ESI’s Annual Top Producer conference, the ESI Elite Symposium, was held at The Pendry Park City last week and featured networking, engaged business sessions and, of course, celebration.

A highlight of the Symposium is the Awards Dinner where our 2021 top producers received their awards, and a new, surprise award was presented.

Top Individuals Producer Awards

Silver Producer Award
ESI is fortunate to have worked with 2021 Silver Award winner Chuck Creighton for 38 years!  A consistent ESI Circle of Excellence member, Chuck has been in ESI’s top 3 multiple times. Congratulations, Chuck!

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Top Agency Awards

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President’s Award
In addition to our top producer and agency awards, ESI introduced the ESI President’s Award. ESI President, Ata Azarshahi, introduced the award:

“We have had the honor to have long-standing relationships with many of you, in many cases for decades. And because of that long-standing partnership, we’ve celebrated a lot of achievements together. So tonight I’m introducing the President’s Award. It’s not an award that is not based on qualifications; it’s an award to recognize those big milestones.

In 2021, Steve Simon marked his tenth year as the Platinum Producer for Equity Services, and we can’t let that go unrecognized. It’s an exceptional achievement by an exceptional individual who is always offering to contribute.” 

Steve Simon, congratulations on 10 years as ESI’s #1!

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During last week’s Awards Dinner, the 2023 ESI Elite Symposium location was announced! Individuals who qualify in 2022* will join us in Santa Barbara, CA from July 24-28, 2023 at The Ritz-Carlton Bacara, Santa Barbara!

Congratulations to those who have already qualified!

Rich Kelly – Pacific Northwest
Steve Simon – Beverly Hills
Dominick Citera – New York
Mark Vosk – Midsouth
Chuck Creighton – Philadelphia
Chirag Savalia – New Jersey

*Rep Qualifications:       $425,000* of GDC
Agency Qualifications:   $4,250,000* of GDC
Qualification Period:       01/01/2022 – 12/31/2022

* Credits may be adjusted if needed to comply with the Massachusetts Fiduciary Rule. All Fixed Indexed Annuity Sales are excluded from this amount.

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We are looking forward to seeing our ESI Elite Symposium attendees and celebrating their 2021 success!

We’ll be sure to share event highlights in upcoming Insights editions!

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Congratulations again to everyone who qualified for the ESI Elite Symposium being held in Park City, Utah this June! If you didn’t qualify in 2021 for the conference in Utah, make qualifying for the ESI Elite Symposium one of your goals in 2022.

Need some inspiration? The ESI Elite Symposium is a chance to:

• Network with other top producers
• Hear best practices for prospecting and practice management
• Pick up new sales and marketing ideas

And though we haven’t announced the location in 2023 yet, with previous destinations like the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, NC, the Viking Resort in Newport, RI, and the Ritz Carlton New Orleans, the only question is, “Are you on track to qualify?”.

How to Qualify in 2022

Rep Qualifications: $425,000* in GDC

Agency Qualifications: $4,250,000* in GDC

Qualification Period: 1/1/2022-12/31/2022

*Credits may be adjusted if needed to comply with the Massachusetts Fiduciary Rule. Annuity Sales are excluded from this amount.

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Reserved for our top 25 registered representatives, Equity Services’ Circle of Excellence* is ESI’s highest level of recognition. Congratulations to our 2022 members and their amazing achievement!

Steven Simon – Beverly Hills

Mark Vosk – MidSouth

Charles Creighton – Philadelphia

Paul Sortino – Baltimore

Nicola Riverso – New Jersey

Daniel Streeter – Northern New England

Jeffrey Friedrich – New Jersey

Rich Kelly – Pacific Northwest

Travis Ramsdell – Southern New England

Daniel Wolodkiewicz – Midwest Agency

Justin Paine – New Jersey

Alan Fishman – Philadelphia

Tyler Degeneffe – Chicago

Wakanwa Nzambi – MidSouth

Donald Reutemann – Northern New England

Patrick Stephens – Minneapolis

John Stephens – Pacific Northwest

Scott Maitland – Pacific Northwest

Jay Maffe – Southern New England

Dominick Citera – Metro New York

Michael Castillo – Northern New England

Jarred Muraco – Long Island

James Muro – New Jersey

William D’Angelo – New Jersey

Scott Levin – Baltimore

Circle of Excellence Members: How did you achieve COE? If you’d like to share a best practice, click here to submit a best practice or sales idea that helped get you to the Top 25.

