The merger of Group Benefit Services with Client First Brokerage Services late last year has spawned an expansion of education programs originally offered by Client First.

Rodger Bayne

The initiative, dubbed “GBS University,” will seek to provide increased continuing education opportunities for insurance agents and financial service professionals, as well as to its own staff of more than 200 employees, and the public, said Rodger Bayne, vice president of product development and marketing for GBS, an employee benefit plans administrator serving the mid-Atlantic region. Prior to the fall merger, Bayne was chairman and CEO of Towson, Md.-based Client First, and its affiliated company, Client First National.

“The real objective of GBS University is to make us [the GBS staff] better, make agents and providers better, and to reach the public,” Bayne told IFAwebnews.com. “It’s not a new niche for us, it’s only bigger.”

Expanded outreach

Client First, prior to the merger, provided about 100 hours of continuing education courses to insurance agents and financial service professionals through about 50 monthly, two-hour continuing education seminars and programs provided through agent organizations, including the Harford/Cecil and Carroll/Howard chapters of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, Bayne said.

With sessions at its offices, which can seat 30 to 40 people, as well as Internet seminars and organization events, GBS University should be able to expand its educational reach, covering health insurance, employee benefits, life insurance, financial services and long-term care topics, relying on its experts, including Jim Ehrich, formerly president of Client First.

GBS University will tap GBS’ and Client First’s combined database of about 15,000 insurance agents and brokers, and between 20,000 and 30,000 employers. Client First focused on Maryland, while GBS, with offices in Hunt Valley and Rockville, Md., serves Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

The university also will deliver its insurance CE seminars to human resource professionals, lawyers and accountants who can benefit, Bayne said. Sessions on specific educational issues for HR, accounting and legal professionals are not planned, he said. The public sector he hopes to serve are employers and others.

“There are a lot of things going on out there so we can educate the public on new reforms and new products,” Bayne said.

The expansion of its educational outreach could go national, as could sales of some of its products, he added.

This story originally appeared in the March 2010 print edition of Insurance & Financial Advisor.