From MDRT To Executive Suite: MONYs New Chief Distribution Officer
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When a young man joins the life insurance business and successfully qualifies for the Million Dollar Round Table his first two years, some people would wonder why he would ever consider leaving personal production to get into agency management.
But, in fact, it was this initial step into management that led Steven Orluck to the position he holds today: Executive Vice President and Chief Distribution Officer of MONY Life Insurance Company, New York.
"When I entered the business, I entered with the desire up front to get into management," says Orluck.
After qualifying for MDRT his first two years with Met Life, Orluck was given the opportunity to take over a scratch agency operation. This in turn led to running the sales office in which he started his career.
"I had my first full blown office to run–this was a tremendous learning experience," Orluck says. But he admits that at the time, he didnt have much experience, and probably wasnt in management long enough to assume such a role.
"After stumbling and falling a few times, we did all right–things progressed," he says.
It was at that time Orluck got the tap from Met Lifes vice president of sales with a new challenge for him. "They asked me to take over a problematic office in the Bronx. Now, the only time I had ever been to the Bronx was for a Yankees game–that was the extent of my familiarity."
But, by this time having served in managerial roles in a couple of different sales offices, Orluck had the confidence to successfully lead this troubled agency.
"I was able to identify problems and I was pretty certain of the solutions," he says. "I put together a new management team to support me and the office turned around dramatically in a relatively short period of time."
Eventually, moving from one level to the next, Orluck become the regional manager of all the sales offices in the New York metropolitan area, with 300-350 people reporting to him.
But it was when Met Life acquired Century 21 that Orluck met Sam Foti, now president and chief operating officer of The MONY Group, who was then running the insurance operations for Century 21.
"We built a scratch distribution company totally dedicated to working with Century 21," says Orluck.
Building a new distribution channel, expanding that into a regional operation, and eventually taking Fotis place as president of Century 21, gave Orluck the experience to move into a senior management role at Met Lifes home office. There, he had responsibility for the marketing function of the retail distribution channel, and also was in charge of Met Lifes brokerage operation.
In 1998 Orluck made the move to join The MONY Group. "My mandate was to begin the process of diversifying our distribution channels, and building and acquiring others," he says.
At that time, MONY was a life insurance company with a single method of distribution–the career channel. Orlucks mission to build and diversify distribution did have one caveat: "Whatever it was that we chose to acquire or build had to complement the career channel," he says.
Orluck says that by taking this approach to expanding distribution, channel conflict would be virtually eliminated.
One example Orluck uses to illustrate is that of the first acquisition MONY made in 1998, Trusted Advisors, a broker-dealer based in Minnesota whose primary mission was to help CPAs transition into a full financial services practice.
"The game plan over time was to help them [CPAs] realize that theres a lot more earnings opportunity for them if they provide comprehensive solutions," he says.