*Circle of Excellence membership is based on 2021 production. Credits have been adjusted to comply with the Massachusetts Fiduciary Rule. 

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ESI’s Elite Symposium is our annual educational conference that provides the opportunity to network and share ideas with your peers, hear from world class speakers and meet with ESI’s Strategic & Technology Partners. Held at exceptional locations, the Symposium is always a memorable event – click here to see a slideshow from our conference in New Orleans.

In 2022, qualifiers will join us from June 13-17^th at the Pendry Park City, a luxurious new resort in the awe-inspiring landscape of Utah. Congratulations to all of our qualifiers!

Steve Simon – Beverly Hills

Mark Vosk – MidSouth

Chuck Creighton – Philadelphia

Paul Sortino – Baltimore

Nico Riverso – New Jersey

Dan Streeter – Northern New England

Jeffrey Friedrich – New Jersey

Rich Kelly – Pacific Northwest

Travis Ramsdell – Southern New England

Dan Wolodkiewicz – Midwest Agency

Justin Paine – New Jersey

Alan Fishman – Philadelphia

Tyler Degeneffe – Chicago

WM Nzambi – MidSouth

Don Reutemann – Northern New England

Patrick Stephens – Minneapolis

John Stephens – Pacific Northwest

Scott Maitland – Pacific Northwest

Jay Maffe – Southern New England

Dominick Citera – Metro New York

Michael Castillo – Northern New England

Jarred Muraco – Long Island

James Muro – New Jersey

William D’Angelo – New Jersey

Scott Levin – Baltimore

Brian Doherty – Southern New England

Bert Livingston – MidSouth

Carl Castanho – Southern New England

Kyle Voiland – Southern New England

Gary Liskow – Long Island

Jerry Pasichow – New Jersey

Matthew Walker – Northern New England

Christopher Huchro – Northern New England

James McAteer – New Jersey

Marty Olson – Utah

Michelle Lawrence – Northern New England

Daniel Moruzzi – Long Island

Edward Degeneffe – Chicago

Whitley Mott – Minnetonka

Sam Maruca – Long Island

Matthew Lempa – Philadelphia

Sal Mondello – Metro New York

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Agency Qualifiers

Randy Raner – Northern New England Agency

Mike Marino – New Jersey Agency

Jay Goodman/Rod Hurowitz – Long Island Agency

Jay Maffe – Southern New England Agency

Rick Cederberg – MidSouth Agency

David Jacowitz – Philadelphia Agency

*The 2022 ESI Elite Symposium is based on 2021 production. Credits have been adjusted to comply with the Massachusetts Fiduciary Rule. 

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Congrats to our Award Winners!
One of the highlights of the Symposium is our Awards Dinner! Hosted by ESI’s Rich Whalen, the Awards dinner honored both our 2019 and 2020 top producers.

Agency Award Winners

2019 and 2020 Silver Agency Award
The Silver Agency Award winner took the award for the first time in 2019 and captured it again in 2020. Congratulations to Jay Goodman of the Long Island agency! 

2019 and 2020 Gold Agency Award
The 2019 and 2020 Gold Agency Award recipient has consistently placed in the top 3 since 2009. Congratulations to Randy Raner of the Northern New England agency!

2019 and 2020 Platinum Agency Award
ESI’s Platinum Agency Award winners  broke into the top 3 in 2016, moved in to the #2 slot the following year, and now hold the Platinum Award for 2019 and 2020. Congratulations to Victor Muro and Jim Ortenzio from the New York/New Jersey agency.

Individual Award Winners

2019 Silver Award Winner
Our 2019 Silver Award winner just celebrated 31 years with ESI. Congratulations to Rich Kelly of the Pacific Northwest Agency!

2020 Silver Award Winner
Our 2020 Silver Award Winner celebrated his first time in the top 3. Congratulations to Dominick Citera of the New York Agency!

