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October 2008
   VOICES FROM THE FIELD
GAMC Stages First LAMP Meeting Since the NALU no longer held midyear meetings, a convenient spot opened up in the industry meeting calendar for those who needed to focus on the problems of agency management. Accordingly, the General Agents and Manages Conference staged its first "Life Agency Management Pow-wow" (LAMP) March 4-6 1963, at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Cleveland. (In this case, the term "life" had a double meaning: during the first several years these meetings were sponsored by Life magazine. Their publicity department apparently liked the American Indian theme devised by the GAMC leadership.) About 230 people attended both general sessions and workshops devoted to recruiting and selection, training, financing, supervision, prestige building, upgrading the agent, and building an agency. C. Carney Smith, Charmin of the GAMC, noted this was the first time since its organization eleven years previously that the 7,000 member Conference had held a meeting independent of the NALU. The experiment was successful. L. Kent Babcock, a general agent for Aetna Life in Philadelphia who succeeded Smith as GAMC chairman, enthusiastically endorsed the idea of a repeat performance in 1964. The next year the meeting, also held at the Statler in Cleveland, attracted twice as many general agents and managers. In subsequent years these LAMP meeting have become among the most popular in the industry. The term "pow-wow" was dropped in 1969 in favor of "program." The GAMC also acquired a new executive director when Nancy Grobert resigned on May 31, 1964. She was replaced by Horace D. Flickinger, an agency supervisor for the Equitable of Iowa in Baltimore. Previously, he had been a director of training for North American Life and was a former president of the Baltimore Association of Life Underwriters. At the time he was serving on the NALU's committee on Associations. He proved very satisfactory in his role as executive for this rapidly expanding organization. James Bird's reign over NALU headquarters was brief. He did not seem to relate well to the agents, nor to most of the staff. From the beginning Association leaders voiced dissatisfaction, and relations became increasingly strained. In April 1963, Life Association News announced, "C. Carney Smith, CLU, general agent for Mutual Benefit Life in Washington, D.C. Since 1949 and currently national chairman of the General Agents and Managers Conference of the NALU, was named on March 18 as executive vice president of the National Association of Life Underwriters." Noting that Smith would assume his new duties by midsummer, the announcement explained:
Fortunately, Byrd was able to resume his former position with the Houston bank. Smith was fifty-one. Unlike some of his predecessors, he was neither a lawyer nor a past NALU president; he had never been a trustee nor had he managed a life insurance company, as Woodson had. But Smith's rhetorical abilities enabled him to communicate readily and effectively. An accomplished speaker, his personality, managerial skills and his understanding of the Association's role in the industry made him singularly suited to direct the affairs of the NALU. He was born in Kalamazoo Michigan. His father died while Smith was still a boy. Consequently he was forced to earn his way though school as a butcher. Smith graduated form Western Michigan University and received his M.A. form the University of Michigan. He had been a social worker, a speech teacher, and a regional director of the American Red Cross before entering the life insurance business in 1946. Smith was also fortunate in having a warm and charming wife. Millicent (Millie) Smith had a reputation as one of Washington's most gracious hostesses. Years later, sometime after Smiths retirement, Holdgar Johnson observed, "Carney made an outstanding managing director. He had a faculty for building a great rapport with the company executive personnel, which had a lot to do with encouraging the companies to recognize the important part the NALU has in the whole structure of the business. Carney has probably had more influence on that than anyone I've ever known. His outgiving and outgoing personality enabled him to make the industry very conscious of NALU activities." [xxvii] Barnes observes, "Lester Schriver was a personal executive, and while he did an exceedingly good job for his time, I do believe he left Carney without much structure and the modern structure of the NALU as we see it now was conceived and put together by Carney." Under the able guidance of Dunaway, Smith soon familiarized himself with the NALU's legislative operations. Almost immediately, he set about expanding the legal and public relations departments. While Dunaway remained the NALU's general counsel and chief legal advisor, Douds was given charge of the administration of the legal department. Two young lawyers, Donald M. Kinison and David J. Pattison, joined the legal staff, James Woods was assigned to assist Kobel in public relations, and Travis Kid and twenty-three-year-old Richard Bernot became editorial assistants for Life Association News. A new post, director of health insurance activities was filled by Robert H. Turner. One of Byrd's last official acts had been to dismiss Ann Bickerton. Consequently, Smith named Lee Derkay, who had been administrative assistant in Schriver's time, to replace Bickerton as director of association management. As the demand for promotional and organizational assistance to local associations