and really coming full circle had to do with the commute that I was doing into New York City, which was so long that I had decided, even before I was going into law school, I had decided to move closer down the train line, so it wouldn't take me an hour and 45 minutes to get into the city. So I moved into New Jersey and my commute into the city was like less than an hour at that point. And the fact that I was a resident of New Jersey allowed me to go to records, which was a very good law school, but it was a state school. So you could get a very good tuition, and a good bang for your buck. And so that's why I chose Rutgers. **Michael Hingson ** 16:46 And besides you wanted to root for the Scarlet Knights, right. **Lawrence Eichen ** 16:51 Well, I can't say that I was thinking that at the time I it's funny because I you know, I think of it as like, you know, the devils came into the I think a bit more like the devils came into the New Jersey and started to win and won a Stanley Cup even before the Rangers Did you it was really hard to swallow that pill. And when I mean when the Rangers did, I mean, the Rangers hadn't won a cup and like 50 some odd years, but then the devils come in as an expansion team. And then I think they won three cups before the Rangers finally won a cup in 1994. But I was still even though a New Jersey person. I was still always rooting for New York teams. **Michael Hingson ** 17:31 Well, yeah, and I rooted for the Knights just because they usually were doing so poorly. They needed all the support that they could get. Yeah. And I understood that but one year, they did pretty well. But there they definitely have their challenges. And you mentioned the Knicks. And of course we are are always rooting for the Lakers out here and I'm spoiled i i liked the sports teams. I like for a weird reason. And it's the announcers. I learned baseball from Vince Kelly and the Dodgers. And I still think that Vinnie is the best that ever was in the business of basketball. I learned from Chick Hearn out here because he could describe so well and he really spoke fast. Other people like Johnny most and some of the other announcers in the basketball world, but chick was in a, in a world by him by itself in a lot of ways. And so they they both spoiled me. And then we had Dick Enberg, who did the angels for a while and also did football. So I'm spoiled by announcers, although I do listen to some of the other announcers I listen to occasionally. Bob Euchre, who, you know is still doing baseball, Chris, I got to know him with the miller lite commercials. That was a lot of fun, but still, I'm spoiled by announcers. And so I've I've gotten loyal to some of the teams because of the announcers they've had and learned a lot about the game because the announcers that I kind of like to listen to really would help you learn the game if you spent time listening to them, which was always great. **Lawrence Eichen ** 19:07 Yeah, you've rattled off some real legends of the announcing world. I certainly Dick Enberg you know even in the in the east coast with New York and New Jersey. He got a lot of thick Enver just because he was a national guy, but I grew up really to me. So you say? I think you said Vin Scully. You thought it was the best in the business? To me more of Albert was the best in the business because I grew up with him doing Ranger games doing NIC games. He was the voice of the Knicks and the Rangers right and he was just great. And he you know, his voice is great. And so to me, he was like the the guy you know, everybody always tried to imitate **Michael Hingson ** 19:46 motivate dude. And I remember listening to Marv Albert nationally and he is good and it was a good announcer no question about it. Vinnie was was a different kind of an announcer because one of the things that I really enjoyed about him was when he and originally was Vin Scully and Jerry Daga. And then Jerry died and some other people Don Drysdale for well then partner with me. But when Vinnie was doing a game, he did the first, the second, the fourth, fifth and sixth, the eighth and the ninth innings. And then he was spelled by whoever is his co host was, if you will, but he did all of the announcing it wasn't this constant byplay. So they really focused on the game. And I've always enjoyed that. It's amazing to listen to TV football announcers today, because they're all yammering back and forth and plays can go by before they say anything about the game. **Lawrence Eichen ** 20:42 Yeah, there's a real art to that. And the chemistry for sure, when you get a really good team and a really good broadcaster, actually, what's coming to mind is, I forgot his last name. He just he retired maybe three or four years ago from hockey. He was like the voice of they call them doc. I forgot. I forgot. Yeah, I **Michael Hingson ** 21:00 know who you mean, I don't remember his. **Lawrence Eichen ** 21:02 Yeah, I forgot his name. But when he would do a hockey game, and you notice, I'm always bringing things back to hockey because hockey is like my favorite sport. But when he would do a hockey game, and he would only get him like it was a national game. It was such a difference in the game, because he was the best in the business just the best. When he retired, if, you know, like I said, maybe three, four years ago, I guess it's been it was like a real hole, you know, in the in the, in the announcing business, not that the other guys aren't good also, but he was just so great at it. **Michael Hingson ** 21:39 Yeah, well, they're always those few. And it's pretty amazing. Ah, the fun one has, but even so, there's still nothing like going to a game and I would take a radio when I go to a game or now I probably would use an iPhone and listen to it on some channel, but still listening to the announcer. And also being at the game, there's just nothing like that. **Lawrence Eichen ** 22:05 Oh, yeah, by the way, here's the beauty of technology when we were talking about technology, right? There's never a reason I always say this, there's never a reason for two people to have a conversation where you stop not remembering anything anymore. Right? Because what you know, while you're talking, I'm just Googling who that announcer wasn't It's Doc Emrick. His last name right? It was Mike, Doc Emrick Mike doc being his nickname. And, you know, that's where that's where that's where technology's great, right? Because this is the way you know, usually when I get done playing, I play tennis during the winter. And we after we play, we usually have a beer or sit around. And invariably the conversation turns to sports and you start talking about stuff. And nobody can remember anything, you know, for 9070 or 80. Or 90, you know, it's like who won this, who was the most valuable player? And like, you know, usually you sort of like kinda like say, I know, I can't remember then somebody remembers to look at their phone. And then next thing, you know, the conversation continues because the information has been supplied. whereas years ago, you just sort of had to leave the conversation. Like that was the way it is like everything was left in the air. Nobody could remember. Now this is no no excuse for that. **Michael Hingson ** 23:13 Yeah, absolutely. It's it's kind of amazing the way the way it goes, I'm when I go to family gatherings, there are always people looking at stuff on their phones. And there's discussion going on. And the bottom line is that people are talking about one thing or another and somebody's verifying it or getting more information. And I can't complain about that. So that that works out pretty well. And it's good to kind of have that well for you after going to college and going to Rutgers and so on. What kind of law did you decide to practice since there are many different ones? **Lawrence Eichen ** 23:49 Yeah, when I first came out of law school, I went into personal injury law. I took a job as a defense attorney. It was known as being in house counsel for an insurance company. And the reason I took that job is I always felt when I eventually went to law school, my mindset was, I envisioned myself as being somebody who would go into court. So there's when you come out of law school, there's really a couple of different positions that you can get, we can get very good experience early on in your legal career. So for me, it was either going to a prosecutor's office, you know, somewhere and prosecuting or being a defense attorney and working as an in house counsel for an insurance company, because there's just a volume of litigation in either way. I chose to go the route of the defense insurance position. I just didn't see mice. I just never visioned myself as a prosecutor for some reason, so I just never even explored that. So for me, it was really just a couple of choices and that's the one that I It shows and it gave me the opportunity to just defend cases where if somebody will either got into a car accident and you were sued by the other driver, you know, as part of your insurance policy, you were entitled to a lawyer who would defend you. And so I was that guy that would take on the defense of cases where other people were being sued as a result of car accidents, or slip and falls that might occur on a commercial property. I was also involved in those type of cases. And so let's say you were a contractor or something, and you were sued for some kind of negligent condition on some property somewhere, somebody fell, got injured, they sue everybody, then your insurance entitled you to have an attorney, defend, and I would do that as well. So that's really what I started out doing. **Michael Hingson ** 25:57 So that is a, you know, the whole issue of Defense's fascinating course, what did your aunt the judge, think of you going into defense? Or did you? Did you ever get to talk with her about it? **Lawrence Eichen ** 26:10 No, actually, you know, here's the thing is, I really probably would have went a totally different direction in my career is that when I was in law school, I had a chance to work with a very prominent New Jersey defense attorney, criminal defense attorney. And I could have worked as his law clerk or intern, I can't remember it while I was still in law school. But the problem was, he appeared regularly in front of my judge, my judge, my aunt, who was so there was this apparent conflict of interest, not that I would, you know, not that anything improper would occur. But my aunt was very concerned that how can she be in a courtroom deciding cases? Even if I wasn't in the courtroom, and he was the one in the courtroom, I was at his office? How could it happen? You know, if somebody ever found out that I worked in his office, then there's this appearance of a conflict. So I couldn't take the position with him. And I really wanted to because at that time, I found criminal defense. Very interesting, because criminal law in itself is very interesting, the issues, evidence and criminal procedure and all that stuff. So to answer your question, or about what am I and say, it really was, like, not even a discussion about it, you know, just something that I chose to do and just went a totally different direction. **Michael Hingson ** 27:48 I'm fascinated by what, what's going on now with Clarence Thomas, in the Supreme Court. Are you keeping up with that whole thing? **Lawrence Eichen ** 27:58 Actually, I just read an article on that yesterday. So yes, and interesting, absolutely disgusted about what's going on, even before that article came out, that talks about a conflict of interest. I mean, here there's **Michael Hingson ** 28:14 no there's no ethical guideline, apparently, for the the Supreme Court Justice is like there is even for lower federal judges or federal, federal people. **Lawrence Eichen ** 28:24 Yeah. But you know, Michael, here's the thing. That doesn't need to be in that particular there. What I'm what I'm saying is, yes, it would be better if there was some real, strict enforceable guidelines. I'm not against that. What I'm saying is, the judge himself should recognize just how ridiculously inappropriate that is. That's why even without actual laws, the judge himself ethically should be thinking, You know what, this probably doesn't look too good that I'm going on luxury, all paid vacations with one of the largest donors, who's, you know, a conservative minded individual. And now I'm ruling on cases that ostensibly might be certain areas of the law that are very favorable to these positions. Maybe I shouldn't be doing things like this, because it looks like a conflict of interest. And that's the thing about the legal profession, that doesn't have to be an actual conflict of interest. It just has to be the appearance of a conflict of interest, and then it becomes unethical and inappropriate. So even if nothing nefarious was going on, because there's no proof of that, right. Nobody has any proof that it would definitely happen. It doesn't even have to reach that level. It just has to reach the level of this doesn't look right. And for doing this for 20 yours, right? Is that what I think I heard are in the article for 20 years. Yeah. It's disgusting. It's absolutely disgusting. **Michael Hingson ** 30:08 Well, what seems to me is even more interesting is he never reported it. And that's where I think it becomes even more of a striking dichotomy or paradox, if you will, because even if there's not a conflict of interest, even if he wanted to do it, why wouldn't he report it? **Lawrence Eichen ** 30:26 Well, that's the that's, that's, that's what makes it even more revolt, revolting and disgusting. Yeah, he's sweeping it under the carpet. And why would you be sweeping it under the carpet? Like, what are you afraid to disclose? **Michael Hingson ** 30:39 I have grown up, especially as an adult, with a great respect for the law. I've been blind and a member of the National Federation of the Blind, which is the largest organization of blind consumers in the country. And the founder was a blind constitutional law scholar Jacobus tenBroek, who was very famous in the 50s and 60s for being an innovator with tort law and other kinds of things. And I've read a lot of his writings. And the law always fascinated me. And then I've been involved in actually in working with Congress and working with state legislatures, when, for example, we were trying to get insurance companies to insure blind and other persons with disabilities, because back in as late as the early 1980s, insurance companies wouldn't insure us. They said, We're high risk, where we have a greater and a higher mortality rate. And somebody finally asked the question, where's your evidence? Because you do everything based on actuarial statistics and evidentiary data. And they were told, well, it exists, can we see it Sure. never appeared. Why? Because it never existed. They weren't doing decisions on persons with disabilities based on evidence and statistics. They were doing it based on prejudice. And so we did get to work with state and and then and well, not so much the Congress I'll but state legislatures, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and finally, now there's a law in every state, you can't discriminate, but it's just the it always has fascinated me to be involved in the law in one way or the other. And I've done it in other kinds of places as well. And thoroughly enjoy it. But it is very frustrating when something comes along like this, where somebody's playing games that they don't need to play. **Lawrence Eichen ** 32:36 Yeah, that's, you know, there's just that's why the whole that's why honestly, you know, without getting too much political conversation, because we could go down a rattle. Yeah, we **Michael Hingson ** 32:46 don't want to do that. Yeah, I'll **Lawrence Eichen ** 32:48 just say that. That's why people get so outraged when they see things that clearly show something's unfair, right, or something is just inappropriate, it touches everybody's inner sense of what's right and what's wrong. Yeah. And when things look clearly inappropriate, clearly unfair. You know, everybody gets incensed about it, or should get incensed about it, because we're all trying to live, we all seem to live with an internal compass of what's right, what's fair, you're born with that, you know, they they did a study, I remember reading about this years and years ago, and I will butcher this a little bit, but I seem to recall, there was a study on like, I'm gonna say, one year old, or two year old, something like that. And maybe it was even younger, I don't remember, but it was very infant or toddler type study. And all they were doing was like giving one infant or toddler like three balls, and then giving another one too. And then or they both start with three, and then they take one away from the other one. And the whole study was just showing that even these babies or infants or toddlers who can't speak, they knew they had the sense of something was not fair. You know, and that's what the conclusion was. And again, I don't remember the study. But the idea is that it's just that it comes with each of us. It's like part of you the hardware that you're wired with is a sense of fairness, and justice, even at the earliest parts of your existence. And that's why when we see things as adults that are so unfair or inappropriate, it just triggers a natural reaction with us. of you know, something should be done about this. This isn't right. And so that's where I'm coming from. **Michael Hingson ** 34:51 Well for you, you did personal injury, Injury, love and how long did you do that? And then what did you do? **Lawrence Eichen ** 34:58 I did that. Probably We are at that particular place for about two or three years, after a while you're like a hamster in a hamster wheel, because you have so many cases to handle at one time. And like I remember a friend of mine once telling me like, the good for you, like when you win a case, as a defense attorney in that situation, you know, it's not like you make any money for yourself, right? You're a salaried employees. So it's not like you, you know, you, you feel good that you won the case. But a friend of mine, I'll never forget, he said to me, the good feeling only lasts until the time you get to your car in the parking lot. And then you close the door and get into your car to drive back to the office, you start realizing about how many other cases you have to do tomorrow and the next day. And so you're like a hamster in a hamster wheel. Because even if you resolve a case, or settle a case, you get a couple of more, the next day to replace the volume of cases that you have to always have. So it's sort of a little bit of a burnout, or canvio. For at least for me it was and so I went on to I switch sides and went to a plaintiff's firm, and did personal injury from the plaintiff side, and also did some workers compensation, and then got into some other areas like municipal court or minor criminal matters. So I did all that probably for about, you know, I'm guessing, you know, looking back maybe 10 years in those areas of the law. **Michael Hingson ** 36:29 And what did you do? **Lawrence Eichen ** 36:32 Oh, yeah, what did I do after that? Well, **Michael Hingson ** 36:34 I took let's see, I took a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. **Lawrence Eichen ** 36:38 Yeah, I have an interesting story. Because I took a little turn. After I did, I worked in a firm for a lot of years, I really became disenchanted with practicing law, and I decided to try something completely different. And it's a long story. So I won't waste the time how I got into it. But I did end up becoming a financial advisor. While I while I had my attorneys license, and became a financial adviser, and I worked for a couple of financial firms, one happens to be one of the largest ones, that you would recognize their name. And I did that altogether, probably for about, I'm gonna say maybe four or five years. And I you know, even though I was relatively successful at that, a really became like, clear to me, after not, not even that long, I realized, like, this isn't really for me, but I was trying something different to see if I would just enjoy it more than practicing law. And so I didn't eventually, then that's when I went and just decided to practice for myself and opened up a shingle and went back to practicing law. **Michael Hingson ** 37:54 For me, was that more rewarding? Because you are now doing it for yourself? I would think so. **Lawrence Eichen ** 37:59 Yeah, it was it was a that was something somebody had suggested to me that I should try that before I totally give up on the practice of law. So and I would say that it is a lot better working for myself as an attorney than working for other attorneys that I will definitely tell you is much better, because it's the feeling that whatever you do is going to go into your own pocket, and being able to control your own time and all that stuff. I mean, there's added other stresses that come with working for yourself, for sure that aren't there when you work for a firm or company. But the trade off for me was I didn't have to worry about anybody else telling me what to do. And I'll just figure it out and do it myself. And so it was sort of more of an entrepreneurial endeavor working for yourself than working for a firm or company. And I **Michael Hingson ** 38:53 think you told me that you you practice in Morristown. I do practice in Morristown? New Jersey. Yes. So did any of the dogs from the seeing eye ever come and say we want to see we want to sue our trainers or anything like that? **Lawrence Eichen ** 39:06 No, but I did I do. I do see those dogs routinely walking around. And in fact, there's as if I don't know if you've been there since they put up this statue. I've heard about it. Yeah, there's a there's a statue like right in the green the center of town of, of a seeing eye dog with somebody leading, you know, the **Michael Hingson ** 39:28 dog leading buddy and the original CEO, original seeing eye dog. Yeah. **Lawrence Eichen ** 39:33 Yeah. It's a great, it's a great it's a really nice, nice statue. And it's it's definitely symbolic of that institution that is, you know, world renowned and has done really great things with their **Michael Hingson ** 39:44 own hands. Oh, absolutely. It's the oldest guide dog school in the United States. Alright, did not know that. It's been around since 1929. I think it is. So it's been? Yeah, it's getting closer to 100 years old. **Lawrence Eichen ** 40:00 Yeah, I've met people