I began my career in crop insurance on January 28th 1986 I remember the date because it was the same day that the Space Shuttle Challenger went down not sure if this was some kind of an omen. This journey began initially working in my fathers independent insurance agency in Shellsburg IA which is located in NE Iowa. I did this to supplement my income because at that time I was more interested in being a farmer then being involved in the insurance industry. In 1989 I was approached by a company rep (At that time that was the person that handled both claim supervision as well as the responsibility of sales) about become an independent loss adjuster. It sounded better then what I was doing at the time as when he offered me the opportunity I was coming out of the barn from shearing sheep covered in anything a sheep could excrete at the time and $45 dollars a day plus mileage and expenses sounded a lot better than that and part time would still allow me to continue my goal of being a farmer which I was doing at the time with my brother. I later found out that my father asked someone he know at the company if there could be an adjusting opportunity for me not sure if he wanted me out of the agency or not.
After a few days of working hail claims in Iowa was asked if I would be interested in going to Kanas for a couple of weeks to help work claims there. Since there was no work in IA I took that opportunity. Thinking it would be a great opportunity to learn after 2 days the seasoned adjuster I was working with told me he was going back home and I would be just fine. The following week I was told that they were going to send a new adjuster down to help me and I was be responsible for getting them trained. That 2 week commitment turned into a 2 month stay, and I enjoyed learning about new crops and farming practices that I had not been exposed to growing up in NE Iowa.
I continued as an independent adjuster while also farming until 1993 in 1993 my brother and I decided to end our farming partnership as the operation was not large enough to support the both of use. Although I tell people at the time the reason we had to end the partnership was I planted crooked and he cultivated straight and with todays technology we could have made it work. In 1994 I also decided that I was going to pursue a full-time career in the insurance industry and enrolled in community college going for a degree in Insurance Management. Hoping that eventually I would be able to get a full time job as a company field rep.
In 1994 I answered an ad in the Des Moines Register for a company that was looking for a Crop Underwriter not the career path I was planning but full-time work which I was looking for during the interview process they decided I was a better fit for a full time loss adjuster a new role in the industry as prior to that most all claims were worked by part time contract employeeโs. I accepted this opportunity and continued to work claims. Within 6 months the company that I had hoped to become a field rep for called and wanted to expand into Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio and offered me a field rep position. I accepted that position and relocated to Champaign IL. Having the role of sales and claims management was new challenge. I was not familiar at all with the sales process at all and failed miserably at that role. So I continued to do what I was best at working crop claims. I decided at that moment time sales was not for me. My goal now was to work my way up to become a claims manager. Being in these states also allowed me to expand my knowledge as we insured crops that the rest of the company was not familar with.
In 1998 the company I had left after just 6 monthโs contacted me about becoming an Assistant Regional Claims Manager. I accepted that offer and returned to Iowa relocating to Des Moines. After 9 months of working as the Assistant Claims Manager the company hired consultant to review all processes and recommended that the all functions of claims should be handled in the field so the Assistant and Regional Claims Managers positions were eliminated. I was given the new role of Field Services Manger continuing to oversee and work claims. At least at this time I was only responsible for the eastern half of Iowa but it still required being away from home a considerable amount of time.
In 1999 due to some changes in the company the role of a National Training Manager was available pursued that opportunity and this allowed me to continue to building on my knowledge of the crop insurance industry especially on a National Level. But as with many Crop Insurance companies this one was not going to be able to survive and was purchased by another AIP making it the largest AIP in the industry at the time. I was lucky enough to keep a job but they also had a National Training Manager and did not need two of them. I was given the role of a trainer. So I was still able to continue to learn about all the risk management tools and needs that existed.
But being a trainer was not the career I was planning on. I was approached by a Manager about being the Crop Hail Product Manager in this role I had to learn to how to interact with all divisions of the company as we wrote a new policy we needed to know how it intreated with Claims, Underwrtiing, accounting, IT, Legal, etc.
But as other companies before this one was also not going to remain solvent and was out of the business in December of 2002 Fortunately I was able to find this out 2 weeks before I was suppose to relocate. Although I still needed to find a place to live as I had sold my home and was in the process of relocating. It was at this time I decided that I was not going to remain on the spinning wheel into my 70โs and would retire when I was 55.
