How did you get into the insurance industry?
I come from an insurance family. So, I was familiar with the work throughout my life. My grandfather founded our agency in Michigan in 1953 as both a real estate company and insurance agency. In 1991, the agency was passed on to my father, and he’s been the agency principal since then. Since taking over, he’s quadrupled the business. I also have two brothers in the industry.
I began my career as an agent while attending Becker College, where I played hockey and golf. Halfway through my college career, I closed on a premium hotel account. I can remember answering phone calls from that client multiple times throughout the school year—sometimes when I was fully geared in my hockey equipment, walking around outside my locker room with my hockey skates on.
Do you focus on a niche?
Yes, my current niche is real estate; specifically, hotels and apartments. I’ve taken the one hotel I wrote in college and leveraged that client to get in the door with other hotel owners—nearly 100 accounts in just two years in the business. Even though they are all spread out between different carriers, and have performed at a 10% loss ratio, I still get nervous I’m way too deep into this industry. I’ve been focusing on diversifying my risk portfolio by targeting multi-families.
How do you approach your business?
For me, I always look for two things. First, I look for a weakness in the marketplace. A weakness in the marketplace is an industry where not a lot of companies are quoting, and not a lot of agents are soliciting. This industry is a numbers game, and these characteristics will allow your hit ratio to increase from the industry norm of 20-30% to as high as 70-80%.
Hotels are a weakness in the marketplace (at least in Michigan) and so are apartments. On the other hand, things like contractors and manufacturers aren’t weaknesses. Just about every insurance company wants them, and it seems like every insurance agency is calling on them.
Second, I look for accounts that have performed well. Loss ratio is a critical measure of success. One of the ways we protect our loss ratio is through our consultative relationship with our clients. Our VP effectively pre-underwrites any new business we examine, which helps ensure that we are taking on good risks. In this business, your reputation is very important, especially when the basis of our product is to uphold a promise. In turn, you need to learn to be willing to walk away from some opportunities. That is something I’ve found myself doing more and more (that I wouldn’t have done two years ago when I first started in the business).
What makes your agency unique?
The corporate culture is incredible here at Howey & Associates. We have over 800 years of experience, and the average employee has been here 20 years, which is a testament to the culture. My colleagues are great to be around, and they are incredibly knowledgeable, which allows us to be responsive to client requests. I can say I have never worked a day in my life; this industry allows me to compete in a different way—like I’ve competed in sports my whole life.
What advice would you offer to new agents?
I think the number one thing is to love your job—I think about insurance in the morning, afternoon, and at night. I work about 60 hours a week and am always in the office on weekends. I sometimes hear that I am working too much, but the agent that puts in more hours will get more results. Even my recreation, like golf on weekends, provides me with opportunities to strengthen relationships with prospects and current clients. If you love your job, you will not be counting the hours each day.
My second piece of advice is to find a few weaknesses in the marketplace and focus on those areas. It might take you ten accounts in a particular industry to figure out if there’s a weakness there or not, and that’s okay. But focusing on niches will increase your hit ratio on accounts.
My third piece of advice is to build relationships with your underwriters and to always be honest. I can say that the relationships I’ve formed with some of my underwriters give me a competitive advantage. A few of my carriers are doing things for me that they won’t do for other agencies—because I’ve built that trust, and my loss ratio on my accounts is fantastic. Sometimes being a young agent and playing by the book means you lose some big deals. You are going to lose business from being honest, but that commission in the short term won’t mean anything in the long run if you compromise your integrity.
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