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Educated at Rutgers and
Fordham Universities, Kenneth J. Kalis, CLU built his
insurance expertise during 21 years in Prudential's
corporate office in Newark, New Jersey. His career spanned a
wide range of assignments in the individual insurance area,
including agencies, compensation, methods, communications,
and on the president's staff.
During his last few years at
the Pru, he was the Quality Service Executive for the
Regional Home Offices, the Computer Services and Systems
Office, and Actuarial Department, Prudential Bank and
Additional Distribution Channels. As he helped these areas
continuously improve their business processes, using the
Deming approach to Total Quality Management, he also was
active in the Company’s exploration of the Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality award.
This expertise and experience
enabled Ken to begin his own consulting practice in 1994.
One of his first opportunities to work on ethical market
conduct in 1996 giving input to the ACLI's CEO panel who
established IMSA. Since then, Ken has worked full time on
IMSA issues. Best’s Review has called him “IMSA’s only full
time independent assessor.” His first major assignment was
testing the original IMSA questionnaire with three diverse
companies who volunteered for the pilot. This gave him the
advantage of seeing how the process worked in terms of
career agency, direct response and independent producer
marketing systems.
Ken then went on to work with
company executives and IMSA to create the original IMSA
Assessment Handbook and the training for independent
assessors and companies. He used this experience in
developing an on-site training course for companies to use
in preparing for their IMSA self-assessments. This led to
opportunities to help companies plan and execute their
self-assessments and then to conduct independent
assessments. (Ken became one of the first IMSA Qualified
Assessors in February of 1997.)
As the business grew, Ken
initiated a national recruiting campaign for life and
annuity professionals who were interested in working with
him on IMSA. Over the years he has built up an IMSA Team of
 some
18 individuals, including 7 Qualified Independent Assessors.
The Kalis Team has worked with over 50 companies and
admitted most to IMSA membership. Nearly all have retained
the Kenneth J. Kalis Company as their IMSA assessor for
renewal membership and ongoing consultation.
IMSA is the full-time
business of the Kenneth J. Kalis Company, Inc. Because of
this, Ken supports IMSA with pro-bono work, serving on the
committees on IMSA Standards for Independent Assessors, the
2000 Assessment Handbook Revision Committee and working
groups on testing and training. He presented the training
segment "Preparing for
Renewal Membership" at the IMSA training in Washington,
which has been taped for use by companies in training. He
was also a member of the independent assessor group that
produced the Independent Assessment Manual in 2003 and is
very active in the current efforts to update the Assessment
Handbook for 2006.
Ken has developed a highly
successful Microsoft Word© software package (KP4
IMSA©) that enables companies to streamline their
self-assessments and produce well-organized reports with
documentation on a single CD for easy upkeep. Another
innovation is the development of best practices awards
recognizing world-class achievements by client companies. So
far over 50 awards have been presented to companies, and Ken
has presented many of these practices over the years at the
IMSA Best Practices meeting and other industry events.
Managing these activities, issuing and monthly electronic
update for IMSA friends plus publishing Excelsior, a
quarterly IMSA newsletter for company presidents and chief
compliance officers, keeps Ken's life full and active.
When he
is "off-duty," Ken enjoys fishing, tennis and other
activates with his two children in Gainesville,
Florida. A committed Christian, Ken enjoys teaching Sunday school and
has led Bible studies for many
years. He also enjoys poetry and usually includes some in
his updates and newsletter. Ken is very enthusiastic about IMSA’s future and its growing value to member companies. He
enjoys his work thoroughly and has been blessed with very
fine clients. If he can be of help to you, please call him
at 386-462-1074, or e-mail him at
kenkalis@gmail.com
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