over the years when I used to have a Labradoodle. And we used to take it to a dog park in Morristown, and there have been times, I'd say, I've probably met three or four people over the years, that had labs that they owned, that had failed out of the Seeing Eye Institute, you know, so you know, not every dog that goes to become a seeing eye dog makes it makes the cut. And eventually, these dogs, they're still phenomenal. The thing about the person that ends up getting that dog, you know, gets a phenomenal pet, because dog is probably better trained than any other dog around. But for some reason, it didn't make the cut as a seeing eye dog. But I've met several other owners with their dogs, that were what we used to say, you know, the ones that didn't get make the cut, but they were really beautiful dogs and very friendly. And **Michael Hingson ** 40:56 I don't know, I don't know where the concept was created. But what I think we've all learned over the years is that the dogs that don't make it don't fail, because just not every dog is cut out to be a guide dog, or in specific case of seeing is seeing eye dog, the the generic term is guide dog and seeing eye dogs are seeing eye because that's the brand of that school, but they're they don't fail. What what they do is they get what people now call career change, which is appropriate, because it's just not every dog is going to make it as a guide dog. In fact, the percentage is only about 50% Make it because the reality is there's a lot that goes into it. And it's an incredibly grueling and demanding process. So the ones that that don't succeed it that oftentimes go find other jobs are there, other jobs are found for them. Some become breeders, but some go on to do other things as well, which is, which is great. But you're right. Any of those dogs are phenomenally well trained, and are a great addition wherever they go. **Lawrence Eichen ** 42:06 Yeah, and I like the way I'm gonna think of that from now on going forward, and it's career change for them. It's good. **Michael Hingson ** 42:13 So what kind of law did you start to practice? And do you practice now? **Lawrence Eichen ** 42:19 Well, I started to get more into initially, when I went into practice for myself, I did a lot more Municipal Court type cases, and Special Civil Part type cases municipal court, meaning, you know, minor, anything from like traffic tickets to DWIs, those are all handled in the municipal courts in New Jersey. So that could also be like simple assaults, harassments, some temporary restraining orders, things of that nature, and special civil court cases or more like, you know, matters that are like, typically, people might know that as small claims court matters that were traditionally $15,000 or less, now they've raised the limit. But those are quicker cases, you know, so you can get more volume, the idea for that, for me was I could get, get my hands on a lot of cases, get some experience, doing some new things. And get, you know, I was never somebody who liked to have cases that lingered for years and years. And so I came from having a lot of cases that were in the file cabinet for two, three years. And it'd be like, I can't take looking at these cases anymore. So for me, I like, you know, if I had a case, I have it for a couple of months, and it's done. And then there's something fresh and new. So that just appealed to me. And Municipal Court work. What was nice about that is a whole different feel of that to where you're just kind of going in, you're negotiating most of those cases are just resolved through negotiating. And so I was always a pretty good negotiator. And the idea was, you know, what, it's, it's sort of like a personality or, you know, just just being able to develop a good relationship with a prosecutor, let's say, or the municipal court system. And so they're all different to that. The other thing about municipal court, which is probably shouldn't be this way, but the reality is, you know, every municipal court and in each town right, every town basically has their own Municipal Court for the most part until there was a lot of consolidation. But generally speaking in New Jersey, most towns have their own Municipal Court, but you go into one town, it's a whole different field and if you go to another town and so kind of kept things fresh, in a way it was it was like always new and different. The cases were always being new, relatively speaking, because they're turning over a lot. So that's what I did for the most part, and then I got myself over the years into some other stuff, some commercial litigation matters. A couple of matrimonial things, and guardianship matters and a bunch of other stuff I'm probably forgetting. But for the most part, I was doing mostly Municipal Court work and Special Civil War work. **Michael Hingson ** 45:13 But you got involved somewhere along the line and resolution conflict and doing a lot more negotiating, which is a little bit outside regular law practice, but still a fascinating thing to get into. **Lawrence Eichen ** 45:24 Yeah, I did, I did some work as a mediator. And I still volunteer, actually, as a mediator for Morris County. Most of those cases that I would handle these days, on a volunteer basis is handling disputes that come out of the municipal court system, where sometimes you get these crazy fact patterns between neighbors give you a classic example, there'll be a lot of, you know, the dog is barking, or the neighbors, one neighbors parking in the spot of some other neighbor, or there's ex girlfriends with the same boyfriend, and everybody's fighting, and there's harassment. And there's all sorts of crazy stuff that comes out of municipal court. And some of these cases, you know, they kind of farm it out to mediation, and say, maybe this can be resolved through mediation and avoid going on to the main calendar. And so they give it a chance to resolve through mediation. And so I've done a lot of volunteer work in that regard, and just trying to help people resolve it amicably and be done with, done with whatever the dispute is, and draft up some paperwork to make everybody stay accountable. And so that's sort of like a give back that I've done, you know, for the community, so to speak. And it's been rewarding in the sense that a lot of these disputes, even though they seem minor, from, you know, from the outside, if you think about it, and I think we've all been there, you know, where you have a neighbor, or a tenant or roommate, then it's not going well. And it's incredibly stressful to live through those times when you got to come home every day. And it's either your roommate, or your, your immediate neighbor, upstairs, downstairs, or even across the street, or whatever the case may be. It's incredibly stressful to have to live through issues that are unresolved that get on your nerves every day, right? It's hard enough to live your life working and raising kids and all that stuff that most people are doing, and then to have those added disputes lingering out there. So they may seem minor in nature, but when they're resolved, every single person feels a sigh of relief in those situations as they can just get on with their life, **Michael Hingson ** 47:47 do you find that you're able to be pretty successful at getting people to move on? And so you negotiate and you come to an agreement? And do people generally tend to stick with it? Or do you find that some people are just too obnoxious to do that? **Lawrence Eichen ** 48:03 Oh, actually, I've actually been very successful on that, at least the case is, I can't speak for anybody else's doing it. But from my experience, I had been very successful. In fact, they used to refer the hardest cases to me, because I had the reputation of being able to resolve these things. And so yeah, I would say, my track record in those disputes, I'd say was very high to get people to resolve only a couple of times I can remember, you know, where it was just like, there was just no way this thing is gonna get resolved, then we gave it our best shot. And they were going to have to go into court and just try to get it resolved that way. But most of the time, you know, over 90% of the time, they would actually resolve it. And what I would do is I would really make, I would take the extra time to make it known to them that they're signing a document, you know, that we're going to draft up that is going to hold them accountable. Now, I you know, I think there was only one time that I had them sign off on a document that later on one of the parties violated it. And it had to come back to court for some other reason, you know, for that reason, but most of the time, once they really go through the process and recognize that it's in their best interest to resolve it. It gets resolved, they sign off on it. And that whole process seems to work because they don't really break that promise. At least. I never became aware of more than one case since I was doing it. I did it, you know, for 20 years. So it's a lot of times that I've done mediations and I think there was only one case that came back after we resolve it. **Michael Hingson ** 49:49 You developed a process I think you call it E equals MC five. **Lawrence Eichen ** 49:55 Yes, my formula for negotiation excellence. Yes. **Michael Hingson ** 49:57 What is that? **Lawrence Eichen ** 50:00 Actually, that is a formula that I came up with several years ago really based on my experience negotiating. And I designed it and modeled it after Einstein's theory of relativity, right, which is equal MC squared, you physics **Michael Hingson ** 50:15 guy, you **Lawrence Eichen ** 50:16 know, I'm not a Pinterest guy, I'm not, I wasn't, I did like, Man, I did like math, for sure. And that's why I went into computer science actually, probably because it's the same logic, you know, and solving problems. But physics, even though it's interesting was never my thing. But I did remember that formula did stick in my head for some reason. And when I used to talk about negotiating, and just, you know, talking to other people about a client's other attorneys, whatever you get into these conversations, I realized that I had a lot of the same initials as the Einstein formula. And so I thought, You know what, I think I can make this work by coming up with something simple, to say to that's memorable. And so equal MC to the fifth is really, it stands, the E stands for excellence, with the idea in order to get the results where we're shooting for, right, we're shooting for excellence. Okay, so that's the thing we're shooting for getting excellent results. But we're shooting to get excellent results on a consistent basis. Because the idea is anybody can show up and get an excellent result once in a while. And I've done that many times, I'll show up into court, I get an excellent result. It's not because I was doing anything fantastic. It's just the happen to ask for something. And you know, the prosecutor or the other attorney, or the judge, granted, whatever I was asking for, it wasn't because of anything great I did, or any kind of great negotiating I did. So you can get excellent results. Once in a while anybody can do that. It's about getting it on a consistent basis. And that's what the formula is really designed for, because the M in the formula stands for mastering. And we're going to master the five c, core components. And those five C's stand for commitment, confidence, courage, compassion, and calmness. And those five core components, all starting with the letter C, if you can master those five, you will get exponential results. That's the idea of having it to the fifth power, you get extra exponential negotiating results. Because if you think about it, if you're negotiating in front of somebody, and you sit down at a table, or conference room, or wherever the hallway or on the phone, and if you have a mindset where you are committed to your position, right, you're confident, you have the courage to ask for what you need to ask. And sometimes it does take courage to ask for things. And you have compassion, meaning whoever you're negotiating with, right, they can say whatever they want, they can be obnoxious to you, they can be insulting, it doesn't matter, you're going to stay in a position of compassion. And you can be calm, as you're handling objections, and push back. If you have all five of those things working for you. Just imagine your mindset when you're negotiating, you're gonna get excellent negotiating results. And so that formula is something that I talk about when I give presentations on mastering the art of negotiating. And I apply that formula, I go through each of those components, obviously in more detail and give examples and strategies and tips how to improve in each of those particular areas. And again, the concept is by mastering them. And you don't even have to master all five to see dramatic results. If you just, you know, master one or two of those and improve a little bit on the other ones, you'll see tremendous, tremendous results. So it doesn't you don't have to master all five. But the goal would be to be mastering all five of those and then you really see excellent results on a consistent basis. That's where their formulas **Michael Hingson ** 54:20 and I would think to a large degree calmness, as you point out, is not only one of those, but would probably in a sense be the most important to get some of the emotions to die down and get to really look at what's going on. **Lawrence Eichen ** 54:37 Yeah, I mean, that's a very good point. And you know, I I fluctuate between which one is the most important but the reality is, you know, they're all important. Yeah. being calm. Absolutely. There's times in a negotiating situation where calmness is so effective because as especially when you're negotiating, and you know, you don't want the other side to, you know, see you getting all anxious and nervous and stressed out, right, you want to be calm, just because you don't want to tip your own hand necessarily. But also, you don't want to fuel a potentially explosive, a volatile situation, depending on what you're negotiating about, right? Because we negotiate about all different things. And we could be negotiating, as I was talking about earlier about disputes between neighbors, those are certainly highly charged, very emotional. There's a lot of resentment and bitterness and anger and a lot of those types of disputes. Or you could just be negotiating on a very, you know, straightforward contract dispute, that may be so emotionally charged, but there's a lot of money involved and you want to be calm. When somebody's saying no or giving objections, you might be thinking internally, oh, my God, I really need this. To settle I need this deal. You know, I need to close this deal, I but you don't want to let that on, you want to be able to sort of like playing poker, right? You know, when you have a great hand, you don't want to let it on. When you don't have a great hand, you don't want to tip your hand either. You need to be calm at all times. And so to your point, yes, calm this is very effective. I like to think of calmness as a trait of leadership, right? Because when you're calm when you're negotiating, I always like to say that, often times, whether you're negotiating with a client, or customer or your spouse, business owner, anybody that you're negotiating with many times during a negotiation, the other side needs to be led to the conclusion that you want them to reach. So being calm is a position of leadership. And if you have very good points to make, and you have a lot of good reasons why whatever they're objecting to your position meets those objections. When you're calm, you're going to be way more effective in presenting your side, and you're going to simultaneously allay their fears and their concerns that they're raising with their objections, by your calmness, it's an energy, that if they see you not being all stressed out and bent out of shape, about their position, and you're really calm and effective in presenting yours, it can help persuade them into arriving at the conclusion where you're already at. So it's it's leadership, you're you know, that's why objections are really an opportunity for you to be a leader, it's an opportunity for you to lead that person back to where you want them to go. And, you know, it's like sports, right? Who do you want taking the the last shot of the game? You want the guy who's going to be calm under pressure, not the person who's going to be reacting and stressing out so much. **Michael Hingson ** 58:17 One of the things that you talk about I know and you've, you mentioned, to me is the whole idea and the whole issue of imposter syndrome. Can you talk a little bit about that? **Lawrence Eichen ** 58:27 Yeah, sure. Yeah, imposter syndrome is a very interesting issue. I definitely relate to it personally, because I felt impostor syndrome for so many years, in my legal career. And first of all, what it is if anybody who's listening or watching is not familiar with it, it's basically this fear of being exposed, that you're a fraud or you're an imposter. And a hand in hand with that is usually this fear that you're going to be found out to be not as competent or not as qualified as other people think you are. So that's where this this this concept of being an imposter, right? And a lot of what goes with impostor syndrome. So for somebody who's experiencing it, is that they tend to attribute their successes, their achievements to external factors, rather than owning their own achievements. And what do I mean by that, like external factors, that could be like luck, or chance, you know, somebody might get a great result. And they might just attribute that success to Well, I just happen to be in the right place at the right time, or I just had the right connection. I knew the right person. And when they say they say things like that to themselves, they're really disowning their own skills, their own qualifications, and they're attributing this success to something external from themselves. And that external factor is not just luck or chance, it could also be, you know, their personality, their charm. You know, for me, I can even share an example when I used to go into court and get a great result. Sometimes driving home in the car, or driving back to the office, I should say, I'm replaying what went on. And I'm thinking, you know, I got the result, because I was personable, I was making the judge laugh a little bit that day, I was, you know, I was diminishing my own skill, or my own competency. And I was kind of thinking, the reason I got the result was probably because he liked me more than the preparation, I did more than the arguments that I made. And that's a classic example of like diminishing your own skills, and attributing your success to that personality or charm. And you can extend that to gender, race, ethnicity, age, even even handicap, you know, why? Why is somebody in the position they are in? Why did they get the results? Well, maybe it's because let's say for women, very common, women might think, Well, I only got this high profile position, because there's no other women in the company that are in these high profile positions. So even though the woman might be completely qualified and skilled and competent, she might be thinking to herself if she's dealing with impostor syndrome type issues. So you might be thinking, the only reason I got it was because I'm a female, I'm a woman, and had nothing to do with my skills and competencies. And so again, it's externalizing our own successes, and attributing them to external factors. That's just what it is. That's sort of the definition of impostor syndrome. **Michael Hingson ** 1:01:48 So it sounds like you've had to deal with some because you just talked about it when you're driving back from trial and so on. So is it something that you have had to contend with? **Lawrence Eichen ** 1:01:58 Yeah, many times. It started with me, honestly, when I was in law school, I didn't have a here's the thing I didn't know it's called impostor syndrome. So I only found that out, maybe I don't remember when, maybe 510 years ago, I'm guessing. But I never heard of that. But I had the symptoms of this stuff without knowing what it was. But when I was in law school, the first way I used to feel like an imposter was because I was a computer programmer. Right? So I was really a programmer. And now I was in law school with all these law students who in my mind chose to be there. Because they wanted to be lawyers. I'm in here thinking I didn't know what else to do with myself. I'm really a programmer. I'm not really a person who reads books and studies like that. I'm a programmer. So I started to feel that in law school, and then when I was practicing law, even having graduated from law school and passing the bar and being qualified to be a lawyer, would now when I was in court very early on in my career, I'm worried when I'm in front of a judge, like, he's gonna ask me questions, and I don't know the answers to them. And I'm going to look foolish and stupid and not smart enough. And it was like kind of bringing back childhood stuff, because my father used to make me feel that way. And it was like, oh my god, now I'm in front of all these older men that are going to be quizzing me and making me feel like I don't know anything. So there was that fear, like I was going to be found out. You know, that's that feeling like, Oh, my God, I'm fooling everybody that's part of imposter syndrome is like, you're you feel like you're fooling everybody. And so I was always believing I was getting away with it. When I would go to court, even though I got good results. Those results weren't being owned by me the way I was describing earlier, they were really being attributed to external factors. So I'm just going along all the time believing that I'm this, you know, impostor, I'm not really a lawyer. So like, when I would be negotiating with prosecutors and other attorneys that have more experienced than me, I'm on guard thinking, Oh, my God, I'm gonna look so foolish. And somebody's gonna finally go, ah, we are not really a lawyer. What are you doing here? You're a programmer, you know, or something like that. And like, of course, that would never happen. But I'm thinking in my head, like, there's this feeling like I'm going to be exposed. So yeah, to answer your question definitely experienced it a long time without knowing what it really was. **Michael Hingson ** 1:04:28 He regarded as a