increased during the next several years, additional staff was hired. In 1966 Smith appointed William M. Bartlett director of association management. A few months later William N. Albus, a Georgetown University graduate and former counsel with the office of corporation counsel of the District of Columbia, was added to the legal department. The NALU's 74th convention took place at Bal Harbour, Florida. It was a small gathering compared to previous conventions; there were only about 2,000 delegates and the guests in attendance. John Z Schneider of Baltimore became president of the National association for the 1963-64 Association year. A manager for the Connecticut General Life, he had a reputation for managerial efficiency and political adroitness. In addition to a degree from Johns Hopkins in business administration, Schneider had a law degree. In 1970, after his retirement from business, the NALU hired him as a consultant on equity based products. "In view of the industry's accelerating entry into this field, he will serve as a liaison with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Association of Securities Dealers," the announcement stated. Smith noted that Schneider had for several years been training his agents in the marketing of equity products, and added that he would also prepare articles and reports of interest to association members. His legal background would enable him to assist the NALU legal staff on equity legislation. The 1963 Russell award went to Woodson. In citing him for the honor former NALU president William Henley said, "You have achieved a remarkable and unique record of outstanding service to the institution of life insurance as an institutional leader, insurance executive, educational leader, and community servant." In October 1963, the NALU unveiled its first sponsored program of association and professionally liability insurance. Pointing to recent court decisions foreshadowing "a hitherto unexplored field of litigation between insurance agents and their clients," in an article prepared by the NALU's legal staff, Life Association News warned agents, "It should be borne in mind that, hand-in-hand with improved status and greater acceptance of the life underwriter as a qualified financial advisor, goes increased duty and responsibility to the public. As never before in the past, life underwriters may find themselves subject to legal liability for losses due to errors for omissions in establishing maintaining adequate insurance programs for their clients." The coverage, underwritten by the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company of San Francisco through brokers Marsh and McLennan, was available to members through their local associations. Many, however, declined go take advantage of the plan. In July 1965, when the Board of Trustees approved the addition of libel and slander coverage, only one-third of the associations affiliated with the NALU had availed themselves of the program. Fifty years after he had first addressed an NALU convention and fired the delegates with his vision of agents as professionals, Solomon Huebner, president emeritus of the American College of Life Underwriters, died on July 17, 1964, at the age of 82. It was not until 1953 that he had retired from his forty-nine-year career at the University of Pennsylvania. "Teacher, author, philosopher, Dr. Huebner demonstrated the kind of personal dedication…that needs to be bred into all generations of life underwriters," NALU president John Schneider commented. Recalling Huebner's insistence on high intellectual standards Schneider added, " The passage of time must not be permitted to obscure the fact that Solomon S. Huebner's conviction and dedication were so strong that he refused to compromise on principle and thereby he imparted absolute integrity to the purposes and mission of the American College of Life Underwrites and the CLU movement." Foreword by Alan Press, 1988-1989 NALU President Preface by Jack E. Bobo, 1989 NALU Executive Vice President Chapter 1 Laying the Foundation—A Meeting at the Parker House Leading Figures—Ransom, Carpenter, Blodgett and Plummer Conditions Leading to the Foundation of the NALU Rise of Modern Life Insurance and the General Agency System Issues and Accomplishments of the First 15 Years Chapter 2 In the Wake of the Armstrong Investigation A Royal Commission Investigates Life Insurance Operations in Canada A Period of Growth and Visibility for the NALU Under Strong Leadership The NALU Plays a Leading Role in Insurance Education Chapter 3 The NALU's Extension of Activity The Agents Move for Recognition Chapter 4 Annual Conventions and Midyear Meetings The NALU Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary Chapter 5 The NALU Joins the Industry in Legislative Battles The NALU Establishes the National Quality Award Chapter 6 Controversies and Schisms (1946-1956) Chapter 7 Dispute Over Minimum Deposit Insurance Plans GAMC Stages First LAMP Meeting The NALU Celebrates Its Diamond Jubilee Year The NALU Increases Political Activity U.S. Senate Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee Investigate Life Insurance The NALU Responds to Consumerist Activism Chapter 8 The NALU Reaches the Century Mark FTC Releases a Study Critical of the Insurance Industry Formation of the Women Life Underwriters Conference The NALU Issues Statements on AIDS The NALU Combats a New Wave of Attacks The NALU Celebrates a Century of Service [xxvi] Op., cit., p. 13 [xxvii] Johnson: Interview, May 1985 © Advisor Today 2008. All rights reserved.
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