Mark Benson is a teacher and a coach, although his focus is no longer explaining the Pythagorean Theorem or diagramming football plays for high school students.
Instead, the subjects range from insurance to mortgages to taxes, and the students are teachers themselves. For the past 20 years, Benson and his company, Ameritime Inc., not far from St. Louis in Festus, Mo., have provided financial services to Missouri public school employees through a unique and calculated approach.
"We are the only company we know of that was actually created by educators to work exclusively with educators," Benson says. "We want to educate educators about money. The reason we are in business is to provide comprehensive and enlightened financial education to those educators."
Benson, 55, started off as a high school math teacher and football coach in 1976, winning two state football titles for Valle High School in St. Genevieve, Mo., before moving on to St. Louis Priory School. In 1985, a colleague told him about a part-time opportunity within the financial services industry.
"He said to me, 'Instead of teaching 25-30 kids about consumer math, teenagers who aren't probably interested in that stuff yet, how about teaching one or two people at a time and have an audience who is actually interested,'" Benson says. "Had I not wanted to be a coach, I probably would have been a tax guy or done something with numbers or business, so it was a natural fit."
Benson started with Franklin Life, in Springfield, Ill., on a dual-career basis until one January afternoon in 1988. At the time, he and his wife, Debbie, a first-grade teacher, were juggling multiple jobs and four daughters, six years apart.
"Debbie was working her tail off, and I was out having a good time -- either coaching or talking to people about their financial situation. That afternoon, I made a comment that Priory could maybe win a state title in a couple years, and she replied, 'Who the hell cares?'" Benson recalls. "When she said that, a light switch went on -- 'You know what? You're right.'"
The next morning, the couple went into their respective employers and resigned their positions, as Benson decided to pursue financial services on a full-time basis.
"I really thought that I would teach and coach forever. It was a lot of fun for those 12 years. I never dreamt that I would stop doing that and start this company," Benson says. "But probably one of the biggest reasons why I developed a comfort level doing this is that I am doing the same things I did as a teacher and coach. I'm still teaching. I'm still playing a role of building an organization or program, like you do with football."
Finding his niche
Using a proven sales system within Franklin Life, Benson found success early on in the industry. However, after his production seemed to plateau, he enrolled in Dan Sullivan's Strategic Coach classes -- a decision that changed his approach to the business.
"We were introduced to the concept of the "biggest check," where we were asked to look at all of our clients and pick out the five most profitable client relationships that we had," Benson says. "I cheated, and picked out 10. Then, you try to see what common threads there are among those relationships. It was very easy for me -- of those 10 clients, nine were teachers. It was then that the idea clicked for me to go ahead and focus on those most-profitable relationships and stop seeing anyone else."
Benson also observed that the Gateway Region that he was working out of for Franklin Life consisted of 135 agents, and 50 to 60 of them were former educators. Pairing up with five of those agents, Benson left Franklin Life and started Ameritime, Inc. (originally called TIME, Inc. for "Teaching Independence to Missouri Educators.") in 1989.
That year was a pivotal time for teachers in the Missouri public school system. In July 1989, the Missouri State Legislature changed the taxation of retirement contributions for teachers. Before then, the percentage (11-12% then, 15-16% now) of a teacher's salary that went directly into their retirement system went in after taxes, but since that year, it is pre-tax money going in.
"When teachers retired, they used to get their retirement income tax-free for four or five years. Now, their retirement income is taxed. But there are tax shelter people coming into a school and telling teachers that they should put money into a tax shelter because they will be in a lower tax bracket than they are today. That's normally not true in the state of Missouri. People are walking into schools and giving [the] wrong advice. Enlightened education is needed."
Being educators themselves, Benson and his partners were able to grasp a thorough understanding of the Missouri public school retirement system, and provide that enlightened knowledge to those who need it most.