2019 Gold Award Winner
2019 also marked the first time in our top 3 for our 2019 Gold Award winner. Congratulations to Dan Streeter of the Northern New England agency!

2020 Gold Award Winner
Our 2020 Gold Award winner has been in the ESI Top 3 every year since 2015. Congratulations to Mark Vosk from the MidSouth agency!

2019 and 2020 Platinum Award Winners
This year’s 2019 and 2020 Platinum Award winner is celebrating his 9^th year in a row at #1! Congratulations to Steve Simon from the Beverly Hills office!

Ideas and Inspiration
This year’s Symposium included presenters and panels that focused on a variety of topics including:

• Teaming for Growth and Efficiency
• Opportunities in the Business Owner Market
• Annuity Landscape: Solutions for Every Client
• The Value of Managing Both Sides of the Balance Sheet
• Plenty of Fiscal and Monetary Stimulus! Has It Been Overdone?
• DOL Update
• Tapping Into Technology
• Illuminations 2.0: Evolution of a Platform
• Building Your Business with Separately Managed Accounts
• The New Tax Landscape and What It Means for Your Clients

We also shared updates from ESI’s departments and a keynote address from National Life Group Chairman, CEO, and President, Mehran Assadi. The conference closed out with Dr. Ivan Joseph, Award Winning Performance Coach, Leadership & Cultural Transformation Expert.

We’ll be sharing best practices and ideas from the conference in the coming weeks!

Strategic Partner Presence
This year’s conference wouldn’t be complete without our Strategic Partners. This year we were joined by:

• Allianz Life
• AssetMark
• Brinker Capital
• Docupace
• Envestnet
• Equitable Distributors
• Fidelity Institutional
• Goldman Sachs
• Jackson
• Maple Capital Management, Inc.
• SEI
• Touchstone Investments
• Transamerica

And Finally….The Big Reveal
The conference wouldn’t be complete without announcing the 2022 location, and this year was no exception. So where will the 2022 ESI Elite Symposium be held?

Pendry Park City, Utah

June 13 -17, 2022

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We knew it was coming – and the milestone has been hit! Mark Vosk reached $1 Million of GDC at the end of last week! CONGRATULATIONS MARK!!! What an amazing achievement!

Want to learn about Mark and how he’s achieved such impressive success? Hear his story!

ESI is grateful for our 21-year relationship with Mark. AND with his record year, he helped us break a record, too! Thanks to Mark and Steve Simon, for the first time in ESI history, we have TWO reps that have reached over $1mm of GDC in a single year!

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While we’ve celebrated the Reps who have qualified for the ESI Elite Symposium in 2021, we want to also send a congratulations out to all the agencies who have qualified. Congratulations to the following agencies for your success! We appreciate your business and hard work!

• Northern New England Agency, General Agent Randy Raner
• Redbank Agency, General Agent Mike Marino
• Long Island Agency, General Agent Jay Goodman

Qualifications for the 2022 ESI Elite Symposium run through the end of this year, and it looks like the Southern New England (Jay Maffe) and MidSouth (Rick Cederberg) agencies are on track to qualify! If you’re looking for some inspiration, take a look at our marketing campaigns!

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Its no secret ESI is trying to grow – and we’ve always known our best reps are the one’s YOU find! Back in January we launched our Rep Referral Bonus program, and now that renewal discussions will start up before we know it, we thought we’d remind you of this program in case a peer is looking for a change.

How it Works:

Referral Bonus

Existing ESI Reps refer their contacts to their agency leaders and ESI will pay a referral bonus of 2.5% of GDC generated by the referred rep in their first 12 months with ESI.

To Qualify for a Referral Bonus

• The referred rep must have produced $50,000 or more in Broker Dealer GDC at their previous firm.
• Trailing 12-month GDC statements are required to document historical production.
• The bonuses will be based on actual GDC generated in the first 12 months with ESI.

Do you have questions? We’ve got answers! Please reach out to Lou Martinez at LMartinez@Nationallife.com or Lauren Finney at LFinney@NationalLife.com if you have any questions about this program.

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