Business-Minded

That Bryan Yetman had received the 2015 Dale Rempel Award of Excellence – established last year by the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada (IBAC) – came as a bit of a shock to the vice president of operations for First Durham Insurance and Financial in Pickering, Ontario.

“I’m not really an awards guy,” says Yetman, who was, nonetheless, greatly honoured to receive an award named for Dale Rempel, IBAC’s much-loved former president who died three years ago. “You almost don’t know how to react.”

The reaction to Yetman – and what he has achieved over less than two decades in the business – has been far clearer. Presented at IBAC’s President’s Banquet in Quebec City this September, the award is meant to recognize someone who has made a significant difference in the professional development of insurance brokers.

That recognition was made all the more special since Yetman knew Rempel, whose passion for broker education, development and advancement was clear to all who met him.

Being passionate about broker education is something that comes naturally to Yetman, one of the youngest-ever presidents of the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO).

Among his contributions are co-facilitating a series of seminars, including Understanding the 21st Century Insurance Consumer (developed by Navicom’s Bill Morris and delivered by Morris and Yetman) and All Customers Are Not Created Equal; helping educate brokers and consumers on legislation detailing Ontario auto reforms, always a hot issue in the province; and serving as a key leader in the Young Brokers Council (YBC).

AT THE BEGINNING

Yetman was very clear, very early on, regarding the path he wanted to pursue. “Early on in high school, I knew that business was the way that I wanted to align myself,” he says.

His parents provided a “living example” of how fulfilling being insurance brokers could be, having a family brokerage at the time, but the lure for Yetman was not necessarily insurance as much as business in general.

With that interest firmly set, he enrolled in the commerce program at Carleton University in Ottawa. While there, he learned about an insurance program at nearby Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology. Making what he calls one of the hardest decisions of his life, Yetman left his university education – “which, in my family, was a very big deal” – for the college program.

Despite how difficult the initial decision was to make, Yetman now says what it provided him has been invaluable. “What that gave me coming out of school, coming into the business, was huge, absolutely huge. The technical knowledge that I had coming into the business was priceless.”

Yetman’s first job was not at the family brokerage, but rather at the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO). Working in the ombudsman’s office resolving consumer complaints, he got yet another education.

“You learn a hell of a lot real quick in that role,” he says. “That opened my eyes that we had to do a better job as an industry to communicate with customers about how our products worked.”

He remained at FSCO for about a year before returning to the family business.

JUMPING IN

While Yetman’s entry into business may have been by design, his involvement in YBC – a likely launching point for what followed – was more happenstance.

Recalling being at a luncheon, attendees were asked to consider volunteering. Looking around and seeing no hands go up, Yetman thought the prospect sounded interesting, and being the new guy, decided to give it a go. “I wonder if my path would have been a whole lot different had I not done that that day.”

It turned out to be solid decision. “It became very obvious early on that youth in the business was something that the industry is challenged with. I think we still are, but I think that movement has come a long way,” Yetman says. Getting younger people involved “has had huge dividends to our industry because it’s brought fresh ideas and fresh minds.”

But despite being varied, interesting and rewarding, getting young people to consider insurance as a career is no easy task. “I think in a lot of ways our industry is one of the best-kept secrets, and that’s not a good thing,” Yetman says.

It is one reason he plans to teach some courses as part of Durham College’s insurance program. “It’s not just about talking about the insurance industry, but it’s about creating the environment for post-secondary education where people can actually graduate with some skills.”

Yetman regards it as a duty to young people to help nurture these programs so they can grow and succeed. “It’s only us as an industry that benefits at the end of the day,” he points out.

Work on the YBC was followed by his time on the IBAO board, which Yetman joined in his late-20s, and executive board, before becoming president for the 2010 term.

After joining the board, he remembers there being some members in their 30s and 40s, but most were in their 50s and 60s. “They were giving back,” he realized. “Well, I had nothing to give back to the business, so (he took) every opportunity I had to participate.”

Through his work experience, volunteer efforts and educational pursuits, the message about the need to serve customer only became more entrenched.

“We’ve done a very bad job of engaging customers and communicating with customers,” Yetman argues. “I’m very fearful of many brokers and carriers who create an environment where we have to continue to do business like it’s 1985. It’s not 1985 anymore,” he says.

It is necessary to engage with customers “about things that matter to them, whether or not there’s a sale at the end of that conversation,” he contends.

To Yetman’s mind, the big challenge brokers face is how to use technology. “It all comes back to technology, right? Competition, how we’re going to engage customers on the web,” he says. “That’s what’s making our competitor better. It’s the data that they can turn on its ear that we can’t or aren’t doing.”

Technology is just part of what will help brokerages be more strategic. “When I look at traditional broker education, it’s about teaching people about policy and wordings. And while that is certainly important to a point, I’d like to see education turn on its ear” by having programming that works with brokers and brokerage owners about how to become more strategic business people.

“Teach me how to export and import data from my (broker management system) and use that information to make intelligent and strategic decisions, help me work with my staff to change their mindset and the culture of the business and of the industry as a whole,” he says.

Yetman has seen great value in taking part, emphasizing that he has learned so much from being a volunteer. “I’m not so sure I could ever pay for the kind of education that I got through that experience,” he says.