Recap: BuddyIns at ILTCI 2023
We are back from the ILTCI conference held in Denver, March 12-15, and we are thrilled to share our highlights and takeaways with you. The conference was a great success for BuddyIns, as we had the opportunity to connect with our internal team, our specialists, and our community partners. We also learned a lot from the sessions and speakers, and we are excited to apply and share what we learned.
Below are some of the highlights of our time at ILTCI 2023.
The BuddyIns Team and Community
BuddyIns Team: Petar Vukasinovic, Surya Jakhotia, Marc Glickman, Gretchen Barry, Jason Dutra, and Wendy Boglioli
We loved being together with our top LTCi specialist partners, who are the backbone of our community. We had fun catching up with them, sharing best practices, and celebrating their achievements.
We enjoyed sharing our booth’s Community Gathering Place with Fairway Mortgage, one of our referral partners. Christine Jensen of Fairway delivered a brilliant presentation on the importance of partnerships in the LTCi industry.
We spent time with our close friends and Voluntary Advantage publication founders, Trevor and Heather Garbers.
Marc met Gretchen Barry in person for the first time despite working together daily on Zoom for 3 years. It happened to be Gretchen’s birthday and that gave us an opportunity to treat her to a birthday brunch with our tech partner, Petar Vukasinovic. Petar even had the opportunity to try Chicago-style pizza for the first time – in Denver!
Speaking of Petar, he and his amazing Agilno team are building the new Buddy System software, which Jason and Marc demoed live for the first time at the conference. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and we can’t wait to launch it soon.
And of course, we couldn’t miss the chance to visit with our resident Olympic gold medalist and U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame inductee Wendy Boglioli along with her husband, Bernie Boglioli.
We dropped in on the CLTC team and their class that was held ahead of the conference.
We were booth neighbors with our community partners TCare and Amada. We took advantage of the opportunity to discuss the future of caregiver support.
We were fortunate to be joined by another BuddyIns tech partner, Surya Jakhotia. We capitalized on our time together by analyzing the group LTCi / Hybrid market. We’re confident that his UniBlox group enrollment platform will transform the industry and are excited to be part of that transformation.
Our time at the conference demonstrated the tremendous support we have from our carrier partners for our technology initiatives.
Wendy had several conversations with Jeff Levin of OneAmerica and anytime she can be in front of Jeff or Joe Guyotte of NGL is a win. They have great respect for one another. Her time in the booth signing autographs and meeting new people was invaluable. She also caught up with several of her old colleagues who have now joined other carriers.
The booth that Gretchen and Jason built was the talk of the conference! Look for it again next year.
And the top thing we learned as a team is that although being all virtual with our company has given us great success, there is no replacement for time spent together in the same room!
Gretchen Barry and Jason Dutra taking a break from building the BuddyIns booth.
What We Learned
The conference offered a variety of sessions and speakers covering topics such as sales and marketing strategies, product innovation, regulatory updates, consumer trends, technology solutions, and more. We learned a lot from the experts and thought leaders in the LTCi space, and we also contributed our own insights and perspectives.
New and creative product offerings are allowing more people than ever to have a long-term care insurance plan.
Although marketing continues to be a challenge for many in the LTCi space, focusing on one channel consistently can begin to build a strong brand.
Technology is becoming more involved than ever in guiding the LTC planning conversation.
Though there’s still no replacement for a specialist, more financial planners, benefits professionals, and others are becoming LTC planning advocates and getting involved with LTC planning with their help.
Robotics and AI are a powerful and versatile presence in the LTC landscape, providing companionship, light caretaking, and keeping costs down for many industry spheres.
There is tremendous interest in expanding the information available to educate consumers on the importance of planning. Group sales are expected to be a big part of that and BuddyIns will continue to be at the forefront of those efforts along with our carrier partners.
Wendy presents her passionate ideas for sharing women’s stories about long-term care and caregiving.
More LTC products and alternative solutions are in development. Stay tuned! Technology will play a key role in managing costs. Marketing will focus on education.
The proposed payroll tax in California will help jump-start more kitchen table LTC planning conversations around the nation.
The long-term care industry is full of great humans working to improve the lives of American families. And more financial planners are coming to the realization that they need to have LTC conversations with their clients and partner with LTCi specialists.
We are grateful to the ILTCI organizers and sponsors for putting together such a valuable and enjoyable conference. We are also thankful to all the attendees who stopped by our booth, joined our sessions, or chatted with us in the hallways, exhibitor spaces, and hotel lobbies. We appreciate your interest and support. As Wendy Boglioli says, “It was a huge WIN!”
Hope to see you in San Diego in 2024 – just look for the orange booth!