Credit ratings are one of the foundations of modern credit markets — and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners wants in on the action.Several months ago, the regulatory association announced plans to adjust the capital charges for insurance companies investing in CLO debt and equity, by developing an in-house rating methodology instead of relying on the big three agencies.The plans were already controversial within the CLO industry. But in a recent update, the NAIC has expanded the scope of these new rules, sparking broader outrage from industry observers as well as several Republicans on the House Financial Services committee.The NAIC says it's looking to prevent “regulatory arbitrage”, but critics see the rules as a “land grab” for rating fees. For this week's podcast, Will Caiger-Smith sits down with US deputy editor David Bell to unpack the controversy.

We're all tired of politics, but decisions constantly being made that affect our livelihood as agency owners. Shane and Tonya discuss electing or appointing commissioners, the long-term effects of regulation, and free market versus government control. Learn more at iaforward.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Andrew N. Mais was nominated by Governor Ned Lamont to be Connecticut's 33rd Insurance Commissioner. Mais is President-Elect and has served on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners since 2021. He currently serves on the International Relations, Property & Casualty, and Financial Regulation Standards committees. He also serves on the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) Macroprudential and Executive Committees and on their Insurance Capital Standards Task Force. The IAIS is the international standard-setting body responsible for developing and assisting in the supervision of the insurance sector. Mais has led discussions in several forums on race, diversity, and inclusion at the state level and within the insurance industry and in insurance practices. He has also joined the efforts led by Governor Ned Lamont and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz to address social inequities in Connecticut, including the Council on Women and Girls and cultural competency initiatives. Mais is also Co-Chair of the NAIC's Special Executive Committee on Race and Insurance, charged with conducting research and analyzing issues of diversity and inclusion within the insurance sector. Mais previously was a member of Deloitte's Center for Financial Services, providing industry-leading thought leadership and insight on US and international regulatory affairs. Prior to that, he was a Director at the New York State Insurance Department. There he served four governors as part of the Department's senior leadership team through numerous events including the financial crisis of 2008 and major state and federal changes in health insurance regulations and laws. Even outside the government, Mais dedicated much of his life to public service. He most recently served as chair of the Council on Ethics for the town of Wilton, CT, where he lives. Other recent service includes the Maritime Aquarium of Norwalk; the American Red Cross; the Board of Finance of the Town of Wilton; and the Rotary Club of Wilton.  Highlights from the Show Commissioner Mais opened with the mentality that they are open at the Department, and that we are all in this together across the industry He believes we do not do a good job marketing ourselves as an industry and how much it has to offer people He has been on the regulator side through some major challenges in the industry, including the Great Financial Crisis and COVID Thinking about how to be innovative and supportive of change, you have to start at the core mission of regulators to protect consumers and the industry to protect people and help them recover from loss Regulators also have to protect competition and health in the market, and that takes innovation A precursor of innovation is a willingness and appetite to fail He's seeing a movement to reduce friction, like easier Life insurance pre-underwriting processes to a move to risk mitigation like we're seeing on Cyber The Department in Connecticut is keeping this in mind as they consider the flexibility they need to support these efforts Connecticut has been very collaborative and supportive of innovation in the industry, which Commissioner Mais sees as a function of a number of things, including the level of education in the state, the amount of insurance activity in the state, decisions of the administration to collaborate across departments and with business, etc Climate Change is on his mind, given that CT has the second highest concentration of coastal insured property in the country, so he's not just looking at access to insurance but also efforts to reduce exposure through smarter building decisions, mitigating actions, etc. States, being independent of each other and not part of a federal regulatory system, are all experimenting, trying things, and sharing their experience with each other As President-elect of the NAIC, Commissioner Mais sees the federated model of state regulation being a big contributor to the health and strength of the industry He leaves with the idea of Collaboration and working together as central to the future of the industry; an us vs. them mentality will not work That means every party needs to come together – consumers, companies, regulators – and see how we can get to Yes on ideas that are of genuine benefit in helping people get protected This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance Volume III. The Collaborators, part of the Future of Insurance thought leadership series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

In this podcast, we interview a consultant and a leading patient advocate to better understand and explore the challenges of copay accumulator and maximizer programs for specialty drugs. We discuss the difference between the two programs and their impact on the various stakeholders including the overwhelming burden placed on patients. We also discuss the legal issues and potential policy changes that could eliminate these programs or minimize their impact on patients. Ultimately, our goal is to shed light on this important issue and identify strategies for improving access to critical medications for patients who need them. Carl Schmid, Executive Director, HIV And Hepatitis Policy Institute Lauren Crawford Shaver, Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting HIV And Hepatitis Policy Institute FTI Consulting President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) What are co pay maximizers? Like this episode and want to here more? Check out our past episodes here! Do you have a prescription for better access? Share your ideas with us at comments@prescriptionforbetteraccess.com Follow us on social media! We’re on YouTube, LinkedIn and @RX4BetterAccess (X)

Insurance regulators are important partners as insurers offer consumers new services that move beyond detect and repair to Predict & Prevent. Guest host Frank Tomasello, executive director of The Institutes' Griffith Foundation, speaks with Elizabeth Kelleher Dwyer, Director of the Department of Business Regulation for Rhode Island, and Andrew Mais, Insurance Commissioner for Connecticut, on how they each balance consumer protection without stifling innovation.Segment 1: (00:03:06) Frank and Director Dwyer, who also serves as the top insurance regulator in Rhode Island and is chair of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (H) Working Group, discuss how insurers cannot respond to growing risks alone, encouraging consumer resilience, regulatory embrace of technology and innovation, clarifying rebating laws for mitigation, and working closely with insurtechs.Segment 2: (00:18:55) Frank and Commissioner Mais, President-elect of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, explore the challenges posed by climate risks, the value of a more collaborative approach, how consumers benefit from innovation, the ROI of risk mitigation, promoting consumer education about risk, and working toward a better future.

Buying insurance can be confusing, but it's an important process to help protect yourself and your loved ones. In this episode of Edelman Financial Engines' Everyday Wealth™, Jean and wealth planner Andy Smith discuss how to determine how much life insurance you may need using a simple formula. They also dive into disability insurance and the types of policies and costs associated with it. Later, Robert Bain, the insurance senior manager at Edelman Financial Engines, joins the podcast to explain the ins and outs of long-term care insurance and why it's so important to have, given that more than 55 million Americans are expected to require long-term care in the next 30 years.   This show is pre-recorded, and any callers are prescreened. Ms. Chatzky receives cash compensation for acting as host of the Everyday Wealth radio show and podcast and for related activities and therefore has an incentive to endorse Edelman Financial Engines and its planners.  That compensation is a fixed sum paid on an annual basis; and reimbursement for certain expenses.  The amount paid each year does not vary, is not based on show content or any results-dependent factors (e.g., popularity of the show). The information being provided is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. You should consult with a financial advisor to help determine the best options for your particular circumstances. This presentation contains mentions of third-party insurance companies, which are unaffiliated with EFE and its affiliates.  For more information about insurance options, or to order a copy of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' free booklet, "A Shopper's Guide to Long-Term Care Insurance," visit InsureUOnline.org or call (866) 470-NAIC. Neither Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C. nor any of its advisors sell insurance products. Edelman Financial Engines affiliates may receive insurance-related compensation for the referral of insurance opportunities to third parties if individuals elect to purchase insurance through those third parties. You are encouraged to review this information with your insurance agent or broker to determine the best options for your particular circumstances. Neither Edelman Financial Engines nor its affiliates offer tax or legal advice. Although the information has been gathered from sources believed to be reliable, we do not guarantee its accuracy or completeness. Interested parties are strongly encouraged to include your qualified tax and/or legal professionals in these discussions and decisions to help determine the best options for your particular circumstances.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Martin Grace, professor of risk, insurance, and healthcare management at Temple University, and Jingshu Luo, assistant professor of finance at the University of Mississippi, join the Business Scholarship Podcast to discuss their article The Market for Model Laws: The Diffusion of NAIC's Model Laws, which they co-authored with Charlotte Alexander of Georgia State University. In this article, the authors investigate pathways of state adoption of model insurance laws promulgated by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. This episode is hosted by Andrew Jennings, assistant professor at Brooklyn Law School, with editing by Christina Brown, a third-year student at Brooklyn Law School.

In this Fight Back minicast, we jump into the complex world of long-term care insurance and what that really means. Our special guest is Bonnie Burns, who has more than 40 years of experience in long-term care insurance and works to improve consumer protections in state and federal legislation and regulations. She has served as a consumer representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners since 1992. She is a consultant to California Health Advocates providing training, educational materials, and technical assistance on long-term care insurance. Let's find out if consumers really need long-term care insurance.

How an Insurer Can Succeed With Professional Claims Handlers Read the full article here: http://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/EXCELLENCE.pdf. The Need for Change The insurance business must change—this time for the better—if it is to survive. Insurers must rethink the firing of experienced claims staff and reductions in training to save “expenses” recognizing that the expense to train, educate and maintain a staff of professional claims handlers, is a small part of the money that flows out of an insurer's coffers. The major expense is the cost to pay claims. When inadequate or inexperienced adjusters pay claims the insurer did not owe, refuse to pay claims it did owe, or pays more than is appropriate, the potential for an insurer to make a profit is reduced much more than is saved by reducing the expense incurred by paying a professional claims staff. Insurers should, if they wish to succeed, adopt a program to promote excellence in claims handling. Only with a staff of claims handlers dedicated to excellence in claims handling can insurers promptly, fairly and in good faith keep the promises made by the insurance policy and avoid charges of breach of contract and the tort of bad faith in both first and third party claims. Insurers must understand that they cannot adequately fulfill the promises they make to their insureds and their obligations under fair claims practices acts without a professional, well trained and experienced claims staff. An insurer must work vigorously and intelligently to create a professional claims department or recognize it will lose its market and any hope of profit. A Proposal to Create Claims Professionals To avoid claims of breach of contract, bad faith, punitive damages, unresolved losses, and to make a profit, insurers must, in my opinion, maintain a claims staff dedicated to excellence in claims handling. They must recognize that they, as representatives of the insurer, are obligated to assist the policyholder and the insurer to fulfill all the promises made by the insurer in the wording of the policy. An insurer can create a claims staff dedicated to excellence in claims handling by, at least: If any experienced claims professionals exist on the insurer's staff, the insurer must cherish and nurture them and use their experience and professionalism to train new claims people. If none are available, the insurer has no option but to train its people from scratch using available materials produced by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the State's Department of Insurance, Insurance associations, and professionals who have – for a reasonable fee – the ability to properly and effectively train claims personnel. (C) 2023 Barry Zalma --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/barry-zalma/support

Is there unclaimed money out there with your name on it? These are usually things like insurance benefits or inheritances and some of it might be yours. And finding it might be easier than you think. We'll talk about it on this Faith and Finance. We want to be clear that we're not encouraging you to have a “get rich quick” attitude about this. Proverbs 13:11 warns, “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.”If you do find unclaimed money in your name, we hope you'll manage it wisely. Let's start with life insurance policies. They're lost more often than you think. Sometimes survivors aren't aware that a policy exists. Paperwork gets lost. Important insurance papers might accidentally get tossed.The National Association of Insurance Commissioners — or NAIC — says that each year, millions of dollars in insurance benefits go unclaimed. So how do you find out if you're the beneficiary of a lost insurance policy?The NAIC has an online tool called the Life Insurance Policy Locator Service. It lets you search nationwide for policies and annuities left behind by deceased family members and friends.You'll need a death certificate to get started. Then you type in some basic information, the deceased's Social Security number, full legal name, date of birth, and date of death.If there's a match, the insurance company holding the policy will contact you within 90 days— that is, if you're a designated beneficiary or legal representative of the deceased.Since 2016, the Policy Locator Service has matched over a billion dollars in benefits to the folks who should get them.Now, since all insurance is regulated at the state level, several states have their own lost policy locator services. You can check directly with the State Insurance Commissioner in the state where the deceased lived to see what additional search options are available. Get contact information for state insurance commissioners.You might be wondering how insurance benefits go unclaimed. Life insurance companies have access to databases that alert them when a policyholder dies, but that doesn't mean they always find the beneficiaries. If you're a designated beneficiary on a policy and the company can't locate you, they're required to turn those funds over to the unclaimed property office in the state where the deceased lived. That office is generally located in the state's treasury department, so that's another place to check for unclaimed benefits and other assets. Many states have online tools to help you identify unclaimed property in your name.Now, if you're a policyholder, you can save your loved ones a lot of grief by taking some preventive steps. Keep your beneficiary designations up to date and make sure the insurer has their latest contact information.Let the beneficiaries know they're named in your policy and give them contact information for your insurer and agent.And always keep the latest copy of your policy with your estate papers, and a great place to store those documents is in a fireproof safe.Okay, now let's say there actually is unclaimed money out there with your name on it, insurance benefits or otherwise. You may not even know about it. This could be almost any type of unclaimed funds, like pension plans, 401k's, bank accounts, IRS refunds, and savings bonds. There might be un-cashed checks, CDs, trust funds, utility deposits, stocks and bonds, wages, and even the contents of safe deposit boxes.There's another great resource for tracking down those assets. People move around a lot, and it's possible to have assets in several states. So a good place to start is at MissingMoney.com. It's sponsored by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators and allows you to search more than one state at a time.When there's a match in any state, MissingMoney.com gives you information and links to official websites where you can file a claim.And finally, the federal government also has a tool for tracking down unclaimed money that Uncle Sam, or anyone else might owe you. You can access it here. This includes tax refunds, benefits from VA life insurance policies, court settlements, bankruptcies, and more. So now if there's money out there in your name, you know how to find it. On this program, Rob also answers listener questions: When does it make sense to reallocate money from a 529 account? How do you determine the best way to balance retirement savings with paying off a mortgage? Do you have to pay tax on inherited money? How do you determine if it's wise to buy a home right now? Remember, you can call in to ask your questions most days at (800) 525-7000. Also, visit our website at FaithFi.com where you can join the FaithFi Community, and give as we expand our outreach.  

Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 740 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more 18 MINS Following a 20-year career as a corporate public relations executive, Wendell Potter left his position as head of communications for CIGNA, one of the nation's largest health insurers, to show the world the dark inner workings of the insurance industry. Check out his new documentary : American Hospitals: Healing a Broken System He has testified before Senate and House committees, briefed several members of Congress and their staffs, appeared with lawmakers at several press conferences, spoken at more than 100 public forums, and has been the subject of numerous articles in the U.S. and foreign media. His recent book – Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans – is an expose of health insurers and a stark warning that corporate spin is distorting our democracy. Currently a senior analyst at the The Center for Public Integrity, a non-partisan nonprofit that produces original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern, Wendell is also the senior fellow on health care for the Center for Media and Democracy, an independent, non-partisan public interest organization. He speaks out on the need for a fundamental overhaul of the American health care system and on the dangers to American democracy and society of the decline of the media as watchdog, which has contributed to the growing and increasingly unchecked influence of corporate PR. He also serves as a consumer liaison representative for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. 42 MINS Baynard Woods is a writer and journalist based in Baltimore. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Oxford American Magazine, and many other publications. He is coauthor, with Brandon Soderberg, of I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Corrupt Police Squad. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy and has worked as an educator in a variety of settings. He has written opera libretti for Rhymes with opera and writes and sings with the Barnyard Sharks. Go watch the new film "I got a monster" Check out all things Jon Carroll Follow and Support Pete Coe Pete on YouTube Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page

NAHU submitted a comment letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners this week regarding proposed changes to the NAIC's Unfair Trade Practices Model Act, a law that regulates each state's insurance industry. On this week's episode of the Healthcare Happy Hour, Marcy M. Buckner discusses the NAIC's proposed amendments as well as the questions and concerns we submitted to the association.

