Through the eyes of young agents

PIA-sponsored Gen X and Y panel looks at family issues and recruitment challenges

By Thomas A. McCoy

What is it like for a 20-something or a 30-something producer to work in an agency with older generation family members? A recent gathering of producers in that age group, arranged by PIA National, provided insight into that question, as well as what attracts young people to the agency business or drives them away from it.

The gathering included four agents—one each from the South, Mid-Atlantic, East and Upper Midwest—and an executive from the PIA of Ohio, an association which has started an intern program that places college students in independent agencies.

Two of the four young producers began their careers working for their parents’ agencies but ultimately decided to go to work for other independent agencies. In each case, the producers learned the business, built their confidence and moved on. It was not a negative experience of working with parents that led them elsewhere.

After graduating from college, Donna Chiapperino accepted her father’s invitation to join him at Lee & Hawthorne in New York City, where she first worked in telemarketing and then became licensed and sold credit insurance. She spent almost 10 years there before going to Jimcor Agencies, an MGA based in Montvale, New Jersey.

“I actually moved away from my family agency while my father was still there,” Donna explained. “He has since retired. But I decided that I wanted to go out on my own. And it was a hard decision to make, but I was known in the agency as Ken’s daughter. And every good thing I did was, well, ‘because she’s Ken’s daughter’ and every bad thing I did was, ‘well, Ken, that’s your daughter.’ Maybe it was only a small percentage of people who saw me that way, but I saw myself that way.

“What I do in the industry, which I love, I wanted it to be because I was Donna, and I wanted people to look at me and say, ‘That’s Donna.’ And my father’s proud of me because of that. And I think he would have still been proud of me had I stayed at his agency.

“It’s funny because now when my father comes to conventions, which he still does because he works as a consultant to his former agency, people say to him, ‘Aren’t you Donna’s father?’”

Mary Beth Billiot loves the people relationships she develops as a personal lines and commercial lines producer with Ledet Insurance in Houma, Louisiana. She joined Ledet after working for her father’s agency for seven years. “I like going into Wal-Mart and seeing one of my customers and being able to ask about their lives from what I know about them. They see me as someone who cares about them, and not just someone who takes a premium for their insurance.”

She started at the 98-year-old Ledet agency as the youngest employee four years ago. “I was fortunate to have known the family that owns the agency my whole life,” said Mary Beth.

She also feels fortunate to have gotten her start in the agency business with her father’s firm. When her father decided to retire, “Everybody said I was foolish not to take over the business,” Mary Beth said. “But having seen both the business owner side of the business and the employee side of the business, I decided I didn’t want to have everything on my shoulders.”

What she did want was to take her own instincts for doing business and find a place where they could flourish. She also wanted to continue to attend PIA Young Insurance Professional meetings, which no one at the Ledet agency had previously done. “The owner allowed me to come in and still do that. You need to find an agency that is willing to allow you to succeed,” Mary Beth advised.

Kim Harwood wasn’t sure she wanted to be part of a family business when she joined Harwood & Son Insurance in Farmville, Virginia. It’s a five-person firm, including three Harwoods.

“Ten years ago I started working with my husband and father-in-law,” Kim said. “I swore I’d never work with family because I had watched my parents build their business, and I saw that is wasn’t always easy to leave the office at the office. Also, insurance was not something I wanted to do. I wanted to be a nurse.”

But as happens with many people who find themselves in the agency business, Kim’s attitude changed as she went from part-time data entry to CSR to head of personal lines and office manager.

“I am kind of a jack of all trades,” Kim said. “In the 10 years I’ve been there, I’ve never had a dull moment. And although this was never my plan, I don’t think I’ve ever been as satisfied working anywhere as I am here.”

