“Our mission is to be a top 50 national insurance broker …
with the commitment that the more we grow,
the more good we will do. That is our ultimate goal.”
—Jeff Wingate
Executive Vice President and General Manager of Insurance
Doing good fuels strong growth
at this Schaumburg-based agency
By Dennis H. Pillsbury
In 2008, Guaranteed Rate Insurance Agency was founded by Victor Ciardelli, president and CEO of mortgage lender Guaranteed Rate, Inc., in order to make getting a mortgage much easier by helping his mortgage customers secure homeowners insurance. What started as a way to improve mortgage efficiency turned out to be the birth of a top insurance agency that has contributed to Guaranteed Rate becoming the second largest retail mortgage originator in the country.
The agency’s growth proved so successful that, in 2021, a decision was made that the agency stand on its own with a leadership team led by Jeff Wingate, executive vice president and general manager of insurance. The mortgage and the insurance firms now do business as Rate and Rate Insurance respectively.
“When I was brought on board,” Jeff recalls, “my mandate was to help build and grow a virtual agency that provided insurance quickly and efficiently, maintain positive relationships with loan officers and our customers, consolidate service platforms and branch out to grow additional lead and product channels.”
He adds, “Fortunately, I have a great team to help me achieve these goals, including John Deichl, executive vice president of business development, who ran the agency when he joined Rate in April of 2017 and now is driving business development that is second to none.
“John, with the team, led the agency to an impressive string of double-digit growth years. And they are continuing to produce those results —helping to bring us into the ranks of the top 100 insurance brokers in the country last year.”
John brought years of practical experience gained while working at a large national insurance company, helping agency owners grow their businesses through best-in-class process and sales tactics. When he joined Rate Insurance, he recalls, “We had 15 employees and about $12 million in premium, and that business was coming mostly from referrals from loan officers.
“My primary job at that time,” John adds, “was to grow and establish strong relationships with loan officers, going to one loan officer at a time to prove that we understood the loan process, and that we understood their customers’ needs better than any other insurance partner they had.”
John points out that there is no financial compensation for loan partners, and the Rate loan officers are not obligated in any way to use Rate Insurance. “Our reputation is on the line on every deal, and we must prove to them every day that we are the best option to enhance their relationship with their customers,” he explains.
“We are never satisfied,” John adds. “We are always looking for ways to get better and to speed up our process and ensure that the policy is in place quickly so the loan can close on time.”
Becoming the best
John continues by noting that Rate Insurance has a deep understanding of the mortgage process and that the agency is continuing to grow their outside leads sources with companies that do business with new home buyers. These include home alarm companies, home services companies, home inspection companies, and moving companies, to name a few.
Start with homeowners
“We are predominately a personal lines agency,” Cyrus points out, noting that personal lines accounts for more than 90% of the agency’s business. “We started out by establishing relationships with real estate professionals to essentially serve as the insurance agent for their customers. So, in reality, our first sales were to those professionals.
“We needed to show them that we would enhance their relationship with their clients by treating those clients in a professional manner and providing them with the best coverage options,” he adds.
“Once we’ve cemented our relationship with clients as their homeowners insurance expert, we work diligently on becoming their agent for all their personal lines coverages,” Cyrus continues. “We don’t want single-policy customers. In fact, one of the important metrics we look at every day is now many policies each customer has. That has a direct correlation with our retention ratio, another important metric that we focus on.
“Most of our business starts with homeowners and we then cross-sell other lines. All our growth is organic.”
—Jeff Wingate
Jeff picks up by pointing out that the agency now has roughly 200 employees and works with more than 100 carriers. “We have staff in 40 states,” he explains, “and have more than $184 million in premium placed. At this point, roughly 96% of that is coming from personal lines. We are, however, expanding into commercial and life insurance.
“Most of our business starts with homeowners and we then cross-sell other lines,” Jeff notes, adding proudly that, “all our growth is organic.” The agency’s growth and other accomplishments contributed to it being honored as the 2023 Agent for the Future by Liberty Mutual/Safeco.
“We are finally profitable,” Jeff notes, pointing to efficiencies derived by leveraging investments the agency has made in technology. “The tech-driven platform we built has allowed us to be extremely efficient and provide a superior customer experience.
“By being embedded with our mortgage and referral partners, we have all the information needed to start a quote once one is requested. Platform features help to make our process quick and accurate so we can place the insurance quickly and service the account with alacrity.”