Integrated approach
Benson identified another opportunity to have his company stand out when he read about a study from the Stanford Research Institute. The study found that people wished their tax person, investment person, insurance person, etc., had a method to communicate with each other on behalf of the client. This led Ameritime to develop an "Educator's Resource Network," which consists of insurance advisors, mortgage strategists, investment advisors, tax counselors and attorneys.
"It's really foreign to the industry. One person might help you with your investments, but they have no clue about your taxes. We believe that it makes sense to take an integrated resource network approach, so when we go to the teacher's market, we have this faculty of financial people available to them," Benson says. "We tell the teachers that we have this network of people who will work on their behalf, and will communicate with each other, so they will receive an integrated approach to their financial planning."
When a teacher comes to Ameritime, he or she will first work with a team of three people, another concept that Benson believes strongly in. There is the educator specialist (the role Benson plays), who understands the retirement system; a coordinator who creates a perfect memory on the client; and the resource network coordinator, who relays the client's needs to the resources.
"If you brought someone into the insurance industry today, he or she has to be able to prospect, visit clients, develop game plans, teach the plan, implement it, etc. It's a big job, and too much for one person," Benson says. "But with our team approach and resources, we can provide thorough education and service."
The team concept also ensures there is always a succession plan in place for the client-advisor relationship, so no teacher will ever be "orphaned" if one of the team members retires or steps down. There are seven Ameritime teams currently, with a network of 10-15 resources who are aligned with the company.
Integrated tax planning
Benson and Ameritime hope to take their services to the next level with E3Tax, a resource that provides tax preparation while coordinating retirement and tax strategies. E3Tax worked with 250 teachers last year, and this year, Benson is aiming for 1,000.
"If a person wants to use our system, they know our network thoroughly understands their tax return because they're getting that tax preparation while coordinating retirement and tax strategy service. Our attorneys and mortgage people know more about the public school retirement system than most financial people because they're working with us," Benson says.
While the E3Tax service charges a fee, the regular team financial consulting that Ameritime provides is complimentary -- "We'd rather barter the fee and have more teachers tell each other about us." Ameritime's revenue, then, comes from teachers using the network of resources.
"If a teacher is getting a $200,000 lump sum that they didn't know they were getting before they met us, or we design a plan to help them retire five years earlier, they may then go to one of our resources and invest that money, and the commissions are shared with the Ameritime advisors."
Building a home
Ameritime advisors do no prospecting at all, and will never follow up with a potential client. ("We tell teachers that they will never hear from us again unless they call.") Instead, Ameritime relies on word-of-mouth marketing and know that if they do a good job, advertising will be done for them in faculty lounges of schools around the state.
As that word-of-mouth marketing spreads, teachers come to the company for help with their financial planning. Benson likens the process to building a home, which is always done in a coordinated fashion.
"First we talk about the foundation. For teachers, we help them understand their group benefits, which are really good in the Missouri public schools," Benson says. "We help them understand the need to protect their assets -- car insurance, homeowner's insurance, long-term care. Then, we talk bout how to protect their pay -- life insurance, disability, maternity policies for female teachers who are starting families.
"In the main part of the financial home, we talk about saving money, now and later. The later part is already in good shape because of the public school retirement system, so we have to figure out how they are going to get by now. And then the top part of the house is when they reach retirement -- preserving, distributing, and transferring their money."
Pension maximization
While building that financial home, Benson and his team are able to find creative ways to save more money or help the teacher retire earlier, because "we are focused on every aspect of that teacher's situation."
For example, Ameritime has helped some educators settle up on their first pension, and go back and start building a second one.
"In the state of Missouri, if an administrator makes $100,000, and they are having $16,000 taken away for retirement, they are only working for $84,000," Benson says. "Well, if they get 33 years of credit in and purchase a couple more, their retirement may pay them $90,000, rather than them continuing to work, making $84,000. A person could be 55, with 30 years of teaching in, and not be ready to retire, so building a second retirement may make sense."