Ryan Von Haden, a 26-year-old commercial lines producer at Tricor, Inc., of Madison, Wisconsin, grew up watching his parents run a small family agency, Von Haden Insurance in Boscobel, Wisconsin. Unlike Donna, Mary Beth and Kim, he did not choose to work for the family agency after college. But he was intrigued enough by the agency business to consider being part of it in some way. While still in college, he worked part-time for Tricor and the PIA of Wisconsin; and he decided if he were to enter the agency business, he would do so with a firm larger than his parents’ agency.

“My grandfather started Von Haden Insurance in the ’50s,” said Ryan. “My father took it over. Then my father moved on to become the executive for the PIA of Wisconsin, and my mother assumed the management of Von Haden Insurance. I saw my mother buried behind a desk and dealing with management issues and not really being able to get out and sell.

“Tricor has 13 offices—12 in Wisconsin and 1 in Dubuque, Iowa—and going to a larger agency has given me the flexibility to be able to be out selling and doing what I really enjoy, which is interacting with people.

“When I started to work,” Ryan continued, “my boss told me, ‘I don’t care if you work 1 hour a week or 100 hours. All I care about is the business that you bring in the door.’ If there’s a day that I want to play golf or go to a ball game, that’s great. But I’d better be writing business and doing the things that are going to benefit the agency. It’s harder for the principal of a smaller agency to say that when there are only three or four people in the firm.”

It isn’t size alone that Ryan found appealing about Tricor. In fact, he said, “At some large firms, the agency principals do not show producers enough loyalty. At Tricor, when the agency principals brought me on board, they were willing to look long term with me—three to five years ahead.”

Selling young people on the idea of starting out in the insurance business is difficult, Ryan said. “For somebody who doesn’t have the family ties to insurance, it’s a lot harder to get them involved and get them to realize that this is a great industry.”

“That’s partly because of the money,” said Mary Beth. “When they’re looking at where they can work after they get that degree, they’re looking at what they’re going to get right now.”

“That’s right,” said Donna. “These students are coming out of college, and the colleges are saying to them, ‘Go for the higher salaries.’ No one’s saying to them, ‘You have to look where you’re going to be three years from now, five years from now.’ And insurance can give them that.”

But getting his generation to focus on the long term is difficult, Ryan added. “Their long-term (three- to five-year) plan is simply to change jobs. That’s how they plan to get ahead.”

One possible way to educate young people—those without a family insurance connection—about the long-term benefits of the agency system is through college internship programs. The PIA of Ohio started a summer internship program three years ago that places college juniors and seniors in agencies and insurance companies.

“Our primary target is business majors,” said Vicki Rich, the association’s director of communications and public affairs. “We try to find programs and students that have an entrepreneurial background or some interest in either finance or marketing, but haven’t necessarily had exposure to the insurance industry.”

The Ohio students are assigned to an agency for five weeks and an insurer for five weeks, working in a variety of roles. So far, two of the interns who have graduated from college have taken jobs in the industry—both with insurers. Now in its third year, and having increased the annual number of interns to 12, working through eight universities, the program soon will get a better gauge of results as more former interns graduate.

Donna Chiapperino has talked to college and high school classes about agency opportunities in both production and CSR positions. “It’s difficult to interest a college student in a CSR position,” said Donna. “But we’ve found that some agencies are willing to hire high school graduates for service positions and then pay for some type of night-time community college courses for them. So going into the high school marketing or accounting classes seems to be working.”

Donna also reported on Project Y, another major initiative to generate interest among young people in the insurance business—this one a joint venture of the PIA of New Jersey and the New Jersey Young Insurance Professionals. It includes brochures and Web site materials, which project a glamorous image for insurance reflecting the diversity of industries served by the insurance business. “They look like Calvin Klein ads,” said Donna.

Project Y also includes a Web site where college students can post their resumes for agencies. “More than 80 students have already posted their resumes,” Donna said, for PIA members to view.

Using these materials, Donna visits schools and career fairs. She recommends recruiting individuals other than just insurance majors because many insurance majors wind up going to insurance companies. “Make sure you’re looking at the accounting majors, the marketing majors, communications and journalism majors,” she advised. “People with a whole range of interests can excel in our industry.” *