John Carnevale, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Sentinel Benefits, a Massachusetts and New York based producing third party administrator (TPA), died of a heart attack suddenly last weekend.
I never met John, but our paths crossed a few times in the past 8-9 years over a couple of TPAs that Sentinel Benefits eventually purchased.
I never had a bad word with John and we exchanged a few phone calls, but I always had a feeling that John only called to gauge my feelings about things especially with one TPA that Sentinel Benefits merged with, a former employer of mine that I wrote quite a bit in the first few years of my practice. You can also check my Kindle book for some of that ancient history.
My experiences with John revolve around the snowball effect, where one small snowball (a business decision) can cause an unintended avalanche. As far as my former employer, I can tell you that if it was not for a partner of that employer who didn’t like me and his “superstar” administrator, I will tell you that Sentinel Benefits would still be a Massachusetts TPA instead of having offices in New York too. I’ll leave at that.
The other snowball effect that involved John is something I’m rather thankful to John for because it allowed me to grow as a person and as a businessman. Someone who was perceived as a mortal enemy of mine (I needlessly initiated much of that perception) quietly returned to the retirement plan business to serve as an independent fiduciary/registered investment advisor. Apparently this fiduciary was hurting Sentinel’s investment advisory business. So John called me to see some insight from me and I was perplexed with the call because I didn’t understand why my old grudge with this fiduciary had anything to do with Sentinel losing business. Any issue that I had with this fiduciary was over and I have a policy of not getting involved in someone else’s fight because I have enough fights of my own.
To cut the story short, I reached out that fiduciary not long after John’s call. It allowed me to bury the hatchet with someone who really wasn’t an enemy of mine; his partner was actually the enemy. It allowed me to repair a relationship with someone that I deep down liked and respected; this fiduciary is now one of my favorite clients. Repairing that World War sized riff allowed me to grow as a person and a businessman because I didn’t let an old grudge get in the way of getting new business and it allowed me to forgive someone who hurt me deeply. I grew as a person because it also allowed me to understand this relationship and how to properly serve it.
So I would like to thank John Carnevale for inadvertently helping me grow as a person and I’m sorry that I didn’t tell him that when he was alive. May he rest in Peace.