Pension maximization is another way that Benson's company is able to help educators with their finances. As an example, according to Benson, when a teacher retires, they may be able to take $5,000 a month, but that will leave the spouse with no survivor benefit. The pension system gives another option to take $4,500, which will allow the spouse to continue to receive $4,500 as a survivor benefit.
"We simply teach the client that if you take that option, it's costing you $500 to provide a survivor benefit to your spouse, which is sort of like a form of life insurance. This $500 cost is probably high, if you are in good health. The retirement system can't check your health, but a life insurance company can. So if one of our insurance resources can figure out if you're in good health, you may be able to get this survivor benefit in a more cost-effective way. We implement lots of life insurance policies with this strategy."
The importance of life insurance is something that Benson does not take lightly.
"I own a significant amount of life insurance. I learned a long time ago that life insurance is an act of love, and I think some people fail to fulfill their responsibility of buying it," Benson says. "I've seen some examples of really nice people failing to buy enough life insurance, either out of ignorance or selfishness, and the survivors are left in a bad situation."
Growth aided by lessons learned
Benson estimates that the Ameritime teams will work with 1,500 to 2,000 new teachers this school year, covering the St. Louis and Kansas City regions, as well as other parts of the state. As they expand, increasing the number of teams and resources, he hopes to one day cover the entire state of Missouri.
"An Ameritime client is someone who has received our education. If we spend a day meeting with seven or eight teachers, we might not do business with any of them, which is highly unlikely, but we just caused seven or eight more billboards to go back into schools, and our teams will get more calls every day," Benson says.
When the company was first created, the idea quickly spread, and Ameritime groups were started in a dozen other states -- a move that Benson regrets. With each state having its own public school retirement system and rules, it did not make sense for the offices to stay connected under the same name. While the other states still aim to bring an integrated network to the teacher market, they are no longer called Ameritime, with the exception of the Kansas-based office.
"It's like McDonalds putting franchises out there before understanding what their store was going to look like."
Team-building
Another aspect of the business that took some time to configure properly was finding the right people to build the company.
"At the beginning, we let some people join us who probably weren't like-minded. Their work ethic may not have been what it needed to be; their passion wasn't there -- that was a mistake on our part. Over time, we pruned those people away. If not for that, we'd probably be way ahead of where we are right now," Benson says.
Today, Benson has found the right mix of people to lead Ameritime forward, and it is a family affair. Bruce Wehner, a former student and star football player for Benson, and Robbie Schilly, Benson's son-in-law, make up the other two parts of his team. One of his daughters, Lori Biehle, is a member of the support staff, along with Lisa Lambert and Kendra McFarland, while another daughter, Amy Schilly, is an analyst for the banking system. Benson's other two daughters, Kimberly and Ashley, are following his footsteps as well, as teachers.
"One of the neatest things about being an entrepreneur and being self-employed is that your family gets to participate and enjoy the benefits. The quality of life is phenomenal -- I seldom missed any of my daughters' activities or games-- there's tremendous value in that," Benson says.
Benson feels like he doesn't work nearly as hard today as he did coaching. The self-confessed sports nut is able to catch every St. Louis Cardinals game and spend plenty of time with his first grandson, Cooper. He also makes sure that Ameritime gives back to the community by finding unique ways to put money back into education, whether it is through sponsoring safe proms and graduation nights, sending faculties on golf outings, or buying books for schools.
As Benson looks to the future, he is motivated to continue to grow the company and help more and more teachers with their financial planning. He is planning to eventually step down from his role as an advisor and focus on marketing to administrations and school districts, while coaching and teaching new Ameritime teams.
"We went through a process recently to think about the next 20 years -- I'd like to get another 20 good ones in. We've figured, we've screwed up enough over the past 25 years, and we've learned a whole lot, so let's see if we can make this thing grow 10 times, two more times," Benson says. "It's extremely important to me that we build it to last. I'm very motivated to leave a legacy to my family and to our advisors' families."
Laura Graesser is associate editor of Life Insurance Selling.
