by Kevin Morris, Las Vegas, December 2022
The insurance industry is one of the largest in the world and has been around for hundreds of years, making it ripe for transformation by newcomers in the space. Over the past three years, technology has pushed the frontier of what’s possible, making way for a new breed of digital-first insurance companies to come to life. The use of automation technology, data, artificial intelligence (AI), and modern design has created a powerful combination, changing what was once a very policy-centric industry to one that’s customer-centric.
I recently had the chance to speak to Joshua Schneeloch Founder and CEO of, White Wing Insurance Solutions LLC the digital insurance company powered by social impact with a mission dedicated to building the “most loveable insurance broker house” in the market. During our conversation, he spoke about his company how he uses automation, AI, and big data, and how it impacts the Insurance Broker experience and the opportunities.
Q: Last. Day of the Money 2.0 conference, it looks like you have a wonderful award here. Tell me about this award and what it means to you.
Joshua: What this award means to me is one big thing. Getting an award and this is actually my first award in the US in the city and in the country where I landed the first time from Germany leaving the orphanage. It gives me confidence in whatever I did in the last 35 years after my orphanage, was right. I'm very much thankful for people who have supported me on the way, who have guided me, who have mentored me, and that's really the most important part.
Q: What did you get this award for?
Joshua: For leadership and innovation, They call me an innovator, disruptor and a leader. Someone who really is not just managing people, someone who's leading and who is motivating people.
Q: How did you do it? How do you know, what did you do that was so innovative that these impressive people decided to highlight you and your work?
Joshua: You know when I started my work life in the U.S. as an insurance agent, I was so overwhelmed about the back office work, learning about the products, learning about the laws and everything around that, and I learned pretty quickly that there is a huge niche to support brokers and agents with a back-office support system that can help to overcome the same obstacles I was faced and that's why I started with White Wing Insurance Solutions.
Q: So during this trip here to Las Vegas, have you made some connections whether some of the highlights of the last three days that you want to take home and share with your team and your followers?
Joshua: I think one of the biggest highlights is running in the inspirational speaker Sean Callagy, who really reminded me of what I always followed. The deep understanding to drive to always look forward. You know there's a lot of time you can wining around and be frustrated if things don’t work out. You just have to go and do the next step, be persistent, and be consistent. That's the most important part of winning. I also made some good connections with new clients and potential business partnerships. We're going to start our investment conversations in January with a few partners. So it's been a pretty successful conference for us so far.
Q: Tell us a little bit about Sean Callagy and his inspiring message.
Joshua: Sean Callagy intrigued me when he started talking about don't look back, looking forward, don’t wine around being strong and believing in yourself. You know he has done phenomenally accomplishments. For example, he does all kinds of extreme sports. He has created a huge powerhouse law company in New Jersey. He has created unblinded powerhouse of education for financial advisors and lawyers to schedule appointments from 30 appointments a week to 2000 appointments a week, this is impressive.
And then suddenly he shared that he is blind. This was like, I got goosebumps, you know, and even now, it's really impressive how a human being can be motivated by suffering, by not having all the opportunities at hand to do what he has done. It's amazing. So I could relate to him because I didn't have everything handed to me either.
I just shared this with another person here at the conference. There was this little boy, a black orphan in Germany, who was abandoned by his mother, brother, sister, and Father. He had nobody, but he landed in the United States. He landed in Las Vegas 35 years later and got this award.
How did he do this?
This was only possible by focusing and going forward and sure also by having great mentors and supporters. But you can have mentors and supporters if you don't use them and take the insights of them and take them to the next level, then you can have mentors and supporters as much you want if you don't take to action you won’t win.
Q: Joshua you moderated an amazing panel. Tell me about the topic and the participants in that panel.
Joshua: Yeah, first of all, I was honored to be surrounded by such expertise speakers and industry experts who have a deep inside of data analysts, data scientists, with people who actually come out of the insurance transaction and understand the mechanics and the power behind artificial intelligence and automation. Bob Nienaber is a nationally recognized expert who is Changing The Conversation About Executive Benefit Plans For Their Clients.