Customer focus
Jeff adds, “Using the platform ensures that the information we provide to customers is up-to-date and consistent with what is happening in the marketplace. This has become increasingly important in today’s marketplace, where severe weather and climate change have had a significant impact on property insurance rates—with the homeowners market suffering a 110% combined ratio last year.
“We have spent a great deal of time educating our customers concerning why rates are rising and what we are doing to help alleviate the worst of that,” Jeff says. “We represent more than 100 insurance companies, and we are technologically tied with them, so we know when changes are coming the minute they happen.
“We can bring that knowledge to customers and help them find options for their insurance needs,” he adds.
“With rate increases, what we have found to be most important is being totally transparent with our customers about what is happening so they won’t be blindsided,” he adds. “That doesn’t mean that we won’t lose customers, but it does mean that we have a strong retention ratio and a lot of loyal customers. Our focus is on delivering an exceptional experience that provides peace of mind and inspires 100% of our customers to refer us to family and friends.”
Engaging technology
In 2021, the agency made a strategic decision to invest in technology, bringing on Ryan Haggard as senior vice president of Product and Technology. “As I joined,” Ryan recalls, “my first set of priorities were building out a technology organization that covered architecture, engineering, and product; developing a comprehensive strategic roadmap; and landing an inflight implementation of a new CRM.
“As our team onboarded,” he adds, “we focused on implementing a digital quoting platform embedded within digital mortgage applications; eliminating manual processes; and simplifying disjointed technology ecosystems for our employees.”
The agency also explored how artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies could automate tasks, providing a co-pilot for our employees. “For example,” Ryan explains, “we began recording customer calls—with consent—to allow AI to summarize each conversation and attach it to the customer’s account file. This process helps ensure the full customer interaction is captured and saves agents from manual notetaking, enabling them to fully engage in the conversation. And it ensures that no detail is overlooked.
“Our reputation is on the line on every deal, and we must prove to [our mortgage partners] every day that we are the best option to enhance their relationship with their clients.”
—John Deichl
Executive Vice President, Business Development
“[We use] AI to summarize each (phone) conversation and attach it to the client’s account file. This … saves agents from manual notetaking, enabling them to fully engage in the conversation. And it ensures that no detail is overlooked.”
—Ryan Haggard
Senior Vice President, Product and Technology
“Since 2021, our technology team has grown, but overall, it is still a relatively small team, and that has proven to be beneficial,” Ryan continues. “It means we must focus on one or two initiatives at a time. This has allowed us to build a robust system one piece at a time while other companies get bogged down in trying to work on too many projects at once.
“In the end, I find that our system has proven to be more efficient and certainly more economical. And we measure that,” Ryan explains. “Our automation and augmentation efforts are measured against their impact on the agency’s revenue per employee and, I’m proud to say, that has risen significantly.”
Culture matters
Jeff declares that “none of this would matter if we weren’t giving back to the community. Our mission is to be a top 50 national insurance broker and part of the number one fintech company (Rate) in the country—with the commitment that the more we grow, the more good we will do. That is our ultimate goal.
“To accomplish that,” he continues, “we emphasize charitable giving. We make sure that we are focused on growing for good, not just for the sake of growing. We also recognize that this emphasis on doing good extends to and grows from every one of our employees.
“Even though we are 100% remote, we spend a great deal of time building a positive culture,” Jeff says. “We host cultural and charitable virtual events as well as physical events, where we fly people in for a holiday party or other happening that is often preceded by a charitable event the day before.”
“Recently, we had an Oktoberfest virtual party,” says John, who runs the agency’s culture committee. “We gave out prizes for the best dreidel and best beer stein, and just told stories and shared kitchen comforts. We started talking about recipes that were a part of each person’s celebration, and we gathered so many recipes as a result that we’re going to put out an agency cookbook.”
“I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our carriers,” Jeff adds. “Each member of our executive team is assigned to liaise with certain carriers to make certain that we are providing them with the kind of business they want and to make certain that we are making their experience with us a good one.”
Rough Notes is proud to recognize Rate Insurance as our Agency of the Month. Like others before them, they have shown us a new way in which the independent agency system can adapt to changing conditions and create new ways of providing excellent service to the people who depend on it for their insurance needs.
The author
Dennis Pillsbury is a Virginia-based freelance insurance writer.