Homeless and without a job (even though the company was offering career transition tools which proved to be useless), I took the first opportunity that was presented to me not what I thought my career path was going to be. That opportunity was with Farm Credit Services of America (FCS Americe)in the role of an Insurance Specialist which later be changed to the title of Insurance Officer. The great thing about this job was I was still able to work with farmers about there risk management needs something I knew a lot about. But the bad part was that it also required selling something that I had decided 8 years prior I did not want to do. The difference this time was I for the first time in my career was given the tools no longer did I have three days of training and then be sent out to train some else. FCS America invested in consultive selling programs, programs you were required to take even though I resisted at first I found that I really enjoyed that. Learning to listen, ask questions, and ask for the business I had never been exposed to and now selling made as much sense as the other parts of the crop insurance industry that I knew. I did this for 7 years and successfully grew the business creating opportunities for additional Insurance Officers as the total premium became too much for one person with help to handle on there own. But with that success there also became problems customerโs that I had committed to taking care of were now being told that they needed to work with someone else. I started to look at what else was out there.
In 2010 the opportunity to return to the company side of the business was presented to me originally as the Crop Insurance Development Manager at John Deere Risk Protection. In this role I was back to working with all divisions of the company from Accounting to Underwriting etc. The role would eventually morph into having Strategic Accounts to work with large agency that had unique needs and represented some of the largest agencies that the company worked with. I was also tasked with expanding into underdeveloped areas of the country. But again as with other AIPโs JDIC would not remain as a company the good thing about it this time though was John Deere did not see crop insurance as a viable profit center and was not going out of business as the previous two.
After the sale of JDIC to Farmers Mutual Hail my role really did not change that much I still was responsible for similar duties the only real change was that I continued to have more and more Strategic Accounts to Manage at one time close to 35% of the companies premium was directly tied to me. I was given additional duties on developing the talents of the Sales Managers bring to get them away from being account managers to be being Sales Managers as their titles indicated. When they finally had others that could handle some of those Strategic Accounts this freed me up to focus again on growth. FMH wanted to expand the premium in the North Carolina and I was asked to find 2 Million new premium in the next 5 years the took less than two years to achieve. But I had reached the age of 55 when I wanted to retire. But I was still enjoying myself so I continued to work. Now the focus was on Georgia. I was able to find that 5 million of new premium and but that on during Covid. I then decided it was time to retire but wanted one more big sale before so with others help we went and added an additional 20 million of premium. At the time FMHโs largest single agency they had ever brought on.
Even though I had been up front with FMH about my desire to retire they were still not 100% prepared for that and ask me to remain as consultant. Which I did specifically to help with the profitable business in Texas. Later I was asked to temporarily take over the NE IA territory (which was very ironic as early in my career I wanted to be the field rep for Eastern IA) while they trained a Sales Manger this role was just suppose to be for 60 days but turned into 6 months as the original hire after 30 days decided that a career in insurance was not for him. After they finally replaced the Sales Manager I thought my consultant role would end but 6 months later I as asked to come back to help build as they were building a new quoting tool and because I had been built similar tools for them in the past I did that for an additional six months.
After those 6 months I was approached by PRM to assist in some of the sales processes for them and have been doing so since and have really been enjoying myself one for the challenge but first and foremost for the team of people that PRM has assembled.
As for what do I do when not working for some reason I have always enjoyed learning new things which in my work career lead me to learning new crops and and products. To learning how to develop analysis tools in excel. I wanted to learn how to do a frame off restoration on a vehicle and did so restoring a 1978 Lil Red Express pickup that tinkering on and going for short trips in. I am currently in the process of of building a 1934 Dodge Brothers Custom pickup which had required be to learn about metal shaping and TIG welding thank goodness for Youtube. But doing anything in the shop for me is relaxing. I also have started to focus on getting healthier and have really enjoyed bike riding I live close to some interesting bike trails and try to get in a couple 50 mile bike rides a week down from 50 mile a day rides, I also enjoy attending Iowa State Football games and am a season ticket holder in fact I used to take the Lil Red Express Pickup to the games and tailgate but now it is a lot easier to go to a game and not do the whole tailgating experience hopefully that is not because I am getting older. I still enjoy when time allows going back to the farm and helping with harvest when I am needed.
