PALS Operates at the Highest Levels

On Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2015, the third annual P&A Leadership Summit will kick off a two-day schedule featuring an all-star cast of speakers who will deliver highly anticipated keynote addresses and hard-hitting panel discussions. Their collective goal, according to Advisory Board Chairman David Trinder, is to further the momentum of the industry’s only event designed by and for executives, experts and thought leaders in the F&I product providers and administrators segment.

“To say this event is without equal would fall short of an apt description,” Trinder says. “This is the only event that gives voice to our industry, and that is why we will continue to rely on the P&A Leadership Summit to inform and educate us on the very serious issues we all face.”

Trinder, who is the CEO of F&I Administration Solutions, has chaired the event’s advisory board since 2013, when it launched as the successor to the Vehicle Service Contract Administrators Conference (VSCAC). As with VSCAC, the P&A Leaderships Summit, also known as PALS, is co-located with the annual Industry Summit, which draws dealers and senior managers as well as agents and industry executives, with educational tracks for F&I, Special Finance, Used Vehicle Retailing and Dealership Sales & Technology.

Attendees are welcome to register under any banner and build their schedule by picking and choosing among sessions from all five tracks. The format works, says Show Chair David Gesualdo, because new concerns, particularly those driven by regulators at the state and federal levels, have forced industry members to widen their fields of interest.

“At no time in our industry’s great history have the axes of prosperity and regulatory pressure collided with such force,” says Gesualdo, who serves as publisher for a number of industry magazines, including F&I and Showroom and P&A, which jointly produce PALS. “Dealers and the companies that support them are succeeding despite the best efforts of those who would derail them. We take our role in that effort very seriously.”

An Agenda to Remember

Gesualdo’s contention is reflected in the work of Aaron Lunt, an attorney who serves as assistant counsel and head of regulatory affairs for The Warranty Group, a leading F&I product provider. Lunt appeared at the Midwest Compliance Summit in April and will deliver the opening keynote address at PALS on the morning of Sept. 9. Lunt’s address will be sponsored by Dealers Assurance Company (DAC).

The opening keynote will be followed by the event’s first panel session, “Govern or Be Governed.” Led by Tim Meenan, an attorney and managing shareholder of Meenan PA, and staffed by GSFSGroup’s president, Steve Amos; Larry Dorfman, president of EasyCare; and Doug Frey, executive vice president of Allstate Dealer Services, the panel is expected to help attendees prepare for upcoming rulings by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that could change the way F&I products are presented, priced and sold.

Kristen Gruber, president of DAC, will lead the event’s next panel. “Leveraging Technology for Improved Data Analytics” will feature a discussion among Gruber and Kumar Kathinokkula, COO of F&I Administration Solutions; GPW and Associates’ senior vice president, Joseph Kirsits; and Russell Ridley, IT director of GSFSGroup. Each of the executives is using technology to improve their understanding of historical loss data, says Gruber, who describes the panel as a “must-attend session.”

“Contract administration systems are a big investment for many administrators,” she adds, “and the return on this investment can be amplified by a company’s ability to extract meaning from the data captured.”

After a brief networking break, the event will resume with “Solving the Industry’s Conundrums, One Question at a Time,” an address by Kirk Borchardt, an attorney and a leading expert on the regulatory, tax and corporate structural aspects of the service contract and ancillary products industries.

“You can count on Kirk Borchardt to fairly (and creatively) present outstanding issues and risks associated with each question,” Gruber says. “His background and knowledge about our industry make him the perfect person to tackle complex questions in this type of forum.”

Borchardt’s address will be followed by an evening keynote address by Bill Fox, who is also a licensed attorney as well as an Upstate New York dealer and 2015 chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA). Fox is a longtime member of the dealer association and a staunch defender of the franchised dealership model.

“Our industry is constantly overcoming challenges while seeing new ones arise,” Fox says. “Forums like this allow us to continue an open dialogue with our industry partners to discuss NADA’s top issues, which include protecting consumer access to credit, promoting the value of the dealer franchise network and refocusing our efforts as a trade association to better serve our dealer members.”

From 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., the exhibit hall will open for an evening reception at which attendees, speakers and exhibitors from every Industry Summit track will be welcome.

The PALS registration desk, sponsored by StoneEagle, will open at 7 a.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and remain open for the duration of the schedule.

Breakfast will be served in the exhibit hall from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Thursday morning, followed by an opening keynote address by Andy Koblenz, an attorney and dealer advocate who serves as the NADA’s executive vice president of legal and regulatory affairs and general council. Koblenz has helped guide the association through a number of regulatory as well as economic challenges.

“Industry Summit will provide an ideal forum to discuss a resolution of the challenges to the indirect vehicle financing model presented by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,” he says. “As a matter of principle, car buyers have the right to negotiate the rate on auto loans. And they have the right to seek a better deal. No government institution should deny that.”

Koblenz’s address will be followed by “The Power of Digital F&I: What It Means for F&I Administrators,” a workshop led by Brian Reed, president and CEO of F&I Express, and Mike Burgiss, founder of MakeMyDeal, a Cox Automotive company. Reed and Burgiss are expected to discuss what the future holds for F&I if the industry moves toward a fully online transaction.

For his part, Reed believes that, with proper positioning, F&I producers have nothing to fear. “Providing product and price information online along with associated product content will improve the customer’s understanding of F&I products prior to entering the dealership, and ultimately improve F&I closing rates,” he says.

Reed and Burgiss’ workshop will be followed by a 40-minute networking break, sponsored by F&I Admin, another panel session, and a 90-minute lunch in the exhibit hall.

The final workshop of the event will be presented by Mark Anderson, owner of LWACOR. His presentation, “Implications to Producer- and Dealership-Retained Risk Programs From Recent Tax Court Decisions and IRS Rulings and Regulations,” will include expert analysis of a number of recent IRS rule changes and U.S. Tax Court decisions, including Rent-A-Center v. Commissioner and Securitas Holdings v. Commissioner, which Anderson says should now be considered in the structuring of risk programs.

The PALS agenda will conclude with “Measuring Your Claim/Call Center Metrics, Attributes and Efficiencies,” a panel discussion led by Don Larsen, loss control director and director of asset management for American Guardian Warranty Services (AGWS). Larsen will be joined by Tony Keesee, senior manager of service and delivery for StoneEagle; National Auto Care (NAC)’s vice president of claims and customer service, Paul Leary; and Trish Myers, senior financial analyst for EFG Companies.

Describing the P&A business as “information-intensive,” Larsen says his panel will discuss the analysis of large amounts of data and the use of qualitative, quantitative and efficiency metrics. “To become successful, claim/call centers should be able to separate, measure and analyze facts and figures that will ultimately improve the customer service experience.”

At 4:30 p.m., attendees will be invited to the inaugural Industry Summit Hosted Happy Hour, sponsored by Auto Dealer Monthly, at which the winners of ADT’s Dealers’ Choice Awards and F&I and Showroom’s F&I Pacesetter and Dealer of the Year awards will be honored.

The awards ceremonies will conclude in time for Wednesday’s evening reception in the exhibit hall, which will once again be open from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

“To all our sponsors and exhibitors, all I can say is ‘Thank you,’ because Industry Summit and the P&A Leadership Summit would not be possible without their support,” Gesualdo says. “But I know they would agree that it’s the passion of our speakers and attendees — and the knowledge they share — that drive it forward.”