How did you get into insurance?
Insurance has always been part of my family. My grandfather established our agency 45 years ago, and my father took over operations about a decade ago. My life’s focus is service of others—through both our agency as well as the charity, Lift Up, I established after a visit to Haiti. Humanitarian work is a deep passion of mine; since I do not take a salary from my charity work, I wanted a career where I could help people as well as have hours that were flexible so that I could continue my charity work.
I have a great relationship with my father, so I decided to join him at the agency. Our agency specializes in high-net-worth personal lines. We always try to be available to our clients and work hard to create personalized service. I have learned a lot from working closely with my father. He helped me through the challenging learning curve.
How does your charity impact your work as an agent?
In Haiti, I met a boy who got kicked out of school because he did not have money for shoes. Seeing how his life’s trajectory changed from something as simple as shoes led me to start the charity platform that offers à la carte projects to change lives both domestically and internationally. 100% of the money goes to the cause. We reimburse credit cards through our personal fundraising.
I enjoy tying together my two worlds: insurance and charity work. I created the Insurance Lifters program, where producers and clients can make an impact with every policy they write. We have had a great response from our clients, knowing that they are contributing to specific projects that can benefit people’s lives. I have found that it can be a differentiator and create a deeper relationship between the agent and the client.
How does your agency use technology today?
Internally, we are still exploring new technology to help support our business. We still rely on paper-based process and Excel for a lot of our work.
Externally, we engage with our community through social media. I try to post once or twice a week. I find that making a visual impact is important, so we work hard to develop compelling videos and impactful photography.
Can you speak to how you approach partnering with carriers?
For carriers, communication is critical. Clear communication builds trust. There always comes a time where we receive a unique client request that we must communicate to the carrier. Having rapport gives us permission to explain the background of our client, tailor a program with our carrier partner, and satisfy the client.
Add new comment