MORE TO COME

Franchise Communication
The Franchise Communication module provides franchisees with access to connections in the national office and to other franchisees.

• Brooke Academy provides academy curriculums, class schedules and instructor bios
• Professional Education provides links to online insurance continuing education
• Brooke Training provides info about telephone and web-based training
• Franchise Fairs provides info on scheduling and an archive of franchise newsletters
• Franchise Council provides member bios, meeting minutes, agendas and schedules
• National Convention provides convention info, speaker bios and registration form
  
  

Professional Consultation
The Professional Consultation module provides franchisees with access to national consultants for assistance with regulatory, licensing, erros and omissions, personnel and other issues.

• E&O provides E&O procedures, claim reporting forms and info about E&O Deductible Fund
• Regulatory Complaints provide regulatory procedures and regulatory complaint forms
• Human Resources provides Q&A for typical personnel problems
• Legal Issues provides procedures for handling subpoenas, summons and other legal issues
• Forms Library provides sample correspondence, fee disclosure, human resources and other forms

Office Management
The Office Management module allows franchisees to control user access, monitor user activity and request facility assistance.

• User Setup is used to maintain user info and user status in the login record
• Franchise Setup is used to maintain franchise info and status in the franchise record
• Facility Setup provides access to facility plans and notes made by facility center personnel
• Campus Activity provides daily and monthly info about campus activities for franchisees
• Franchise Activity provides daily info about individual user and franchise activities
• Security Info provides info regarding policies, data backups and other security information

Customer Web Site
A separate Web site programming unit has been established for the purpose of creating a Web site for franchisees' customers to use to retrieve policy information, make premium payments and file claims. This is a revolutionary concept for independent insurance agents because existing customer Web sites are limited to information retrieval and interaction with one insurance company, while the Brooke customer Web site is expected to permit information retrieval and interaction with multiple insurance companies. The customer Web site is expected to be a significant benefit of belonging to the Brooke franchise network.

24-Hour Customer Call Transfer
Brooke provides a toll-free number, 866-77-AGENT, to transfer customer phone calls to franchisees. Calls for quote requests are transferred to the nearest franchise location and calls for policy assistance are transferred to the franchise owner. Additionally, calls for claims assistance are transferred to an insurance company claims center. An automated system is currently available 24 hours a day for call transfers; however live call transfer operators are currently only available from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. (CST). Brooke expects call transfer operators to eventually be available 24 hours a day to provide franchisees' customers with emergency assistance.

Banking Agents
Brooke Corporation has agreed to purchase a savings bank and is awaiting regulatory approval to close on the acquisition. If Brooke receives regulatory approval and the transaction closes, franchisees can market banking services such as loans and deposits. The opportunity for franchisees to cross sell or primarily sell banking services could become a significant benefit to franchisees.

Brooke Academy Facility
The Brooke Academy is currently a training facility geared primarily towards franchise systems training exclusively for Brooke franchisees. In the future, the academy curriculum is expected to be expanded to include pre-licensing education, continuing education and other professional education programs for Brooke franchisees and non-Brooke agents. The Brooke Academy is also expected to eventually implement a technical training program for customer service representatives. Because the academy will expand its student body to include non-Brooke agents, a separate Brooke Academy facility will eventually be acquired.

1,000 Franchise Locations
As more insurance agents learn about the benefits of belonging to the Brooke franchise network, the number of franchise locations is expected to exceed 1,000 sometime during 2007. The expected growth in franchise locations is phenomenal and demonstrates more revolution is yet to come.