Bob regularly appears in the media and holds several awards and recognition like 2022 International Humanitarian Award Winner, Top 10 Finance Entrepreneurs to watch in 2022 - Entrepreneur Magazine Cover Story – Capital Markets CIO Outlook 30 Fabulous Companies of the Year – The Silicon Review Magazine Top Overall Global Service Provider – International Trade Council Best National Benefit & Insurance Plan Solutions Provider – US Business News A.I. GLOBAL MEDIA LIMITED International Financial Award Winner - Client A.I. Risk and Wealth Management Celent International A.I. Award Winner – Asset & Risk Management Excellence in Financial Servicing - US Commerce, Author of the American Bloodline Series and Blur bobnienaber.com
Bob Nienaber has the responsibility of heading up one of the most prolific service providers in the executive benefits business. While other executive benefit providers may lose clients due to using outdated systems and technology, #benefitRFP https://benefitrfp.com/ utilizes cutting-edge technology to provide clients and consultants with state-of-the-art planning systems to help ensure they both receive planning solutions tailored to their company-specific needs.
This #artificialintelligence technology allows companies to do a live, full diagnosis of benefits, general insurance, business succession, and pension designs, to ensure their companies are using the proper benefits and insurance programs. The Silicon Review recently listed #benefitRFP as a ‘Top 30 tech Firm to Watch’ and other financial magazines refer to Bob Nienaber as the ‘Uber of the #FinancialWorld’
Paul Seeger who came from Bay Area California started his career in Insurance after serving as a Russian intelligence analyst, Paul Seegert worked for a national #insurance company. Five years later, Paul left to fix #healthcare and consulted for thousands of employers. He is a nationally recognized expert who speaks to employers and advisers. Paul regularly appears in the media to discuss healthcare-related topics, including Wharton Business Daily, various FOX affiliates, The Wall Street Journal and its nationally syndicated radio show, and others. Since COVID, he also started a marketing company to serve healthcare consulting firms and is currently running campaigns in more than 50 metro areas in the USA.
Uma Ganapathy is a globally experienced, Value-driven health care IT leader and is currently the Director of Data Analytics of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Community Health Plan of Washington DC, serves their DC Medicaid Line of Business to develop data-driven value propositions across value-based contracts, new innovative models of care and strategies to improve access, quality, and equity of care. Informs Executive Leadership on go-to-market approaches and innovative IT portfolio development.
Prior to joining CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Uma was Director of the Healthcare Data and Analytics Association for Trusted Health plan DC and was also managing Safe Harbor Health Plan in Detroit MI as their MIS director and was responsible for working across cross-functional teams to shape engagement strategy, #ITRoadmaps, and defining and direct the creation of business #intelligencetools, databases, dashboards, systems to generate insights and solidify data as an asset across the organization. Uma Ganapathy worked in multiple countries like India, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Her global experience has given her an appreciation for the value of diversity of thought and opinions, which brings her commitment to nurturing a culture of diversity within her team and organization. Uma earned a master’s degree in Computer Applications from Anna University Chennai in India. She also has a passion for learning.
Last but not least Mayuresh Kulkarni heads Applied Science and Machine Learning related programs at Adobe. He led Adobe’s first generative #artificialintelligence program and oversaw the productization of AI/ML capabilities released to over 20 Adobe products. His whitepapers and research have been published in several leading scientific journals and media outlets. Before Adobe, he was a Director with KPMG India management consulting and spent a decade in the Insurance & Financial Services vertical focused on #emergingtechnologies, #automation, and Low-Code/No-Code led digital transformation.
Leverage technology and data and automation artificial intelligence to now help save money for business owners, make them really successful, and help the industry be more transparent. I'm really grateful to have those networks at hand now to really have more expertise, get more expertise so that we can actually grow our White Wing Vision with those experts to help agents and brokers to succeed.
Q: After you've come here, you've had these amazing, insightful conversations about the future of insurance. What do you think about the future for White Wing going forward into 2023, especially with this information on automation, the whole data science? Where do you see White Wing going in the next year, two years, what is your vision?
Joshua: In 2023 our goal is first to maintain whatever we have established in the past three years. We have proven the concept. We have on-boarded over 200 agents which was a huge success, especially at a time when business was shot down because of the COVID pandemic. We have done a phenomenal job and now we start talking with strategic partnerships who can help us to scale nationwide.
