Blog & News

What about Research? My last post I looked into how he tools a Judy Diamond Associates is able to help with your back office support. Specifically, we looked at how Retirement Plan Prospector is able to help with the marketing side of your work. From prewritten dynamic marketing letters to adaptive graphics and presentation-ready plan reports, RPP is able to up your marketing game. But we all know that preparing for a sale is more than just squaring away your marketing and graphics. You need to know all you can about your lead. Not only that, you need to know ...
Read More →

In my last blog post, I wrote about the importance of preparing for a trade show. I had a chance to put my own advice into practice shortly thereafter when I attended the truly excellent Excel 401(K) show in Dallas. Because trade-show ROI can notoriously difficult to quantify, it is often one of the first things to go when belts and budgets need to be tightened.  As an exhibitor, I’m usually paying anywhere from $4,000 to $10,000 for my booth space, plus another $1,000 shipping, $500 (minimum) in booth furnishings, and $1,000 in personal travel expenses…and these are only the ...
Read More →

Here at Judy Diamond, we often find our retail level clients face unique challenges. Frequently these users are the members of small teams, if not the only person at their office responsible for bringing in new business to their firm. Perhaps they are members of a larger firm with dedicated support teams, but others are vying for the resource. Many clients are new to the business. They come to us looking to learn how to sell in this space as quickly as they can. In the end, each of these groups come to us because they need some "back office ...
Read More →

Trade shows are an essential part of the Employee Benefits industry. They function as meeting places where brokers, carriers, and other players in the space can interact. As I am freshly returned from Source Media’s “Benefits Forum & Expo”, I thought it might be useful to dive into what goes on at these shows and how to get the most value out of the experience. In my 16 years with Judy Diamond, I’ve attended about a half dozen shows per year, on average, giving me roughly 100 shows under my belt. For someone in my position, there are two distinct ...
Read More →

Tax season is still a few months off, but it is always a good idea to make sure one has their ducks in a row. One such tool available to tax preparers is the tax transcripts. However, with so many different transcripts available combined with the changes the IRS made to these documents, it is easy to become confused.  What are tax transcripts? Why are they useful? What are tax transcripts? Tax transcripts are documents provided by the IRS describing a taxpayer’s returns. These transcripts give details on a return in lieu of a full copy of a tax return ...
Read More →