NAHU submitted a comment letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners this week regarding proposed changes to the NAIC's Unfair Trade Practices Model Act, a law that regulates each state's insurance industry. On this week's episode of the Healthcare Happy Hour, Marcy M. Buckner discusses the NAIC's proposed amendments as well as the questions and concerns we submitted to the association.

NAHU submitted a comment letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners this week regarding proposed changes to the NAIC's Unfair Trade Practices Model Act, a law that regulates each state's insurance industry. On this week's episode of the Healthcare Happy Hour, Marcy M. Buckner discusses the NAIC's proposed amendments as well as the questions and concerns we submitted to the association.

According to insurance claim data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the single biggest complaining consumers made was about unsatisfactory settlement offers. Experiencing an event such as a home fire, theft in home or flood is stressful enough, the claims process shouldn't add to it. In this episode of The Agent of Wealth Podcast, host Marc Bautis is joined by Galen Hair, Owner of Insurance Claim HQ, a practice dedicated to fighting for the rights of policyholders when they experience a loss due to fire, flood, hurricane or from the insurance company not keeping their word. Through property-casualty insurance claims, Galen and his team have helped over 800 families rebuild their homes and businesses. In this episode, you will learn:An overview of how the insurance claims process works.The top challenges that customers face when partaking in a claims process.What to do if you disagree with an insurance adjuster.How the insurance claims process has changed over the years.How a property casualty insurance attorney can assist in challenges throughout the claims process.And more!Resources:Episode Transcript & Blog | ​​insuranceclaimhq.com | (844) CLAIM-84 | Bautis Financial: 7 N Mountain Ave Montclair, New Jersey 07042 (862) 205-5000

The Florida Legislature in a May special session passed a series of reforms to help stabilize a property insurance market that has seen a growing number of carriers stop writing business or becoming insolvent.  Homeowners rates keep growing by double-digits and coverage is increasingly difficult to obtain. Former Florida Deputy Insurance Commissioner Lisa Miller talks with a lawmaker who was one of the handful of leaders behind the reforms and the head of a litigation analytics firm on whether the two new laws will help re-right the marketplace and lower homeowners rates - and what further reform is most needed next. Show NotesFlorida's newest property insurance and consumer reforms build on legislation passed in 2019 and 2021.  The two new laws (SB 2-D & SB 4-D) target excessive litigation, contractor solicitation abuse, and provide $2 billion in no-cost reinsurance coverage to carriers to improve the affordability and availability of insurance coverage.  More than 12 companies have stopped writing new business since January.  Another seven companies have become insolvent since 2019 - six in just the past 12 months.  “This was a matter of first aid to save a dying patient, which was Florida's property insurance market but there's absolutely still more to do,” said Representative David Smith (R-Winter Springs) who supported the two bills that became law and took effective immediately on May 26, 2022.  “There are some homeowners that the legislation is going to help immediately.  But longer term, I think homeowners will see lower rates and an impact of the rates going up less because of the stabilization of the market….we're on the right track.”According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' data, as reported by state Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier, Florida has 9% of all homeowners insurance claims in the US yet has 79% of all homeowners insurance claims lawsuits.  The number of property insurance lawsuits in the state has increased 363% in the past nine years.  The current excesses are driven by fraudulent roof claims.  “A lot of the new measures are litigation related with the intent that either the laws will reduce the lawsuit amounts or reduce the cost of each lawsuit to the insurance industry, which would then translate to lower insurance premiums for Floridians,” said Wesley Todd, CEO of CaseGlide, a Tampa-based litigation analytics and software firm serving the insurance industry.  He noted the real question is exactly when rates will come down given the reforms will take time to be reflected in renewal policies over the coming months.  Insurance companies and their reinsurers will then want to see “years of data” that suggests litigation costs are under control.  “I believe that lawmakers still have one more thing left to do, which is get rid of the attorney fees statute, which is the structure that incentivizes attorneys to sue insurance companies.  I think until they do that, we won't actually start to see rates for Floridians decrease.”Florida's attorney fees statute (627.428 f.s.) requires an insurance company pay attorney fees when the policyholder prevails in a lawsuit against the company.  It has helped in catastrophes such as 1992's devastating Hurricane Andrew, to encourage representation “so that consumers would have a level playing field,” host Miller said.  “What has happened is that there are contractors who use that statute to their own benefit and will have their favorite partner, a plaintiff lawyer, and they become a team, once the consumer is kind of marginalized, if you will.”Rep. Smith said the new reforms prohibit awards of attorney fees to contractors or other assignees of an Assignment of Benefits (AOB) contract.  “Again, we've got to do more.  And the legislature never wants to deny the consumer, that homeowner the ability to get an attorney and be represented and get their day in court,” he said.  While Florida has weather issues to deal with that can impact insurance rates, “it's the litigation costs that are driving these rates up and why reinsurance companies don't want to take the actuarial risk of having all this litigation in Florida.  It's not the hurricanes they fear, it's the trial lawyer,” Rep. Smith said.Todd agreed and said the “surgical approach” the legislature rightfully utilized in the 2019 and 2021 reforms was meant to solve the litigation problem without getting rid of the attorney fees statue, but that hasn't worked.  “If we put a lot of loopholes and obstacles in front of the plaintiff attorneys, but they get paid to jump through those loopholes because they get paid for all their attorney fees, then are they really obstacles?  They're things that actually create more revenue for the attorneys because they're being paid to jump through hoops,” Todd argued.“It's not the $35,000 roof that is the burden on the insurance company,” added Rep. Smith.  “It's the $150,000 or $200,000 in attorney fees that they get paid.  That's what creates the litigation risk.”  He discussed his idea of creating a blue ribbon commission to meet outside the time constraints of the legislature's annual 60-day session and five weeks of prior committee meetings to collect data, benchmark other states' efforts, and “to get everybody that has a vested interest in solving the problem to everybody that's part of the problem to come together to be part of the solution,” Rep. Smith said.  In the meantime, Senator Jim Boyd (R-Bradenton) who chairs the Insurance and Banking Committee is expected to hold workshops this summer to provide more information and data that some lawmakers complained they didn't have during the special session.Host Miller and her guests also discussed what wasn't in the new reform laws: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the state-created and taxpayer-backed “insurer of last resort.”  Its policy count is rapidly approaching one million as private insurance companies have gone insolvent or shed policies because of underwriting losses.  It under-market rates and growing policy count burden will subject the rest of Florida's policyholders across almost all insurance lines (including automobile & surplus lines) to pay a special assessment if Citizens runs out of money to pay claims, as it did during the spate of 8 hurricanes during the 2004-2005 season.Host Miller agreed with both of her guests that the legislature needs to eliminate the attorney fees statute.  She said lawmakers should also go beyond the roof deductible option that consumers can access as part of the new law and instead require actual cash value for roof replacement as 40 other states do.  She also advocates for elimination of AOB contracts and reform of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund that could save homeowners an estimated average $150 a year on their premium.Links and Resources Mentioned in this EpisodeCaseGlideRepresentative David SmithSB 2-D & SB 4-D (bills covering the 2022 reforms)Final Special Session 2022 Florida Legislature Bill Watch (Lisa Miller & Associates)Florida Statutes section 627.428 (on attorney fees)Top 20 Attorneys Filing Property Insurance Lawsuits - 2022 Q1 (Florida Department of Financial Services, April 2022)Florida Insurance Industry's Litigation, 2013-2021 (Citizens Property Insurance Corporation)Top 10 Florida Domestic Insurers Net Income Losses (from Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, March 2022)Private Insurance Industry Cumulative Rate Filings 2020-2021 (from Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, March 2022)Florida's 2019 AOB Reform (HB 7065) (Lisa Miller & Associates)Florida's 2021 Litigation & Solicitation Reform (SB 76) (Lisa Miller & Associates)Florida's 2022 Litigation Reform & Consumer Protections (SB 2-D & SB 4-D) (Lisa Miller & Associates)CFO/Department of Financial Services Insurance Consumer Helpline (1-877-693-5236)** The Listener Call-In Line for your recorded questions and comments to air in future episodes is 850-388-8002 or you may send email to LisaMiller@LisaMillerAssociates.com **The Florida Insurance Roundup from Lisa Miller & Associates, brings you the latest developments in Property & Casualty, Healthcare, Workers' Compensation, and Surplus Lines insurance from around the Sunshine State.  Based in the state capital of Tallahassee, Lisa Miller & Associates provides its clients with focused, intelligent, and cost conscious solutions to their business development, government consulting, and public relations needs.  On the web at www.LisaMillerAssociates.com or call 850-222-1041.  Your questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome!  Date of Recording 6/22/2022. Email via info@LisaMillerAssociates.com   Composer: www.TeleDirections.com  © Copyright 2017-2022 Lisa Miller & Associates, All Rights Reserved 

Insurance is an industry that is overseen and regulated primarily at the state level. Each of the fifty states and the District of Columbia have insurance departments or agencies that oversee that state's insurance business. The states are members of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (the “NAIC”). The NAIC has various committees and working groups that address issues of importance to the industry. In addition, there are federal acts and laws that apply to the insurance industry, including the Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”) and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLB”) governing privacy. The federal and state regulatory agencies interact with the industry on a regular basis and review and approve a variety of industry matters. Listen to this podcast to learn more about those interrelationships and how the industry and regulators interact at NAIC meetings and in general. Featuring: Geoff Baker, General Counsel, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) Cate Paolino, Director of Public Policy, NAMIC Hosted by: Dan Cotter, Attorney & Counselor, Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC

The Florida Legislature has passed a property insurance reform bill designed to stem double-digit rate increases, costly claims practices, and excessive litigation.  While the bill awaits the Governor's expected signature into law, there are questions about just how effective it will really be.Host Lisa Miller, a former Florida Deputy Insurance Commissioner, talks with a leading state Senator and a veteran insurance defense attorney and legal strategist on what the measure does and doesn't do – and its expected impact on Florida consumers.Show NotesOver the past 18 months, Florida's residential and commercial property insurance market has seen a growing number of policy cancellations and non-renewals, greater coverage restrictions, and regulatory approval of necessary double-digit rate increases, some as high as 50%.Senate bill SB 76 changes the calculation of attorney fees and restricts solicitation of roof damage claims, requires claims be filed within two years and requires that insurance companies receive a ten-day presuit notice in first-party litigation.  It also directs state regulators to collect insurance claims and litigation data annually.  (For a complete summary of the bill, click Lisa's 2021 Bill Watch.)State Senator Jeff Brandes (R-Pinellas County) voted in favor of the bill, which was watered-down in the last week of session, but warned colleagues on the Senate floor that it was just a 40% solution for what is needed to restore a competitive property insurance market and lower costs.  “We have a rash of roof claims across Florida.  The two things that we really needed to deal with were attorney fees and roof issues… most of that is missing (from the bill),” he shared on the podcast.The bill changes the decades-old one-way attorney fee statute formula.  If the claimant recovers at least 50% of the disputed amount, full attorney fees would be awarded; less than 20%, then there would be no attorney fees.  Judgments between 20% and 50% would merit the same proportional attorney fee to the percentage of the disputed amount obtained. “The attorney fee provision is a step in the right direction,” said John Henley, Vice President and Head of Claims Shared Services at UPC Insurance, one of the largest writers of homeowners insurance in Florida.  “It's so much better than the current paradigm, where if a claimant gets a judgement of a penny more than the insurance company offered, they get all their attorney fees paid, and even more.”  And the bill's required ten-day notice before being sued, “is better than nothing, which is what we have now, where we settle the claim and think everything is fine and then they sue us and don't tell us what they're demanding,” Henley added.Senator Brandes, a champion for insurance reform in the Florida Legislature, said he hopes the provisions will bring all parties to the table and to act reasonably.  “Prior to this law, people had no incentive to be reasonable.  In fact, they had an incentive not to be reasonable.”Midway through the legislative session, Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier released a letter citing National Association of Insurance Commissioners data that showed in 2019, Florida had 8% of all homeowners' claims in the U.S., yet 76% of all homeowners' claims lawsuits.  The letter “completely changed the dynamics and the tone of our colleagues in the House, because it's indefensible,” said Brandes.  “It's also unsustainable.  That's largely what's driving both the cost of insurance but also the investors out of the market.”Henley, a longtime claims attorney, said the one-way attorney fee law is the reason behind the startling statistic.   He said another provision in the bill requiring insurance companies annually report to regulators their litigation figures, loss cost, and adjusting cost, will lead to greater transparency of the problem.  “When the state starts to get that information and they (regulators) truly see behind the veil of how much money this industry, this litigation economy in Florida is taking from carriers and ultimately insureds, that will be the kick-start to get the other 60% that we want done, done,” Henley said.“People are essentially paying a hidden tax on property insurance that they're paying through their insurer to the trial bar and that's what's causing all of these problems,” Brandes added.Both guests pointed out that while the bill's changes in law take effect July 1, the effects will take 12-24 months to make their way through carriers' books of business.  That leaves insurance companies to continue to face these challenges and consumers facing skyrocketing premiums, along with other market factors such as record-high lumber prices and the next two hurricane seasons.  “In the meantime, Citizens Property Insurance (the state's insurer of last resort) will likely grow to more than one million policies in the next two years,” said Brandes, putting taxpayers at risk of having to cover any potential reserve shortages that could occur in a future super storm or series of storms.  Henley also predicts “a deluge of litigation” between now and when the law takes effect July 1 that he says the industry is already starting to see.  He likewise sees limited impacts of the new law itself.  “You're dealing with a very creative plaintiff bar here in Florida.  So we need to see this bill play itself out in a court system that has been historically lenient toward plaintiffs.  I suspect we'll see a flattening of litigation only.”Even with SB-76, other challenges to Florida's property insurance market remain.  The aging roof problem, where solicitors go door to door encouraging claims for roofs that instead have normal wear and tear, was unaddressed in the final bill.  “We're already starting to see insurance companies pull away from writing coastal policies simply because they can't get the reinsurance or raise additional capital,” said Brandes. Host Miller noted that there are three main factors causing rising rates: excessive litigation, contractor fraud, and claims creep from past hurricanes, along with resulting reinsurance price increases.  “Consumers are really rising up and they are upset,” Miller said.  She and her guests talked about the need for the insurance industry to do a better job communicating to policyholders about the negative effects of door-to-door repair solicitations and lawsuits. “I live in South St. Petersburg and I love it,” said Henley.  “But I pay three times more for a house that is three times smaller than one of my best friends who lives in Atlanta, Georgia.  Why is that?  It's because of the claims litigation activity that is driven by these bad actors.”   He said the reporting requirement on carriers in the bill will prove “it's not a made-up crisis.”“This isn't a made-up issue, as some claim,” agreed Brandes.  “There's a real problem in Florida.  The insurance market is the Achilles heel of the state….and unless we get our hands around this problem, we're going to have real challenges going forward.  This effects everyone, whether you are renting, owning, or in a condo...We have begun to address the problem, but there's a lot more work to be done.”  “It's clear from our conversation here and from others we've had recently, that the legislative reform passed may have modest impacts on two of the foundations of insurance that are increasingly out of balance in Florida, availability and affordability,” concluded Miller.Links and Resources Mentioned in this EpisodeFlorida Senate bill SB 76Florida Legislature 2021 Bill Watch summary (Lisa Miller & Associates)Florida one-way attorney fee statuteFlorida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier's litigation statistics letterNational Association of Insurance Commissioners: The Cold, Hard Truth about Florida Litigation (LMA Newsletter of April 12, 2021)Senator Jeff Brandes Senate floor debate video (beginning at timecode 1:35:25, The Florida Channel)Senator Jim Boyd (sponsor of SB 76) Senate floor debate video (beginning at timecode 3:07:10, The Florida Channel)Insurance Costs Threaten Florida Real-Estate Boom (The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2021)Reforming Florida's broken insurance market (Inside P&C, April 12, 2021)Florida Domestic Property Insurers Summary of 2020 Year-End Financial ResultsFlorida's Property Insurance Dilemma (The Florida Insurance Roundup podcast, March 26, 2021)UPC InsuranceSenator Jeff Brandes Legislative WebpageDemotech Financial Stability Ratings for the Florida Domestic Market (March 12, 2021)Regulators Reject Citizens Rate Cap Request (LMA Newsletter of April 26, 2021)Several Factors Hinder Homeowner and Auto Glass Insurance Fraud Processing (Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, March 2021)Florida's P&C Market: Spiraling Toward Collapse (Guy Fraker, Cre8tfutures Advisory, January 2020)Florida's Property Insurance Market Is ‘Spiraling Towards Collapse' Due to Litigation: Report (Insurance Journal, January 20, 2021)Consumer Impact and Trends in Property and Automobile Insurance (Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate presentation to the Florida House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee, February 3, 2021, pages 37-45)Citizens Exposure Reduction and Depopulation Opportunities Analysis (Florida State University's Florida Catastrophic Storm Risk Management Center, November 2020)How a $41,000 Plumbing Leak Turned Into a $1.2 Million Attorney Fee (Lisa's Blog, March 12, 2020)Assignment of Benefits & Insurance Litigation Webpage (Lisa Miller & Associates)Floridians for Lawsuit Reform** The Listener Call-In Line for your recorded questions and comments to air in future episodes is 850-388-8002 or you may send email to LisaMiller@LisaMillerAssociates.com **The Florida Insurance Roundup from Lisa Miller & Associates, brings you the latest developments in Property & Casualty, Healthcare, Workers' Compensation, and Surplus Lines insurance from around the Sunshine State.  Based in the state capital of Tallahassee, Lisa Miller & Associates provides its clients with focused, intelligent, and cost conscious solutions to their business development, government consulting, and public relations needs.  On the web at www.LisaMillerAssociates.com or call 850-222-1041.  Your questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome!  Date of Recording 5/14/2021. Email via info@LisaMillerAssociates.com   Composer: www.TeleDirections.com  © Copyright 2017-2021 Lisa Miller & Associates, All Rights Reserved

