Bio

BIO

Jacques Chambers, CLU has over thirty-five years of experience in insurance, employee benefits, government benefits, and helping people with all of them. He is highly praised not only for the depth of his knowledge in the areas of insurance, employee benefits and Social Security and Medicare, he is also known for his skill in explaining complicated topics understandably, and in his ability to break down seemingly overwhelming tasks into smaller, easy-to-follow steps.

Jacques is a recognized expert on benefits issues, and frequently writes and speaks on the subject:

He drafted the Report to the Commissioner on Insurance and HIV/AIDS for California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi which was the basis for legislation enacted to improve insurance consumer protections.
He wrote a bi-monthly column for over four years titled, For Your Benefits, for Edge Magazine in Los Angeles.
He contributed articles to each month's issue of Positive Living, the client publication of AIDS Project Los Angeles.
He is the author of a legal commentary, The Incontestability Clause in California Disability Income Policies published in Glendale Law Review, Vol. 17, No. 1.
While at AIDS Project Los Angeles, he developed and presented The ProBenefit$ Training Series, a training in the basics of benefits for professional caregivers that has been attended by over 1,000 caregivers in the past six years.
He frequently lectures on benefits to both consumer groups and professionals. He has spoken to such diverse groups as: The Colitis and Crohn’s Foundation of America, social workers at the American Cancer Society, law students at Loyola College of Law, and medical and social work staff at physicians’ offices and hospitals.
He has testified and written expert letters in several court cases by claimants, on such issues as : disability insurance claims practices, health maintenance organization (HMO) discriminatory rating practices, and the practice of insurance companies limiting benefits for certain disabilities.

Jacques’ work history has given him a broad background of benefits and insurance from a variety of perspectives:

·        Jacques spent sixteen years with Wausau Insurance Companies, running their group health operations in southern California and Arizona. He oversaw the production of new business and the training of the sales staff in benefits products. He designed and set the rates for health insurance products, supervised claims payments, and was responsible for the profitability of more than $20,000,000 of annual group health premiums.

·        For eight years, Jacques marketed employee benefits products to groups and individuals as an independent agent representing many different insurance companies and as a principal and the Marketing Vice President of Triad Insurance Group, a benefits general agency in Los Angeles.

·        From 1990 to 2000, Jacques counseled persons with HIV/AIDS as a benefits counselor and as the manager of the Benefits Program at AIDS Project Los Angeles. He and his staff of seven counselors helped hundreds of clients with benefits issues. He helped them understand the benefits programs they were eligible for, assisted them with applying for and accessing those programs, and advocated on their behalf when necessary to employers, insurance companies and the Social Security Administration.

·        Jacques formed Chambers Consulting in June, 2000 as a vehicle to utilize his benefits expertise to the benefit of groups and individuals. As a private consultant and counselor, he has counseled individuals, provided training to groups of professionals, and just completed an extensive contract researching and writing articles on benefits for a New York based publishing organization.

Other activities and achievements include:

·        The award of the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designation in 1976, after completing a series of courses ranging from insurance contracts to tax law and economics.

·        The completion of education courses from the Health Insurance Association of America.

·        The maintenance of a California life and disability insurance agent’s license since 1967 which includes completing all required Continuing Education courses necessary to keep the license active even though he stopped selling insurance in 1990 to avoid any conflict of interest with his counseling duties.

·        Having served on the Board of Directors for the Los Padres Health Plan, an HMO based in San Luis Obispo, California.

·        Having served on the Managed Care Committee of the Los Angeles County Office of AIDS Programs and Policy.

Jacques, although not an attorney, did attend the Glendale University College of Law for three years until a heart attack forced him to reduce his activities. That episode, plus dealing with a mild diagnosis of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease helps Jacques to better connect with his clients.