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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t like me and his \u201csuperstar\u201d administrator, I will tell you that Sentinel Benefits would still be a Massachusetts TPA instead of having offices in New York too. I\u2019ll leave at that.<\/p>\n
The other snowball effect that involved John is something I\u2019m 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\u2019s investment advisory business. So John called me to see some insight from me and I was perplexed with the call because I didn\u2019t 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\u2019s fight because I have enough fights of my own.<\/p>\n
To cut the story short, I reached out that fiduciary not long after John\u2019s call. It allowed me to bury the hatchet with someone who really wasn\u2019t 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
So I would like to thank John Carnevale for inadvertently helping me grow as a person and I\u2019m sorry that I didn\u2019t tell him that when he was alive. May he rest in Peace.<\/p>\n
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