Joan Zerkovich – Senior Vice President, Operations at AAIS (American Association of Insurance Services) and Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director of Hyperledger at the Linux Foundation join us to announce that the AAIS' OpenIDL is joining the Linux Foundation. In this episode we get an introduction to the AAIS, OpenIDL, the Linux Foundation and Hyperledger. We also discussed how OpenIDL will leverage the Linux Foundation unique approach to governance.   What is blockchain? Joan: distributed ledger technology is a technology that provides a way to have immutable records in the digital world, in a networked environment. Blockchain is used in a number of ways in addition to cryptocurrency, such as for business applications that require data security, privacy and an immutable record. OpenIDL uses blockchain to pursue a path of data security, privacy and transparency. Brian: blockchain is a shared system of record amongst participants in a commercial ecosystem. Brian, compares blockchain to the mid and late 90s when a group of folks were talking about free software and working on projects with no justifiable economic basis behind them such as the Apache Software project and the Linux project. Insurance have been conservative about adoption of new technologies, open source software and blockchain technology. However, Brian now thinks that insurers now see blockchain as solving some real problems, particularly problems created in understanding risk within a regulated environment. Blockchain helps organise an industry to solve a collective problem. A shared system of record, with automation through smart contracts is an essential part of solving these problems and doing that in an auditable and verifiable and, and regulatable way.   AAIS AAIS is a US based advisory organisation. In the United States, insurance is regulated at the state level. That poses some issues when you’re trying to offer insurance products nationally. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners or representatives from all the states got together and they said we need an organisation that can help them collect data on the insurance market and provide some perspective at the national level. They can use that data to develop products that can be filed in all 50 states to provide a common foundation for insurance companies to add value on top of that with some consistency across all 50 states. For the last 80 years AAIS has been authorised to collect data from the insurance carriers as an advisory organisation licenced in 50 states. AAIS is allowed to collect data that insurance companies wouldn’t be able to share between themselves due to antitrust concerns. AAIS uses that data to provide reports to the regulators and to develop products that they use.   Linux Foundation and Hyperledger 20 years the Linux ecosystem was composed of a number of open source contributors from RedHat, HP, IBM and thousands of other contributors. A consortium approach was set up as a home for the Linux project where the basic sustainability model was companies paying membership dues tiered by the size of the organisation. They weren’t pay for software development but paying for the coordination overhead, or as Brian calls it, the air traffic control function to all the different contributions coming in. After a few years there was a sense that this model was stable, that it was reliable and replicatable. The model was thus used for adjacent technology domains like cloud computing, software define networking and industry specific domains like automotive software. For each of these projects there is a clutch of companies who pay yearly membership dues to provide the core essentials, small staff to serve in that air traffic control function and coordinating functions. This has led to the creation of over 400 different projects. When Hyperledger started five years ago, it was started and continues to be managed in this kind of model where it has its ...

It is projected that about 70 percent of individuals over 65 will require at least some type of long-term care services during their lifetime, from help with everyday activities of daily living or requiring supervision due to severe impairments to needing placement in a nursing home. In this episode of Fight Back, we cover the state of long-term care in the country and the key issues surrounding insurance coverage: what is causing the skyrocketing rise in the cost of long-term care insurance plans, what are the new hybrid coverages that are packaged with life insurance policies, where can consumers find help with new or existing policies, and much more.Our special guest is Bonnie Burns, who has more than 40 years of experience in long-term care insurance and works to improve consumer protections in state and federal legislation and regulations. She has served as a consumer representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners since 1992. She is a consultant to California Health Advocates providing training, educational materials, and technical assistance on long-term care insurance.

The National Council of Insurance Legislators' president Representative Matt Lehman sits down with National Association of Insurance Commissioners' CEO and The Regulators host Mike Consedine.

Thank you nodebit for making Bowl After Bowl happen and to our executive producers for this episode: GWFF the KoK, Jason, Lavish, Fletcher, and The Reverend Cyber Trucker! Bowl After Bowl is a value for value podcast, meaning we are supported by the time, talent, and treasure of our listeners with no boring, soul-sucking advertisements. Spence brings some Lightning and Podcasting 2.0 update to bowlers after a Zoom call today with Adam Curry, Dave Jones and many of the other early developers in the Podcasting 2.0 ecosystem. New Jersey got 33 inches of snow this past week. A 33-year-old Florida man was arrested after failing to join the Islamic State, and there has been a 33% decrease in youth suicide despite the pandemic in Johnson County, Kansas. *ding ding ding* The magic number popped up in a bunch of Rona stories this week. A 100-year-old WWII vet who raised £33 million for NHS died after testing positive. COVID variants have been found in 33 states and 33 inmates have died in Oregon from the coof. Also, the CDC suggests stomping instead of cheering for the Kansas City Chiefs this Super Bowl Sunday. The National Labor Relations Board ruled that weed trimmers and grow room employees can't unionize because they qualify as agricultural laborers. Dispensary licenses were awarded in West Virginia, but most went to out-of-state companies. New Jersey advanced a "cleanup" bill with revised consequences for underage possession, which has been holding up their recreational market. A 33-year-old bat went viral and a teeny tiny reptile was discovered. Massachusetts police tell residents not to be intimidated by turkeys while 33 Antifa activists occupied a Washington hotel. Kansas ranks in the top five most boring states as judged by boring people, and the Budweiser Clydesdales will appear in a different beer ad this Sunday. 33-year-old Blake Lively says fashion designers couldn't dress her after she gave birth, which doesn't say much for their design skills, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' "birthday rule" left one Kansas couple with a $270,000 bill. We heard lots of great stories about the first time bowlers won a claw game. Next week's FTIE is the first time I ever went to the casino. Get your voicemails in day or night: (816) 607-3663

Whether you're an insurance consumer or professional, 2020 is providing lessons and insight into the changing Florida insurance market for 2021.  How can you get the best priced coverage for your needs?  And for insurance professionals, how can you better serve your customers now and in the long-run?Host Lisa Miller, a former Florida Deputy Insurance Commissioner, talks with Amy O'Connor of the Insurance Journal and Carol Williams, a strategy and risk consultant for insurance companies, on the qualities insurance consumers – and the professionals who serve them – need to have in 2021 to get the most out of their insurance. Show NotesWith the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest hurricane season on record in number of landfalls, a record-setting number of catastrophic events, growing insurance fraud, and double-digit homeowners insurance rate increases in Florida to name but a few, it's little wonder folks are feeling overwhelmed at times - and powerless.It's been a challenging year for insurance consumers.  Having an agent advocate is going to be more important than ever in 2021, according to Amy O'Connor, Southeast Editor of The Insurance Journal and Associate Editor of MyNewMarkets.com.  “I'm hearing a lot of stories of people not getting coverage renewed, huge rate increases, coverage being scaled down,“ said O'Connor.  Consumers may not understand what they're losing.  She advises to look at the policy and make sure you understand it or find someone who can help you.  “The age of your home, the condition of your roof, all these things are going to be important to consider as you move forward into renewing existing policy or going with another company,” said O'Connor, who has covered the Florida insurance beat for the past six years.Insurance companies are also being more proactive to help inform and educate consumers.  They're using different channels, including text messages and live chats, to focus on clear and helpful communication to policyholders, according to Carol Williams, Founder and CEO of Strategic Decision Solutions, based in Tallahassee, Florida.  Companies are also developing advanced strategies to combat insurance fraud by third-party contractors and an increase in lawsuits, both key drivers – together with lagging hurricane claims and reinsurance costs – of rapidly rising Florida property insurance rates.Williams said a growing number of insurance companies are starting their own repair programs, with a network of contractors ready to respond quickly to a policyholder's claim.  “Something that a lot of consumers overlook in thinking that the insurance companies are only out for themselves, is that the insurance company has skin in the game for making sure that your home is repaired correctly because they are still on the risk.  They will still be providing coverage to you after the claim.  They want to make sure it's being done right,” said Williams, an 18 year veteran of the insurance industry and a strategy and risk consultant for insurance companies. O'Connor said insurance is not something that consumers understand very well and they really don't want to learn a lot about it if they don't have to, yet it's something they have to have.  “But the moment has come where everybody needs to start paying attention,” she said. Host Miller noted that “homeowners are insuring their largest asset yet agents are frustrated at times trying to get their customer's attention.  Consumers need to take the time.”Part of the problem, Williams pointed out, is that property insurance is often dismissed as a once a year purchase paid out of the home mortgage escrow.  But it's “vital” that consumers take time to review their policies.  “Just like people are always focused on having health insurance, property insurance is for the health of your home.  People pour over their health insurance policy.  You need to do the same thing for your property insurance policy,” advised Williams. The podcast also discussed what insurance regulators can do, including setting the tone for the market and providing education about the actual insurance policy itself.  Available consumer education resources include the National Association for Insurance Commissioners, which has overviews of different policy coverages. Host Miller and guests also discussed COVID-19 and the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on insurance.  O'Connor said new procedures utilizing work-from-home technology for agents and remote claims handling practices in potential hurricanes will have a long-term benefit: greater adaptability and responsiveness to consumer needs, in an industry that can be slow to adapt to change.  “Consumers are changing the way they do their business, especially with insurance, and they are demanding more from the industry,” she said.COVID-19 has also accelerated the use of Insuretech, where consumers do everything on their phone or computer, from shopping for policies to signing-up for coverage.  “That is definitely the path that insurance is going,” said Williams.  “There are insurance companies in Florida that are specializing in that because they recognize that is a growing demand.  Consumer expectations are changing, so they know they need to adjust with it.”  There's a long-term benefit here, too.  Williams said the savings from avoiding some of the traditional manual labor of underwriting and claims are being passed along to consumers through lower premiums.“I see the 2021 consumer being more price-sensitive,” added host Miller.  “Prices of everything are going up in this time of COVID, including our insurance rates in Florida, and that's going to force the issue of people being more sensitive to know what they are buying and ask more questions.”  Among them: make sure you know what coverage you're getting for the price and the quality of the company that is backing the policy.  “Look at the financial ratings of the company, consumer complaints, do your research, and don't make your decision based just on price,” warns Williams.The podcast also touched on the upcoming 2021 session of the Florida Legislature.  Florida is experiencing accelerated homeowners insurance rates, due more to increased litigation and questionable claims, than catastrophes.  Regulators have approved about 100 rate increases in 2020, with a few close to 30%.  Several companies have also reduced the number of policies they write each month with some deciding to stop writing new business completely while they wait for the rates to catch up to the costs. The upcoming legislative session is going to be “hugely important” to the insurance market.  There will be bills to try to bring necessary reforms that are seen as consumer friendly.  O'Connor said Florida insurance consumers who are concerned about the rate increases, have more power than they may realize as constituents.  “People need to look at and decide ‘is this something that I want to support and that I need to reach out to my lawmakers, my insurance agents, and find out is this going to benefit me and help our rates in the long-term or is it just going to keep going down this path?' and it's a pretty scary path in terms of cost.”Links and Resources Mentioned in this EpisodeFlorida Property Insurance Market Inches Closer to Crisis – Part 1 and Part 2 (Insurance Journal, October 29-30, 2020)Strategic Decision SolutionsInsurance JournalMyNewMarkets.com National Association of Insurance Commissioners Consumer ResourcesBill Watch (Lisa Miller & Associates)Assignment of Benefits & Insurance Litigation (Lisa Miller & Associates)** The Listener Call-In Line for your recorded questions and comments to air in future episodes is 850-388-8002 or you may send email to LisaMiller@LisaMillerAssociates.com ** The Florida Insurance Roundup from Lisa Miller & Associates, brings you the latest developments in Property & Casualty, Healthcare, Workers' Compensation, and Surplus Lines insurance from around the Sunshine State.  Based in the state capital of Tallahassee, Lisa Miller & Associates provides its clients with focused, intelligent, and cost conscious solutions to their business development, government consulting, and public relations needs.  On the web at www.LisaMillerAssociates.com or call 850-222-1041.  Your questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome!  Date of Recording 12/14/2020. Email via info@LisaMillerAssociates.com   Composer: www.TeleDirections.com  © Copyright 2017-2020 Lisa Miller & Associates, All Rights Reserved

There Must be a Special Unit of Insurance Fraud Prosecutors in the Offices of the Attorneys General https://zalma.com/blog The legislatures of the various states, the United States Congress, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, The National Insurance Crime Bureau and insurance industry groups have finally decided that the war against insurance fraud is worth fighting. Until the states, the local police agencies, the district attorneys, the United States Attorneys, and the Attorneys General of the various states join in the battle it will be fought to a stalemate. The insurance industry cannot successfully fight insurance fraud alone. Insurance industry sources estimate insurance fraud from lows of $80,000,000,000 ($80 billion) a year to highs of $300,000,000,000 ($300 billion) a year. Regardless of which, if any, estimate is accurate the amount of money going to insurance criminals is staggering and approaches no less than 3% to 10% of premium collected. Every two weeks Zalma's Insurance Fraud Letter publishes lists of convictions. The major volume of such convictions deals with Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Basic property and casualty fraud convictions are seldom described except when the perpetrator confesses or pleads guilty. Few go to trial. Proposal Insurance fraud is not a local problem. It is a depletion of the wealth of the entire country. The lawyer for the Department of Insurance of each state is the State Attorney General. A special unit could be established in the office of the Attorney General, funded with the monies taken from the insurance industry to support the war against insurance fraud. This unit should be given a simple mandate: File and prosecute every insurance fraud brought to the unit by the Fraud Division that has a better than 50% chance of success. The unit should not concentrate its efforts on major insurance frauds. Those can best be prosecuted by major fraud units already existing in the District Attorney's offices and in offices of the US Attorney. The state's unit should concentrate on prosecuting every-day insurance fraud, the frauds of opportunity that take 90% of the money paid to fraud perpetrators, in the range of $5,000 to $50,000. Single counts should be prosecuted. When prosecutors file multiple charges against individual defendants the case becomes a major action requiring a great deal of time to prosecute. Judges and juries do not want to be involved in a prosecution that takes months to prosecute. If there are multiple counts available, the prosecutor should charge only the one where the evidence of fraud is overwhelming. If the jury finds for the defendant the prosecutor can charge the next count continuously until the statute of limitation runs. If all available are charged in one case the prosecutor will offend the judge and jury and the defendant will get mercy from the jury. Overcharging prosecution is as bad as not charging at all. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/barry-zalma/support

