This year's five finalists for Benefits Selling's Broker of the Year came to theindustry in a variety of ways, and each one has found a uniquestrategy that has driven their success. Although they come fromacross the country and have built their brands in different ways,our five nomineees have one major trait in common: putting theirclients first.

Despite an ever evolving industry, these finalists have keptclient satisfaction and success a top priority. Their practiceshave thrived because of this commitment, and now they are our toppicks for the 2016 Broker of the Year.

Bradley Davis

Thirteen years ago, Brad Davis filed for bankruptcy to avoidcarrying bad debt into a marriage. Davis wanted to make sure itwould never happen again and began taking personal finance courses.Soon, he realized he wanted to become a financial planner. Aroundthat time, he attended a backyard barbecue and mentioned his plansto a fellow attendee, who advised him not to chase the stockmarket, but to sell insurance instead.

The next thing Davis knew, he was submitting a resume. Whilereading over his new employer's benefits plan on his first day ofwork, he realized he didn't understand it. From then on, Davisvowed to be one of the smartest guys in the room.

“I'm a teacher,” Davis says. “If I hear of a new concept, Ilearn it well enough to teach it. And I can teach a business owneror a rank-and-file employee. Being able to teach at all levelsmeans you have to understand the plans. I have the mind of ateacher.”

Today, Davis — a finalist for Benefits Selling's 2016Broker of the Year — currently serves as an owner and partner atWraith, Scarlettand Randolph Insurance Services in Woodland, California, wherehe's responsible for around 125 mostly small-group clients. InFebruary 2016, Davis was made a partner in the 40-person firm.

Davis, 41, has become known as “the broker's broker,” mainly due to hishigh profile in the local media and his work helping out his fellowbrokers — even if they're competitors. “A lot of people have calledme that because I teach,” Davis says. “I teach employees aboutbenefits. I teach brokers about benefits. I teach employers aboutbenefits.”

The 10-year industry veteran has appeared on his local NPRstation and in local newspapers explaining Obamacare. He alsoserves as a circuit rider of sorts, visiting seminars, chambers ofcommerce, lunch-and-learns, and even hospitals to talk and teachabout employee benefits. Oftentimes, other brokers bounce ideas offhim after one of his talks.

“It feels like the right thing to do,” Davis says. “If I lookback, my book of business has grown every year. I've just beendoing the right thing. I can't pinpoint specifically why workingwith my competitors has helped me, but I've gotten a ton ofbusiness.”

Davis also attributes his success to an ability to stay on topof regulations affecting the industry; He routinely makes trips toSacramento and Washington, D.C. to find out what's in thelegislative pipeline. He also serves on the California state boardof the National Association of Healthcare Underwriters.

“If I pay attention to regulation and that stuff, it's a crystalball into the future — even if it's legislation that doesn'thappen,” Davis says. “I know what's going to happen six monthsbefore other brokers. Most others are in a reaction mode andrespond to legislation after it comes out. I help shape regulationand get an idea of what the regulations are before they'repassed.”

Fred Garfield

After 37 years in the employee benefits industry, Fred Garfieldis in a position to think and talk strategy with his clients. Buthe's not averse to rolling up his sleeves and using his know-how toscore a tactical win for his clients, either. He once saved acompany on a self-funded insurance plan from bankruptcy by gettinga stop-loss carrier to release funds the same day the firm was hitwith a $350,000 claim.

“The company was in no position to absorb it,” Garfield recalls.“They had no line of credit. Literally, the payroll would havebounced.”

But there's a lot more that explains Garfield's success. The2016 Benefits Selling Broker of the Year finalist admits to being alifelong student of the industry, but he's also the first to saythat he relies on a strong support staff that allows him to focuson the part of his job he's best at — strategy.

“Our philosophy is taking clients with complex needs and limitedresources to a higher level of performance,” Garfield says. “We'renot product-focused; we're performance focused. We're big ondrawing a battle plan. Know the goal, know how to get there, makesure the client understands.”

Garfield, a senior vice president and practice team leader forThe Horton Group of Orland Park, Illinois, oversees a staff of 11that is responsible for 45 accounts and $3.7 million in business.Clients range from 300 to 6,000 members and Garfield works closelywith 16 of them.