Q: And the future of insurance and data? They talked about being able to anticipate. So what is the role of the agent in the future and how are you building a platform to empower them going forward? So what is this agent going to be like?
Joshua: The agent in the future is going to be the person who can focus on customers and customer relationships. We want the Insurance agents of the future to go out, have lunches, and dinners, and can count on their back office, on their system to really serve them and their clients well. That's the main vision I have, I am writing about that in my next article in the California Broker Magazine. I call this effect the “Butler effect”.
The title is “Artificial Intelligence: Boogeyman or Butler"?
So that's what this is. So we really want to be the Butler for the agent and broker so that they can sit on the pool in summer and can drink their cocktails and we're taking care of them. In 2023 we also looking for brokers who are retiring. We learned based on the McKinsey research that agents and brokers are aging out because Baby boomers retire. There's a lot of need and shift in the next years to help brokers who retire take care of their legacy.
Q: You mentioned California broker magazine, I've noticed that you had a few articles in the magazine this year and have developed a relationship with the publisher. Tell me about that.
Joshua: Yeah, there is starting a great new relationship with Phil Calhoun he is a great entrepreneur and book author http://healthbrokersguide.com/ like me. He is an expert when it comes to retired brokers and helping them to retain their book of business, he also has a lot of expertise in protecting commissions for Brokers. We're excited about this new partnership in 2023.
Q: You're in Vegas. Is this one of your favorites? You mentioned a little bit about your first trip here. What is it, 30-something years ago? Just tell me a little bit about when you arrived at The Mirage, you wrote a note in German to someone.
Joshua: Let me go back in time with that question and tell you a bit about how and who raised me. I grew up in a Catholic convent in Germany. The nun who raised me was Sister Maria Dolore Fischbacher the sister of Siegfried from Siegfried & Roy the two magicians out of the Mirage with the white tigers. Dolore Fischbacher was an important part of my life in my early years and when I left the orphanage my first trip and visit were in Vegas, so I came here and I wrote a note to Siegfried and left the message at the welcome desk at the Mirage hotel. The next day Siegfried himself called me if I would like to join one of his evening shows, my answer was sure I am happy to come as your guest. In the evening just three hours before the show he sent me a white stretch limousine to join his show at The Mirage. The driver drove me around in Vegas and showed me the place. I always called Siegfried my uncle, because he was kind of my uncle he was my nun's brother. This first visit made a huge impact on me. Because it was not just the first time in the United States, being the first time in Vegas.
Q: So there's a theme here. Magicians, your life has been a magical journey. So tell me about how magic has been a theme in your life.
Joshua: I really want to encourage everyone to click on my link and see the recording of my first book reading “THE FAVORED SON” How a black organ occurred in Europe on his way to America”.
And I'm honored of meeting and work with an amazing book editor, best selling book author like Kevin Morris, who is an incremental addition to my life because of his own story. I met him a year ago and not only that, I landed in Vegas as an orphan. Also, I became a European fashion model, a boy band member, a musician, and a lifestyle show moderator in Germany. There are a lot of things and magical moments in my life which always brought me to the next step, and that's what we're talking about in my book.
Q: What's the title of your book and when should we be able to get a copy of it?
Joshua: I'm planning to publish in 2023. Yes, it's hard work and the title is “THE FAVORED SON” How a black organ occurred in Europe on his way to America”.
Q: Excellent, Thank you for talking with me.
Joshua: We'll see you soon. Thank you.
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About WWIS White Wing is a world-class multicultural team of experts focusing on helping people secure their financial future by reducing risk. Through innovative digital access, White Wing agents make over 4,000 product options available to clients, delivering peace of mind to clients. White Wing is built on a strong foundation to help clients to get their financial house in order, by providing objective advice and creating comprehensive plans. LET'S TALK TODAY! CONTACT: Francis Parish, Chief Financial Officer Phone +1(310) 620-7971 White Wing Insurance Solutions, LLC License #0L11386 8549 Wilshire Blvd. #1084, Beverly Hills, CA 90211 E-Mail: Francis@whitewinginsurance.com
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