Prior to the 2012 FCPA Guidance, the DOJ issued two 2007 Opinion Releases which offered guidance to companies considering whether, and if so how, to incur travel and lodging expenses for government officials. Both Opinion Releases laid out the specific representations made to the DOJ, which led to them to approve the travel to the U.S. by foreign governmental officials. These facts provided strong guidance to any company which seeks to bring such governmental officials to the U.S. for a legitimate business purpose. In Opinion Release 07-01, the company was desired to cover the domestic expenses for a trip to the U.S. for a six-person delegation of the government of an Asian country for an educational and promotional tour of one of the requestor’s U.S. operations sites. In 07-02, the Company desired to pay certain domestic expenses for a trip within the U.S. by approximately six junior to mid-level officials of a foreign government for an educational program at the Requestor’s US headquarters, prior to the delegates attendance at an annual six-week long internship program for foreign insurance regulators sponsored by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). When Walmart Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) or GSK are in the news for alleged FCPA violations, it provides you a good reminder to review your compliance program. Not only from your compliance procedures perspective, but to test to determine if the policies and procedures are being followed or if there are issues which you might need to look at more closely. Three key takeaways: Travel for foreign officials continues to plague companies for compliance violations. The key is being reasonable in your costs. Always remember to record travel expenses correctly based upon documented costs.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services are about to put a rule in place that allows insurers and pharmacy benefit managers to get paid TWICE for some of your prescriptions. This policy is called “the copay accumulator,” and it allows insurers to accept payment for a drug without applying the payment to your deductible. In the first episode of the Patients Rising Podcast, we discuss copay accumulators, and what patients need to know about them. We also talk about a looming deadline to comment on a proposed federal rule on the topic. How to take actionThe deadline to comment on the rule regarding copay accumulators is 11:59 pm eastern standard time Monday, March 2nd, 2020.Let your voice be heard. Send your comments directly to Seema Verma, Administrator, Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS).Tell her to honor your already high out of pocket costs, and to allow copay assistance to be applied to your deductible. You can also do this directly from our websiteGuest:Carl Schmid, Executive Director, HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute, Washington, D.C.Carl Schmid has been a national policy and advocacy leader in the HIV community for over 20 years.  He spent 16 years with The AIDS Institute, where he served as its Deputy Executive Director and led the Institute’s HIV and viral hepatitis federal policy work before the executive agencies and the Congress. In December 2019, he left The AIDS Institute to form the HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute, which promotes quality and affordable healthcare for people living with or at risk of HIV, hepatitis, and other serious and chronic health conditions.Mr. Schmid helps lead the HIV and hepatitis communities’ advocacy efforts in Washington, D.C., to ensure domestic HIV and hepatitis programs, including the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative, the Ryan White Program, CDC HIV and hepatitis prevention programs, and NIH AIDS Research, are based on sound public policy and receive full funding. He has expertise in healthcare financing systems, including Medicaid and Medicare, and leads efforts to ensure that the Affordable Care Act meets the needs of people living with or at risk of HIV and hepatitis. As part of HIV + Hep’s work in advocating for people with HIV and hepatitis, Mr. Schmid works extensively with other patient and disease groups on collective efforts to ensure that patients, particularly those with chronic conditions, have access to quality and affordable healthcare, including prescription medications.Mr. Schmid served as a consumer representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2018-19.  In July 2019, he was appointed to the PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board.He was a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS from 2007-09 and chaired its Domestic Subcommittee.  In 2010, he was named by POZ magazine as one of the 100 most effective AIDS fighters and by Whitman-Walker Health as one of the 25 individuals who have played prominent roles in the fight against HIV in D.C. In 2016, he was named the Champion of the Year by the ADAP Advocacy Association. Mr. Schmid earned a B.A. in Public Affairs and a M.B.A. in International Affairs from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.Hosts:Terry Wilcox, Executive Director, Patients RisingDr. Robert Goldberg, “Dr. Bob”, Co-Founder and Vice President of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.Kate Pecora, Field Correspondent 

In this special episode, financial advisor Brian Wiley sits down with Idaho Dept. of Insurance Director Dean Cameron to discuss the past and future of the insurance industry in Idaho and nationally. Dean also serves as the Western Zone Director of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIA), and served 25 years in the Idaho Senate. This is an enlightening, hopeful, and informative conversation.  Brian Wiley, Financial Advisor www.treecityadvisors.com Dean Cameron, Idaho Dept. of Insurance National Association of Insurance Commissioners https://www.facebook.com/TheRealMoneyPros www.therealmoneypros.com www.kboi.com  

Trying to change directions in a 150-year-old organization is no easy feat. My guest this week is Chief Architect at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, a nonprofit body charged with helping organize and enable US state-level insurance commissioners. To stay on top of the industry, they’re doing a full technical overhaul of everything and it’s pretty interesting stuff.

Jerry Sullivan is the Chairman of G. J. Sullivan Co. Reinsurance, the focus company for the Sullivan Group of companies. He has over 60 years of expertise in the insurance industry, spanning the regulatory, investment, company, claims, program manager, reinsurance and wholesale aspects of the business. Decades after establishing the company that serves as the core of The Sullivan Group and alongside various partners, he continues to lead the group in developing new companies and approaches centered on insurance. Jerry joins us today to demystify surplus lines. He explains its strengths and capabilities, providing significant background information on how the system came to be. He discusses the areas in which surplus lines work, where the concept could use some improvement, and explains specific rules governing regulations for surplus lines carriers domiciled in and outside of the United States. He also emphasizes why it is important to take all of these concepts and present them in a manner that uses minimal jargon and is tailored for the growing audience of newcomers in the industry. “In dealing in the world of risk and intangibles, it’s easy to confuse people who don’t understand risk. There are some people who choose to take advantage of that reality and that’s why regulation is there.” - Jerry Sullivan Today on Spot On Insurance: How Jerry got started in the insurance business. How he played a critical role in resolving a major statewide insurance controversy — and ultimately, revising state policy. The basic concept of the regulatory perspective of the United States. The misconceptions about surplus lines, and the truth behind them. Guidelines and financial requirements for surplus lines across states. The vetting process for surplus lines carriers. What it means for a surplus lines carrier to be “eligible.” What an export list is, and why it’s needed. The importance of avoiding jargon and discussing advanced industry concepts in a more relatable manner. How Surplus Lines is a much more involved business than the standard retail approach. Why different risks entail different approaches and therefore merit closer examination. How insurance associations benefit their members. How he and his company are focusing on new, emerging risks. The impact of emerging technologies such as blockchain, etc. on the surplus lines operations. How the concept of “disruptive technology” is a serious mistake that is often heard when getting into these new technologies. His advice for new players in the industry. Why customer focus is not a new thing at all. Key Takeaways: There are two kinds of guidelines for surplus lines in the United States: Standard state regulation for carriers domiciled in the United States, and oversight from either the National Association of Insurance Commissioners or the Department of Insurance for carriers domiciled outside the United States. Insurance organizations are crucial in keeping insurance businesses working properly, and in resolving their major problems. Better processing of information is the heart of understanding the ability to better take risks. Working in the claims department, even for a brief time, is a truly educational experience. At the end of the day, it’s about making sure that the risk taker’s problems are being taken care of in an effective manner. Resources Mentioned: Global Pirates: Fraud in the Offshore Insurance Industry by Robert Tilman Connect with Jerry Sullivan: G.J.Sullivan Co. Reinsurance The Sullivan Group on Facebook  This episode was brought to you by….. Insurance Licensing Services of America (ILSA), America’s Premier Insurance Compliance and Licensing experts. To learn more about ILSA and their services, visit ILSAinc.com. Connect, Learn, Share Thank you for joining us on this week’s episode of Spot On Insurance. For more resources and episodes, visit SpotOnInsurance.com. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Love what you’re learning, Spot Light your review on iTunes and share your favorite episodes with friends and colleagues!

Dan Schawbel is a New York Times bestselling author, Partner and Research Director at Future Workplace, and the Founder of both Millennial Branding and WorkplaceTrends.com. He is the bestselling author of two career books: Promote Yourself and Me 2.0. His third book, Back to Human: How Great Leaders Create Connection in the Age of Isolation, will be published by Hachette on November 13th, 2018. Through his companies, he's conducted dozens of research studies and worked with major brands including American Express, GE, Microsoft, Virgin, IBM, Coca Cola and Oracle. Dan has interviewed over 2,000 of the world's most successful people, including Warren Buffett, Anthony Bourdain, Jessica Alba, will.i.am, Michael Bloomberg, Chelsea Handler, Colin Powell, Sheryl Sandberg, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is the host of “5 Questions with Dan Schawbel”, a podcast where he interviews a variety of world-class humans by asking them 5 questions in less than 15 minutes. In addition, he has written countless articles for Forbes, Fortune, TIME, The Economist, Quartz, The World Economic Forum, The Harvard Business Review, The Guardian, and others that have combined generated over 15 million views. Considered “one of today's more dynamic young entrepreneurs” by Inc. Magazine, Schawbel has been profiled or quoted in over 2,000 media outlets, such as NBC's “The Today Show” and “Nightly News”, Fox News's “Fox & Friends”, MSNBC's “Your Business,” The Steve Harvey Show, The Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, Wired Magazine, GQ, The Economist, and NPR. He has been recognized on several lists including Inc. Magazine's “30 Under 30”, Forbes Magazine's “30 Under 30”, Business Insider's “40 Under 40”, BusinessWeek's “20 Entrepreneurs You Should Follow,” and as one of Workforce Magazine's “Game Changers”. Schawbel is a featured expert in the upcoming documentary “The Revolution Generation”, which is directed by Josh Tickell and narrated by actress Shailene Woodley.Dan Schawbel is a New York Times bestselling author, serial entrepreneur, Fortune 500 consultant, millennial TV personality, global keynote speaker, career and workplace expert and startup advisor. His mission in life is to support his generation from student to CEO.Dan is a Partner and Research Director at Future Workplace, an HR executive network and research firm on the future of learning and working, with members including NASA, Kraft Heinz, Google, Verizon, GE, Cisco, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and IBM. In 2016, Future Workplace acquired Dan's company, WorkplaceTrends.com, a research and advisory membership service for HR professionals at companies including Nestle, Sodexo and Goldman Sachs. WorkplaceTrends.com is the largest aggregator of workplace research in the world with over 450 sources. He is also the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm, which has helped companies like American Express, NBC Universal, Ernst & Young, Deutsche Bank, Red Bull, Red Robin, Oracle, Fidelity and Monster better understand the millennial generation. Through both companies, he's published over 40 groundbreaking research studies, surveying over 86,000 people from 20 different countries. Dan's research has been the subject of cover stories for both Money Magazine and HR Magazine, and is featured in over 700 media outlets including The New York Times, NBC, CNN, USA Today and Men's Health.He is the author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success (St. Martin's Press), which is a #1 Barnes & Noble business bestseller and was named the #1 career book of 2013 by The Chicago Tribune. His first book, Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future, was a #1 international bestseller and was named the #1 career book of 2009 by The New York Post. His books have been endorsed by over 50 CEOs (Intuit, Campbell Soup), celebrities (Dr. Mehmet Oz, Patti Stanger, Daymond John, Barbara Corcoran), professors (Harvard, UPenn, Dartmouth, Northwestern) and bestselling authors (Daniel Pink, David Bach, Harvey Mackay, Seth Godin, Gretchen Rubin, Stephen R. Covey, Ken Blanchard, Dave Ramsey, Jeffrey Gitomer, Jack Canfield, Susan Cain). Combined, his books have been translated into 15 different languages and are used as textbooks at many schools including Stanford University, Boston University, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and The University of Texas at Austin. Both bestsellers were published before Dan's 30th birthday.His third book, Back to Human: How Great Leaders Create Connection in the Age of Isolation, will be published by Hachette on November 13th, 2018.Dan is the founder of the Personal Branding Blog, a Forbes ”Top Website for Your Career” and ranked as the #1 Job Blog by Careerbuilder. It has over 6,000 articles that have been read by over 5 million professionals, in 228 different countries, and is the most syndicated career resource in America, with partnerships including Yahoo!, AOL, Biz Journals, Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Insider. He is a columnist at CNBC.com and a former columnist at Forbes, TIME, Metro US, BusinessWeek and Mashable. In addition, he has written for The Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, CBS MoneyWatch, CNN.com, Fast Company, Forbes Magazine, The Guardian, Inc., Fortune, TechCrunch, The World Economic Forum, Entrepreneur, The Globe And Mail, and numerous others. Schawbel has written over 2,000 articles that have generated more than 10 million views, with one even being shared by Senator Bernie Sanders. Schawbel is a featured expert in the upcoming documentary “The Revolution Generation”, which is directed by Josh Tickell and narrated by actress Shailene Woodley.He's spoken at some of the world's most prestigious companies including Coca Cola, Google, IBM, Time Warner, Ericsson, CitiGroup, McGraw-Hill and Siemens, as well as some of the most notable schools, including Harvard Business School, Stanford, Cornell and MIT. In 2010, Dan was recognized as Hearst Visiting Professional at Arizona State University's Cronkite School. In addition, he's spoken at major conferences such as The New York Times DealBook Conference, Bloomberg's Business of Equality Summit, SHRM, ASTD, HCI, Work Human and The Conference Board, in different countries like Japan, Brazil and Mexico and shared the stage with people like Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Ice-T, Simon Sinek, Mel Robbins, Dennis Miller and Marshall Goldsmith.Dan's long list of honors include: Inc. Magazine's “30 Under 30”, Forbes Magazine's “30 Under 30”, Business Insider's “40 Under 40”, BusinessWeek's “20 Entrepreneurs You Should Follow”, Workforce Magazine's “25 Game Changers” and Details Magazine's “5 Internet Gurus That Can Make You Rich”.Dan has interviewed over 2,000 people in his career, from celebrities (Anthony Bourdain, James Franco, Jessica Alba, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachael Ray) to CEOs (Warren Buffett, Michael Bloomberg, J. W. Marriott Jr., Richard Branson, Ed Catmull, Jack Welch, Kevin Systrom, John Mackey) to thought leaders (Malcolm Gladwell, Tom Peters, Jim Collins, Simon Sinek, Clayton Christensen, Michael Porter) to politicians (Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren, Al Franken, John Kerry, Cory Booker, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld) and even two astronauts (Chris Hadfield, Mike Massimino). In addition, he interviewed David Karp (Founder of Tumblr) for the January 2013 cover of Forbes Magazine and his profile of Ryan Blair (CEO of ViSalus) made the Yahoo! homepage. He is the host of “5 Questions with Dan Schawbel”, a podcast where he interviews a variety of world-class human by asking them 5 questions in less than 15 minutes.He has been featured in over 1,200 media outlets such as NBC's “The Today Show” and “Nightly Business News”, The Steve Harvey Show, PBS's “The Nightly Business Report”, CNBC's “Power Lunch” “Closing Bell” and “Fast Money”, Fox News's “Fox & Friends”, Fox Business's ”The Willis Report”, Bloomberg TV's “In The Loop”, NPR, People Magazine, GQ, The Economist and Wired Magazine. Dan has been featured in cover stories in The Wall Street Journal business section, The Economist Intelligent Life Magazine and The Boston Globe. His work has also been cited in over 50 books, including Marketing 3.0 by Philip Kotler and The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick. He's been a spokesperson for Philips, Staples, DeVry University and The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, as well as contributed thought leadership to programs created by Bank of America, Self Magazine, PayPal, CapitalOne, Intuit and The University of Phoenix.From 2007 to 2012, Dan published Personal Branding Magazine, with a team of 20 and 150 contributing writers. In total, there were 19 issues that included exclusive interviews with Evander Holyfield, Guy Fieri, Kathy Ireland, Brooke Burke and Gary Vaynerchuk. During that time, he also hosted sold out networking events that included speakers such as Johnny Cupcakes, Kenny Florian (UFC), Larry Weber (Founder of Weber Shandwick) and representatives from The Boston Celtics, The Jimmy Fund, Harvard University, Hill Holliday and The Harpoon Brewery.In 2007, Dan co-created one of the first social media positions in a Fortune 200 company, and the first one ever at EMC. He was known for creating EMC's social media accounts, working across multiple departments worldwide to train and implement social strategies and helping grow their internal network to over 10,000 users before he left in 2010. - http://danschawbel.com/- https://www.instagram.com/danschawbel/- https://amzn.to/2PGLYFCLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-metry/Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/markmetry/Twitter - https://twitter.com/markymetryMedium - https://medium.com/@markymetryFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/Humans.2.0.PodcastMark Metry - https://www.markmetry.com/Humans 2.0 Twitter - https://twitter.com/Humans2Podcast