“I think I'm really good and very passionate about doing what Ido,” Garfield says. “I love to see the results for our clients. Ourretention and loyalty is rewarding — almost more than anythingelse. We've built an honest, ethical business.”

The Chicago native, 61, got started in the industry in 1980after he answered a newspaper ad. He started working for a companyhe calls “less than reputable,” but soon left to start his ownfirm, which grew to 20 employees before merging in 1996 with TheHorton Group, a company that today has 330 employees with 11offices in five states. Horton services around 2,000 clients with$65 million in business across the entire company. Garfield hasmoved most of his clients over to a private-exchange model, whichhas helped them manage health care costs.

“My personal philosophy is that I want to do for my client whatI would do if I were in their shoes — but knowing what I know,”Garfield says. “I want to know what's driving their businessdecisions. And I want them to know that I would do things the sameway if I was sitting in the office next to them.”

Garfield worked in radio at the beginning of his career andintroduced some of the great musical acts of the day, including TheGrateful Dead, Journey, and Genesis. And believe it or not, hecontinues to use some of his broadcasting skills to this day.

“I have no fear of public speaking,” Garfield says. “I did a lotof concert hosting — getting up in front of 18,000 people tointroduce a band. After that, how hard is it to do an open enrollment meeting?”

Nathaniel Garfield

Nat Garfield can connect today's employee benefits industry withthe fate of his great-great grandfather, President James A.Garfield, who was assassinated by Charles Guiteau in 1881.

“There's a correlation between our industry and what happened tohim,” Garfield says. “In the end, it wasn't the assassin's bulletthat killed him, it was the doctors. He died of sepsis, but heprobably could have lived with a bullet in his back. Today, it'sthe doctors that are killing our business — the costs are sohigh.”

A 25-year veteran of the industry, Garfield has survived thetwin bullets of high costs and intensive governmentregulation that have claimed the careers of otherbenefits professionals. In fact, as vice president and director ofemployee benefits for Team APFS of Rochester, New York, the 2016 BenefitsSelling Broker of the Year finalist helps oversee a company thathas experienced growth every year since its 2005 founding, employs35 professionals, and draws 95 percent of its business from within25 miles of the home office.

Garfield attributes much of his company's success to a basicapproach to business: Doing the right thing. As an example,Garfield once convinced a client to hold an evening open enrollmentmeeting for night shift employees. Until then, the employer hadonly held daytime meetings. During the evening meeting, Garfieldheard from an employee whose wife was sick. Garfield helped shiftthe spouse to a Medicare program, which led to a savings of $5,000per year for the employee — effectively a 10 percent raise.

As of March 2016, the Boston native, 52, still works with 60 to70 clients — a book that covers everyone from large employers tosole proprietors. “I treat them all exactly the same way, itdoesn't matter if you're the president of a 1,000-person company orit's just you and your wife,” Garfield says. “You deserve to betreated in a certain way.”

For Garfield, doing right also meant leaving a job that paid sixfigures to start his own shop. After a few months, though, BobBartolatta, who remains his partner, asked Garfield to form athree-person boutique firm that would become Team APFS. Early on,Garfield ground out roughly $300 to $400 per month, but today thecompany has 450–500 employee benefits clients, which accounts for40 percent of the business. Team APFS still sells a lot of healthinsurance, but Garfield reports growth in voluntary andsupplemental benefits.

Garfield also preaches doing right by his employees. For a firmof Team APFS' size and client roster, Garfield relies on his staffto keep client service exceptional — and that doesn't happen unlesshis employees are happy. So far, it's worked. Team APFS was votedone of Rochester's top workplaces in 2015 and 2016.

“We need our staff to be happy,” he says. “Our clients interactwith our staff on a daily basis and if our employees aren't happy,it translates to the client experience. We've lost some businessbecause of politics or a client who found a better mouse trap, butthey've all said they miss us.”

Sallie Giblin

About three years ago, Sallie Giblin went to her bosses andasked them to hire her a project manager. At the time, Giblin says,she needed the extra help to manage her pipeline. She was told thatthe company would only fund such a position for brokers with muchlarger books of business than hers.

Giblin, a finalist for Benefits Selling's 2016 Broker of theYear, knew she needed assistance in order to grow her business, andbegan looking for a project manager on her own. Eventually, shefound a great candidate on LinkedIn and hired her. In thebeginning, Giblin paid the project manager's salary out of her ownpocket. Within nine months, Giblin was able to write $1.5 millionworth of new business.