Dan Schawbel is a New York Times bestselling author, Partner and Research Director at Future Workplace, and the Founder of both Millennial Branding and WorkplaceTrends.com. He is the bestselling author of two career books: Promote Yourself and Me 2.0. His third book, Back to Human: How Great Leaders Create Connection in the Age of Isolation, will be published by Hachette on November 13th, 2018. Through his companies, he’s conducted dozens of research studies and worked with major brands including American Express, GE, Microsoft, Virgin, IBM, Coca Cola and Oracle. Dan has interviewed over 2,000 of the world’s most successful people, including Warren Buffett, Anthony Bourdain, Jessica Alba, will.i.am, Michael Bloomberg, Chelsea Handler, Colin Powell, Sheryl Sandberg, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is the host of “5 Questions with Dan Schawbel”, a podcast where he interviews a variety of world-class humans by asking them 5 questions in less than 15 minutes. In addition, he has written countless articles for Forbes, Fortune, TIME, The Economist, Quartz, The World Economic Forum, The Harvard Business Review, The Guardian, and others that have combined generated over 15 million views. Considered “one of today’s more dynamic young entrepreneurs” by Inc. Magazine, Schawbel has been profiled or quoted in over 2,000 media outlets, such as NBC’s “The Today Show” and “Nightly News”, Fox News’s “Fox & Friends”, MSNBC’s “Your Business,” The Steve Harvey Show, The Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, Wired Magazine, GQ, The Economist, and NPR. He has been recognized on several lists including Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30”, Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30”, Business Insider’s “40 Under 40”, BusinessWeek’s “20 Entrepreneurs You Should Follow,” and as one of Workforce Magazine’s “Game Changers”. Schawbel is a featured expert in the upcoming documentary “The Revolution Generation”, which is directed by Josh Tickell and narrated by actress Shailene Woodley.Dan Schawbel is a New York Times bestselling author, serial entrepreneur, Fortune 500 consultant, millennial TV personality, global keynote speaker, career and workplace expert and startup advisor. His mission in life is to support his generation from student to CEO.Dan is a Partner and Research Director at Future Workplace, an HR executive network and research firm on the future of learning and working, with members including NASA, Kraft Heinz, Google, Verizon, GE, Cisco, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and IBM. In 2016, Future Workplace acquired Dan’s company, WorkplaceTrends.com, a research and advisory membership service for HR professionals at companies including Nestle, Sodexo and Goldman Sachs. WorkplaceTrends.com is the largest aggregator of workplace research in the world with over 450 sources. He is also the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm, which has helped companies like American Express, NBC Universal, Ernst & Young, Deutsche Bank, Red Bull, Red Robin, Oracle, Fidelity and Monster better understand the millennial generation. Through both companies, he’s published over 40 groundbreaking research studies, surveying over 86,000 people from 20 different countries. Dan’s research has been the subject of cover stories for both Money Magazine and HR Magazine, and is featured in over 700 media outlets including The New York Times, NBC, CNN, USA Today and Men’s Health.He is the author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success (St. Martin’s Press), which is a #1 Barnes & Noble business bestseller and was named the #1 career book of 2013 by The Chicago Tribune. His first book, Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future, was a #1 international bestseller and was named the #1 career book of 2009 by The New York Post. His books have been endorsed by over 50 CEOs (Intuit, Campbell Soup), celebrities (Dr. Mehmet Oz, Patti Stanger, Daymond John, Barbara Corcoran), professors (Harvard, UPenn, Dartmouth, Northwestern) and bestselling authors (Daniel Pink, David Bach, Harvey Mackay, Seth Godin, Gretchen Rubin, Stephen R. Covey, Ken Blanchard, Dave Ramsey, Jeffrey Gitomer, Jack Canfield, Susan Cain). Combined, his books have been translated into 15 different languages and are used as textbooks at many schools including Stanford University, Boston University, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and The University of Texas at Austin. Both bestsellers were published before Dan’s 30th birthday.His third book, Back to Human: How Great Leaders Create Connection in the Age of Isolation, will be published by Hachette on November 13th, 2018.Dan is the founder of the Personal Branding Blog, a Forbes ”Top Website for Your Career” and ranked as the #1 Job Blog by Careerbuilder. It has over 6,000 articles that have been read by over 5 million professionals, in 228 different countries, and is the most syndicated career resource in America, with partnerships including Yahoo!, AOL, Biz Journals, Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Insider. He is a columnist at CNBC.com and a former columnist at Forbes, TIME, Metro US, BusinessWeek and Mashable. In addition, he has written for The Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, CBS MoneyWatch, CNN.com, Fast Company, Forbes Magazine, The Guardian, Inc., Fortune, TechCrunch, The World Economic Forum, Entrepreneur, The Globe And Mail, and numerous others. Schawbel has written over 2,000 articles that have generated more than 10 million views, with one even being shared by Senator Bernie Sanders. Schawbel is a featured expert in the upcoming documentary “The Revolution Generation”, which is directed by Josh Tickell and narrated by actress Shailene Woodley.He’s spoken at some of the world’s most prestigious companies including Coca Cola, Google, IBM, Time Warner, Ericsson, CitiGroup, McGraw-Hill and Siemens, as well as some of the most notable schools, including Harvard Business School, Stanford, Cornell and MIT. In 2010, Dan was recognized as Hearst Visiting Professional at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School. In addition, he’s spoken at major conferences such as The New York Times DealBook Conference, Bloomberg’s Business of Equality Summit, SHRM, ASTD, HCI, Work Human and The Conference Board, in different countries like Japan, Brazil and Mexico and shared the stage with people like Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Ice-T, Simon Sinek, Mel Robbins, Dennis Miller and Marshall Goldsmith.Dan’s long list of honors include: Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30”, Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30”, Business Insider’s “40 Under 40”, BusinessWeek’s “20 Entrepreneurs You Should Follow”, Workforce Magazine’s “25 Game Changers” and Details Magazine’s “5 Internet Gurus That Can Make You Rich”.Dan has interviewed over 2,000 people in his career, from celebrities (Anthony Bourdain, James Franco, Jessica Alba, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachael Ray) to CEOs (Warren Buffett, Michael Bloomberg, J. W. Marriott Jr., Richard Branson, Ed Catmull, Jack Welch, Kevin Systrom, John Mackey) to thought leaders (Malcolm Gladwell, Tom Peters, Jim Collins, Simon Sinek, Clayton Christensen, Michael Porter) to politicians (Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren, Al Franken, John Kerry, Cory Booker, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld) and even two astronauts (Chris Hadfield, Mike Massimino). In addition, he interviewed David Karp (Founder of Tumblr) for the January 2013 cover of Forbes Magazine and his profile of Ryan Blair (CEO of ViSalus) made the Yahoo! homepage. He is the host of “5 Questions with Dan Schawbel”, a podcast where he interviews a variety of world-class human by asking them 5 questions in less than 15 minutes.He has been featured in over 1,200 media outlets such as NBC’s “The Today Show” and “Nightly Business News”, The Steve Harvey Show, PBS’s “The Nightly Business Report”, CNBC’s “Power Lunch” “Closing Bell” and “Fast Money”, Fox News’s “Fox & Friends”, Fox Business’s ”The Willis Report”, Bloomberg TV’s “In The Loop”, NPR, People Magazine, GQ, The Economist and Wired Magazine. Dan has been featured in cover stories in The Wall Street Journal business section, The Economist Intelligent Life Magazine and The Boston Globe. His work has also been cited in over 50 books, including Marketing 3.0 by Philip Kotler and The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick. He’s been a spokesperson for Philips, Staples, DeVry University and The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, as well as contributed thought leadership to programs created by Bank of America, Self Magazine, PayPal, CapitalOne, Intuit and The University of Phoenix.From 2007 to 2012, Dan published Personal Branding Magazine, with a team of 20 and 150 contributing writers. In total, there were 19 issues that included exclusive interviews with Evander Holyfield, Guy Fieri, Kathy Ireland, Brooke Burke and Gary Vaynerchuk. During that time, he also hosted sold out networking events that included speakers such as Johnny Cupcakes, Kenny Florian (UFC), Larry Weber (Founder of Weber Shandwick) and representatives from The Boston Celtics, The Jimmy Fund, Harvard University, Hill Holliday and The Harpoon Brewery.In 2007, Dan co-created one of the first social media positions in a Fortune 200 company, and the first one ever at EMC. He was known for creating EMC’s social media accounts, working across multiple departments worldwide to train and implement social strategies and helping grow their internal network to over 10,000 users before he left in 2010. - http://danschawbel.com/- https://www.instagram.com/danschawbel/- https://amzn.to/2PGLYFCLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-metry/Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/markmetry/Twitter - https://twitter.com/markymetryMedium - https://medium.com/@markymetryFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/Humans.2.0.PodcastMark Metry - https://www.markmetry.com/Humans 2.0 Twitter - https://twitter.com/Humans2Podcast

Overview: This is the beginning of the states taking proactive approach to transfer the risk to businesses and through regulations. Common Occurrence – China, EU, Spain, Various States, etc…. GDPR for the US is coming….but that is for Data Privacy EU Cyberlaw that will be hitting the end of the year….Focused on Data Transfers, along with other items It is all coming, so you better be prepared to REDUCE YOUR CYBER RISK! Details: Quote: Justin Orcutt - The South Carolina Insurance Data Security Act was signed into law on May 14th, 2018 by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster. It's the first piece of cybersecurity legislation ever to be passed in the United States aimed at covering the insurance industry. Insurance Data Security Model – Drafted by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2017 Similar to the Alabama Breach Law, NYDFS Law, etc Official January 1, 2019 but all the requirements don't hit until 2020 Interesting tidbit: -All Licensees of the South Carolina Department of Insurance must have a “comprehensive, written, cybersecurity program” in place -Insurers, agents, other licensed entities, plus real-estate lawyers who are also real-estate agents -Cybersecurity Program -Breach Response plan – 72 hours (YEA BABY) -BIGGIE: Designate Individual, Third Party, or Affiliate who is responsible for your program -Can there be more!!!! --250 vs. HIPAA's 500people -Investigate Promptly and records must be retained for 5 years It goes on….. Recommendation / Outcome: -Read the law and determine if it affects you and your business -Look for resources to help you build out a program, designate a person, etc. -Legal counsel on the best course of action to ensure you meet the law -Cybersecurity advice who can work with legal counsel and your business -Utilize my training that I am building for this very situation!

Host Mitch Goldman talks with a panel of experts about the current state of the ACA legislation and what changes might affect the upcoming enrollment period on The Business of Health Care. Expert Panelists include: Robert Field, Professor of Health Management and Policy at Drexel's Dornsife School of Public Health, Lecturer of Health Care Management at the Wharton School, and Senior Fellow at Penn's Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics; Katie Keith, Professor at Georgetown Law, Appointed Consumer Representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and Author of "Following the ACA" blog; and Sara Collins, Vice President for Health Care Coverage and Access program at The Commonwealth Fund. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

  While he was facilitating the State Bar of Nevada Strategic Planning, ALPS Executive Vice President Chris Newbold, also had the opportunity to sit down with Gene Leverty, Bar President. Nevada is contemplating requiring mandatory malpractice insurance as a condition of licensure. One of the reasons behind the move is to protect the public from engaging with an attorney that is not covered, particularly if missteps are made during that engagement. The conversation also touched on the perceptions of malpractice insurance and how to educate both the public and legal community about why coverage is important for both parties. This post is part 2 in a series centering on the discussions around mandatory malpractice insurance around the country.  Listen to part 1, an interview with Doug Ende with the Washington State Bar about their process and discussions. ALPS In Brief, The ALPS Risk Management Podcast, is usually hosted by ALPS Risk Manager, Mark Bassingthwaighte. This episode is hosted by Chris Newbold, ALPS Executive Vice President. Transcript:  CHRIS: Hello and welcome to ALPS in Brief. This is Chris Newbold, Executive Vice President of ALPS, and today I sit in the bar offices of the State Bar of Nevada with Gene Leverty. Gene is the President of the State Bar of Nevada, lives up in the Reno area. And today our topic is mandatory malpractice insurance. The State Bar of Nevada has been contemplating perhaps going in the direction of requiring lawyers to maintain malpractice insurance as a condition of licensure. And so Gene, why don't you talk a little bit about just how this issue arose in Nevada, and where you think it's heading. GENE: Okay. Basically our prior president, Bryan Scott, brought it and said we need to do a task force to consider it. My background with regard to why I thought it was important, and I was chairman of the task force before I was president. The reason I thought it was important goes back to my time on the Clients' Security Fund, where I found that a lot of the people that came, that had claims for the Clients' Security Fund, were really negligence cases where the attorneys had failed malpractice insurers. So I thought we needed to look at it in order to see if there was a way that we could protect the public. So we had to study it from the standpoint of the task force. We studied it in a lot of different ramifications with regard to looking at what other states did, with regard to Oregon, Illinois, Idaho. Then we looked at the unique factors in Nevada that would consider doing what Oregon did or forming a captive. We brought in the insurance commissioner, ALPS, your participation was very helpful. And it boils down to the task force moved, worked very diligently, spent a lot of time because there's a lot of elements, and we came to the conclusion that it should be mandatory. Now, in Nevada, we have statistics that we could look at because attorneys have to report whether or not they have malpractice. And if they don't. Although it's not verified. We took those statistics and we found out the ones that were honest and reported that they did not have insurance was about 15% of the bar. So we've started looking at their statistics and asking them questions in a survey to find out why they didn't have insurance. And it was surprising. Because though that 15% were not young lawyers, not solo practitioners soloing, but people that had been practicing for 20 years. And so we went into those and asked them why they didn't think malpractice insurance was necessary. We heard that. Plus we heard people that were against insurance. They came to the task force. Those with patent practices felt the payments were too high. They would move to other states to practice patent law. And we came to the conclusion after listening to the commissioner, companies, everything that mandatory insurance would be recommended to the Supreme Court. CHRIS: What are you contemplating at this point in terms of what you're going to be recommending when it comes to coverage limits and those types of things? GENE: Well, the Board of Governors adopted the task force recommendations. The Board of Governors of the State of Nevada. And they recommended that adoption of 250 limits, every lawyer be required to have that in the minimum. At that stage once the Board of Governors accepts it, which I thought was a gigantic contribution to the Bar by the Board of Governors, because they were looking to protect the public for the honor of our profession. We take that and we turn it into a proposal to present to our Nevada Supreme Court, which is the ultimate rule maker. And we've had, in fact you were present at one of our hearings, with regard to the Supreme Court where we were bringing up and trying to push for the ADKT, which we will be shortly presenting to the Supreme Court and we will have a hearing on it. We do know from a survey that we did of our general membership, where about 10% responded, that there are some that are not in favor of malpractice because they think it's too costly for solo practitioners. So we have issues and I know in discussions with the Chief Justice, Chief Justice Douglas, that the Bar is concerned about cost. What is the cost? So I think that we're moving in a positive direction. It will be presented to the Court. And the way I look at it, I believe we're doing something to protect the public, the State Bar. And now it will be shortly in the hands of our Nevada Supreme Court, to either act or not act. CHRIS: And you said you did a survey of those who don't carry malpractice insurance. What commonalities did you find amongst that group in terms of just who generally goes without insurance? GENE: Interesting. It's solo. It's small practitioners. Mostly solo. Who actually, criminal lawyers, okay, didn't feel like they needed it. And those who've been practicing 20 years without a client. They said, Why should I continue paying for insurance? And then there's a group that says, Well even if you have a claim, the insurance company doesn't pay. They'll find a reason to get out. Those were primarily the responses from the 15%. But, you know, I think that having gone to the task force in Washington, and talking and getting letters from the California task force, about malpractice. We all are looking at the same issues. We all have about the same numbers of uninsured. And those uninsureds pretty much say the same thing. But there's a movement to consider it. I really think from serving on the Clients' Security Fund and seeing how many people were really hurt by attorneys who had no malpractice insurance that the time has come to protect the public. CHRIS: And that's your principal position is that we, as a soft regulating profession, have a responsibility to insure that our lawyers, in the event they make a mistake, there's a remedy for the client? GENE: Absolutely. But I also believe that by protecting the public we're honoring our profession. Because our profession is hurt by those attorneys that don't have, when they commit negligence, don't have a remedy for their client. And you can't continue as a profession to be respected if you don't help the public. CHRIS: And how does mandatory malpractice, how does that requirement fall within the mission of your organization, the State Bar of Nevada? GENE: It's one of our ultimate missions is to protect the public. So to serve our membership and protect the public is our goal. With regard to serving the public by protecting them with regard to malpractice, trust accounts, those are important. And what we want to do is educate the lawyer to know how best to protect the public. What do we do for our profession, what do we serve them by? We serve them by, they will have more respect by the people that they serve. CHRIS: You've obviously now studied this issue pretty in depth over the course of the last year, and obviously you have experience in the insurance sector. What have you learned as part of the process that maybe surprised you as you went through this particular issue? GENE: I was surprised that if you were in business, that people were in business without insurance. I saw it a little bit, but I didn't know. I think it's even greater than the 15% that are honest. When you get down to it, I think insurance, you buy it in case you make a mistake. But you hope you don't. And my background, I was a regulator of insurance in Nevada. My practice is insurance. I believe that insurance does the right thing. And I think it's necessary. It's to avoid risk. CHRIS: And there's only two states now that require mandatory malpractice insurance. Does it surprise you? Or do you think that the public has a reasonable expectation that most lawyers have malpractice insurance? GENE: I believed that at the beginning until in preparation for our convention in Chicago in July. I worked with a focus group. I brought in a friend who, I use focus groups for trials. I said, I want to do some study on this. Surprisingly, surprisingly people, the focus groups, they were concerned if their lawyer had insurance. They thought that maybe that would demonstrate that maybe he needed it, versus praising the lawyer that had it. The next question is, would you ask your lawyer if he had malpractice insurance? And their answer was, No, because then he'd think I was going to sue him. Now we all believe that you have to have auto insurance to drive. Why shouldn't you have to have malpractice insurance to practice law. It seems to be reasonable. It's related. Doctors have to have malpractice insurance. Why shouldn't lawyers? And yet, the public is not educated as to what exactly lawyers have or don't have. But it's really surprised me that they believe that a good lawyer doesn't need malpractice insurance. CHRIS: Is it common in most other professional fields that there is some requirement of malpractice insurance? GENE: Yeah. With regard to doctors. My brother-in-law is a doctor. He's also on the Medical Board. Yeah, doctors have to have malpractice insurance to practice with regards to various hospitals. So they do have malpractice insurance, okay? I don't know about other professions. But I think that the public believes that doctors have malpractice insurance. So I'm not saying our focus group is absolutely correct because we only did a few focus groups. But I was surprised by the results. CHRIS: Well, Gene, obviously you're preparing now your support for moving toward the Nevada Supreme Court in terms of some type of a decision. What's that process look like? And what do you think the timeline looks like? GENE: We held back the malpractice while we pushed forward on the random trust accounts. That ADKT has been heard by our Supreme Court. So we will be shortly presenting to the Supreme Court what we refer to as an ADKT on malpractice insurance. Having met with the Chief Justice, which we do on a regular basis, of the Nevada Supreme Court, his expressed interest is in the cost. What is it going to cost? And basically putting my head around the cost comes down to basically 85% of our Bar has malpractice insurance. So we're not talking about the 85%, what it's going to cost them. We're talking about what the cost is to the 15% that are currently uninsured. And I don't think that that cost is going to be that substantial. Because we have had quotes with regard to that. I believe that even in Las Vegas, which has a higher incidence of claims, I think that we can provide it to every lawyer for about one hour of their time, 250 an hour for a month, to go towards their malpractice should be what it costs. So I think we can sell it to the Court if they're willing to listen. CHRIS: Well, good. And we've always argued that for the fractional cost of a billable hour per month the peace of mind in terms of client protection, and lawyer protection frankly, is the right way to go. GENE: Actually when you met with our Supreme Court, when you made that statement I picked it up, and I carry it because I think that's a good message to send. CHRIS: Well, Gene, thank you. I appreciate your hard work on this issue. It's obviously an interesting subject and one that other states are looking at, and keep us posted. GENE: Okay. Thank you, Chris. CHRIS: Thank you. Vernon (Gene) Leverty is an active personal injury trial lawyer with 35 years of litigation, trial and negotiation experience. He has held an AV Martindale Hubbell rating (the highest attorney rating) for over 25 years. Gene is a long-time member of Million Dollar Advocates Forum for obtaining a jury verdict over one million dollars. Gene has had several multi-million jury verdicts and settlements. He has a reputation for excellence both in Nevada and nationally. Because Gene was Chief Deputy Insurance Commissioner of the State of Nevada and then a partner in a Beverly Hills multi-state law firm for ten (10) years representing insurers, he has a special expertise insurance coverage issues, including very complex coverage issues.  It is essential that a personal injury trial lawyer fully understand insurance so that the client knows all insurance that may be available to cover the individual's loss. Gene's background and experience makes him a valuable resource to his clients, as he provides a unique perspective and understanding of the insurance industry and the manner in which insurance company's evaluate, investigate, and litigate personal injury claims. Gene's skill and experience is vital for personal injury cases, including automobile and trucking cases, product liability, premises liability and insurance bad faith. Gene is licensed to practice in all Nevada and California state courts, and the United States District Court for the State of Nevada, the U.S. Central District of California, the U.S. Eastern District of California, the U.S Northern District of California, the U.S. Southern District of California, District Court (Florida), U.S. District Court of Appeals (9th Circuit) and the United States Supreme Court. He earned his Juris Doctor Degree (J.D.) from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. Gene was the Chief Deputy Insurance Commissioner for the State of Nevada from 1972-1979. In 1979, he joined the law firm of Miller & Daar as a partner, with offices in Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Seattle and Reno. Miller & Daar was a highly specialized insurance law firm with the principals being former Insurance Commissioners. Gene was elected in July 2015 the Vice-President of the Nevada State Bar Association, the governing authority for the Nevada legal profession.  He now serves at Bar President. He has served on the Board of Governors of the Nevada State Bar for 5 years.  Mr. Leverty was a member of the State Bar of Nevada Insurance Standing Committee from 1977-1991, and was the Chairman of that committee from 1977-1980. The State Bar of Nevada on May 31, 1991, granted him the Award of Special Recognition and it awarded him the 2015 Medal of Justice Award.

In today's podcast, we hear that ISIS inspiration is increasingly directed at children. Cryptomining botnets use same EternalBlue exploit as WannaCry. Criminals experiment to weaponize Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. Phishing campaigns exploit well-known services including Google Docs and Outlook. Patch notes. Ben Yelin from UMD CHHS on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners adopting a model data cyber security law. Guest is Shashi Kiran from Quali on cyber ranges and cloud sandboxes. Geolocation and other app-collected info raise OPSEC concerns. 

Advantage Compendium Ltd. is led by Jack Marrion, providing research and consulting services to insurance companies and financial firms in a variety of annuity areas. He is the Director of Research for the National Association of Fixed Annuities. He also serves as a Research Fellow at Webster University. In 1996 he produced the first independent hypothetical return monthly publication comparing all index annuities on the market, and created the quarterly Advantage Index Product Sales & Market Report in 1997 that was the first comprehensive report of index annuity sales, products and trends. In 2015 he created volcontrol.com, a subscription site showing the specifications and returns of volatility controlled indices used in the fixed index annuity world.   Regulators frequently quote from his research; he is frequently referenced or sourced in SEC rule filings relating to annuities, as well as working as a court certified expert witness on annuities. He has conducted a broad scope of research ranging from the behavioral reasons why consumers buy or don't buy financial products to suitability and complaint trends to future annuity distribution impact models. His insights on the annuity and retirement income world have appeared in hundreds of publications. In 2006 the National Association of Insurance Commissioners asked him to address their annual meeting and teach regulators the realities of index annuities. He was invited back in 2009 to talk to the NAIC about the effects of aging on senior decision-making. In 2015 he spoke to NAIC members on volatility controlled indices. He is a frequent speaker at industry functions and provides the monthly Annuity Perspectives newsletter to National Association for Fixed Annuities (NAFA) members. Best's Review said he was likely to affect the course of the industry. Prior to forming Advantage Compendium Dr. Marrion was president and owner of an NASD broker/dealer with offices in nine states, and formerly vice president of a life insurance company and previously vice president of an NYSE investment banking firm. He has a BBA from the University of Iowa, an MBA from the University of Missouri and his doctorate from Webster University in the area of cognitive bias in decision-making formed a new paradigm in the development of retirement income products. Neither Jack Marrion nor Advantage Compendium sell or endorse any financial product. Contact Information        P.O. Box 3308 * McKinney TX 75070         314-255-6531        marrion@advantagecompendium.com or check out the website http://www.advantagecompendium.com/index.htm.

Insurance Thought Leadership's Wayne Allen interviews Andy Beal, chief operating officer of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, on serving the regulatory and insurance industry in a time of innovation and transformation.

Don’t be intimidated with Insurers speaking out about Insurer Fraud.  It’s the same as Voter Fraud. It’s rare, who would want to deal with these greedy people? It’s a way to bully Insured and make them afraid to fight back. Don’t be intimidated in this way stand up for what is yours and many other Policyholders after a car wreck.  You paid premiums, they should pay benefits. Period. Being a Disability Surveillance Target does not mean giving up or in to harassment, intimidation, and bullying the like you’ve never seen, when dealing with public or private Insurance Companies.  We’ve seen the hold Lobbyist have on our government.  Very little has been done to protect the interest of Policyholders. Insurance Companies have been allowed by diverse laws in each State, along with different approaches by Insurance Commissioners and Attorney Generals to act more as intermediary to protect Insurance Industry rather than actions to be equal under the law for Insured and Insurer. 

This broadcast is a favorite legacy show that we produced under our old name Travel'n On and before rebranding as WORLD FOOTPRINTS. The outbreak and apparent resurgence of the H1N1 virus, commonly referred to as the Swine Flu, has caught the world by surprise and worldwide concern over this virus is affecting many peoples lives, including their travel plans. Travel'n On Radio has invited a distinguished panel of health care, medical and insurance experts to answer your pressing questions regarding this virus and its impact on travel. Dr. MauriceRamirez, Founding Chairperson of the American Board of Disaster Medicine; Steve Crimando, Managing Director of Extreme Behavioral Risk Management; Dr. Anatoly Belilovsky, Director of Belilovsky Pediatrics and child health and flu detection/treatment expert; and Commissioner Sandy Praeger (Kansas), Immediate Past President of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners will help separate the facts from the hype and provide practical tips. Additionally, two authors, one who traveled and worked in Vietnam during the SARS pandemic and another whose son was recently quarantined in Japan, will provide their perspective as members of the travel community.

Run Time: 35:06 Listen in as Jay Keese and Michael Tetreault Discuss a Variety of the The Federal and Statewide Efforts Happening Across The U.S. To Clarify Private Pay Healthcare Language. We talked about Virginia; Georgia; Nebraska; Idaho; Texas; Florida; Insurance Commissioners; Washington State; The ACA; Medicare; Medicaid and Much More! www.DocPreneurPress.org | www.ConciergeMedicineToday.org | www.DirectPrimaryCare.com

Welcome! My guests today are Catherine McMahon and Anna Howard. Catherine provides in-depth analysis for legislative and regulatory priorities for all levels of government and develops public policy principles for cancer prevention. Anna helps develop public policy principles in issues related to healthcare coverage for individuals with cancer. She is also the consumer representative for the National Association for Insurance Commissioners. Catherine and Anna are here to help listeners understand the resources available for those diagnosed with cancer and for those whose loved ones have been diagnosed. People over 65 account for 65% of all new malignancies and about 70% of cancer deaths in the US. Listening to this podcast will help you understand how to use Medicare benefits in the best ways to prevent cancer. What is the Cancer Action Network, and what does it do? The CAN is the nonprofit, advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society that supports legislative solutions to defeat cancer. One purpose is to give patients and their families a voice in government. There is a federal lobbying team in Washington, DC and staff in every state working on the local level. The CAN works to prevent cancer and to help patients find access to care. (The complete abbreviation is ACSCAN.) Why are preventive services so important? Screening tests, counseling, and preventive medications work together to prevent illness before symptoms occur. 50% of cancers can be prevented with these services, including tobacco cessation screening, obesity screenings, and cancer screenings to detect early stage cancer. The ACS has made cancer prevention a top priority. What is the function of the US Preventive Services Task Force? The USPSTF is an independent, voluntary panel of national experts in preventive medicine. Their clinical recommendations will become the appropriate insurance coverage for preventive services. What preventive services does Medicare cover for cancer screenings? The USPSTF updates their recommendations periodically, but currently, an initial physical exam and annual physical exams are covered.  Some of the screenings are a colorectal exam, lung cancer screening, breast and cervical cancer screening. To be eligible for the lung cancer screening, a patient must by 55-77 years old and be either currently smoking or have quit smoking in the last 15 years.  They must have a “smoking history” such as a pack a day and have a written order from their doctor for the screening. A colonoscopy is another screening that is covered, but the problem occurs if the doctor removes polyps during the exam because that qualifies as surgery and will make the patient subject to out of pocket costs. What legislation is currently being introduced to Congress? The ACSCAN is pushing for new laws to include removal of polyps in screening exams instead of calling it “surgery.”  The bill is called “Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening Act and is HR 1220 in the House and S624 in the Senate. Listeners are encouraged to call their members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass this legislation ASAP! What choices are available to Medicare beneficiaries? Patients can choose Traditional Medicare, Parts A, B, or D, or they can choose a Private Plan Option called Medicare Advantage. Over 30% of Medicare users choose an Advantage plan. What should you ask your doctor about screenings? First of all, take advantage of the annual wellness exam, but talk to your doctor about what’s going on with your heath and your medications. Visit www.acscan.org for information, tips, and fact sheets. You can find volunteer opportunities at www.cancer.org or call 1-800-227-2345 to ask questions of the ACs 24/7. Check out these resources for the maximum use of your Medicare benefits!   Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5 star rating and review in iTunes! (Click here)       Find out more information about Medicare on Diane Daniel’s website!  www.CallSamm.com  

Vantage Point – CEO of the NAIC. Senator Nelson became the CEO of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2013. He was selected for the post because of his unique combination of executive, legislative and regulatory experience. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000 where he served for two terms as...

Vantage Point – CEO of the NAIC. Senator Nelson became the CEO of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2013. He was selected for the post because of his unique combination of executive, legislative and regulatory experience. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000 where he served for two terms as […]

Vantage Point – Former Kansas Insurance Commissioner. Sandy Praeger was Kansas Insurance Commissioner from 2002-15. She also served as president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2008. Previously she served in the Kansas Senate from 1992-2000, and before that one term in the Kansas House of Representatives. While in the legislature, she worked to...

Vantage Point – Former Kansas Insurance Commissioner. Sandy Praeger was Kansas Insurance Commissioner from 2002-15. She also served as president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 2008. Previously she served in the Kansas Senate from 1992-2000, and before that one term in the Kansas House of Representatives. While in the legislature, she worked to […]

Listen Now Corporate Owned Life Insurance are life insurance policies corporations buy on their employees whereby the corporation is the named beneficiary.  This practice, at least initially, was adopted as a way of insuring a company against the loss of a limited number of key executives.  These policies also became attractive because both premium returns and benefits paid were not taxed.  Over time large companies, like Walmart, purchased these policies on millions of employees increasingly for the tax advantages and, industry executives argued, to provide or afford employee and retiree medical benefits.  Beyond the moral objection of profiting from an employee's death, even in instances where the person dies years after they left their employer, these polices perversely incent companies to compromise on insuring employee health and workplace safety.  While regulatory limitations have been placed on these policies, in 2007 dead peasant's insurance was estimated to account for 30% of the life insurance market.  During this 22 minute podcast Peter explains what is an "insurable interest," whether we know how corporations use the income derived from these policies, whether  employee consent is required, the outcome of law suits filed by surviving family members against corporations for this practice, reforms made in 2006 to better regulate this practice and whether these policies do indeed on balance undermine insuring worker safety and health status.   Professor Peter Kochenburger is the Executive Director of the University of Connecticut's Law School's Insurance Law Center.  He also serves as Director of the Law School's graduate program, is a Consumer Representative for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and is an Associate Editor for the ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Law Journal.  Before joining UConn. in 2004 Professor Kochenburger spent eleven years as Counsel at Travelers Property Casualty, where he managed coverage and bad faith litigation, as well as legislative and regulatory affairs across such subjects as workers compensation, OSHA, guaranty funds, tort reform, antitrust, and environmental issues.  His professional experience also includes serving as an Assistant Attorney General in the Consumer Protection Division of Iowa's Department of Justice and from 1986-1988 he served as Special Assistant to the dean of the Harvard Law School.  He is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.Related articles'Dead Peasant Insurance' Still Alive in Corporate America This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com