“She started out as 'Saving Grace,'” Giblin recalls. “And nowI've promoted her to 'Amazing Grace' and introduce her as my chiefof staff.'”

Today, the project manager — Grace Bennett — is on the Locktonpayroll, where Giblin serves as an executive vice president ofLockton's southern California benefits practice. She has become oneof Lockton's top producers.

“It shows that I'm a hard charging female who doesn't pick up mytoys and go home when I don't get my way,” Giblin says. “Sometimeswhen people get told, 'No,' they want to give up. Just because Iwasn't getting the support I needed, I wasn't going to throw a fitor leave.”

The La Jolla, California-based Giblin, 42, currently has around25 mid- to-large-size clients and 85 percent to 90 percent of herbook comes from employee benefits accounts. She also serves on thecompany's executive committee.

In a 20-year career that began as an administrative assistant toa broker at another firm, Giblin now owns one of the mostwell-known personal brands in employee benefits in the San Diegomarket. She gives much of the credit to Lockton and the teams thatwork with her clients, but she's also figured out a key strategyfor attracting and retaining clients.

“I think I can get people thinking more than another brokermight and I can find out what's driving their thinking,” Giblinsays. “I think it's about getting my clients and prospects to openup and talk to me so I can figure out what's going to make animpact.”

Because Giblin has had great success, she felt she needed to dosomething more. Giblin decided to create a mentorship program forother female producers at Lockton.The group, called Elite Women Producers, convenes once a month viaa conference call and holds two in-person meetings a year. Giblinsays the group has 15 members that represent 10 percent of theoverall number of producers at Lockton.

“At our last monthly call, everyone put together their visionboard and presented it to the group,” Giblin says. “It was cool tosee what was driving their focus and where they're going. It'sgreat that we have such a talented group of women who are helpingeach other. It's a network people can tap into that they cantrust.”

Reed Smith

Ask a benefits professional about how the Affordable Care Acthas affected the industry and you're likely to get more answersthan there are carriers on your local exchange. Ask CoBizInsurance's Reed Smith the same question, and he'll give you aperspective that not many people may have considered.

“We've helped employers understand that the ACA has created alandscape of change around health care,” Smith says. “And change in health care is hard.Culturally, people get used to doing things a certain way. But thelandscape of change means consumers are expecting change and thatprovides a great opportunity. It's easier now to change than itever has been. So we tell clients to leverage that as anopportunity to introduce some strategic change.”

And Smith, a 2016 finalist for Benefits Selling's Broker of theYear, understands change. He started off his career working on theother side of the employee benefits relationship, so to speak, as asales representative, first for Great West Healthcare and then, viabuy-out, for one of the largest health insurers in the country,Cigna. After around 10 years on the carrier side, he joined CoBizInsurance in Denver and has been there ever since. Having abackground on the carrier side, he says, has helped him forgerelationships with many of his clients.

“I think we are able to connect and have very well-educated andinformed discussions with the underwriters we work with,” Smithsays. “Myself and a few others in our office began our career onthe insurance carrier side of the industry. We can help the[client's] CFO understand how an insurance carrier works to meetits requirements by controlling their utilization patterns to beatinflation rates and then explain to them that we don't need to besubject to their increases because we are separating ourselves fromthe rest of the companies they serve. Unless you've been insidetheir walls, it's hard to understand their perspective.”

Smith, 37, now serves as senior vice president and practiceleader at CoBiz, which has 300 to 325 clients on its roster, andhas offices in Denver and Phoenix. Smith works with about 50clients in the small to mid-size range. Since Smith joined CoBiz,the employee benefits business has grown from $2 million in 2009 tomore than $6 million last year. CoBiz has helped clients realizehealth care savings through a variety of strategies, includingtelemedicine, wellness, and incentive programs. Smith also focuseson instilling a consumer driven approach to health care decisionsby his clients' employees.

The Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, native helps coach his sons' sportsteams and can translate some of the things that make successfulteams to his relationships inside and outside his company.

“We've got to get everyone to agree and understand their role,”Smith says. “Showing up randomly to a practice or a meeting with noreal goal leads to a random result. We want the opposite. Let'sdefine the end goal and do the things that build to thatresult.”