Making a Living — and a Difference
By: Katie Butler
New Big “I” Chairman Brett Nilsson can relate to agencies of all sizes.
A small family agency. A medium size agency with a local market focus. A bank-owned agency. The fifth largest insurance broker in the United States. And a large metro agency with a national and international client base.
Big “I” Chairman Brett Nilsson has worked in all of these environments in his independent agency career. And in his new role as chairman, Nilsson thinks his broad perspective will help him relate to almost any agency’s challenges, opportunities and goals.
A Family Business Start
Like so many others in the insurance industry, Nilsson says he was considering a career in something else—perhaps law—when his father-in-law asked if he would be interested in coming to work at the agency. So Nilsson decided to join the Main Street, two-person agency in Ogden, Utah, that was mainly focused on personal lines.
“[My father-in-law] gave me a wonderful opportunity and helped nurture me through the process,” Nilsson says. “I didn’t know anything about insurance. I went and got licensed and just made phone calls.”
Nilsson discovered that commercial lines interested him more than personal lines, and he relied on his father-in-law as a sounding board on what questions to ask his prospective business clients. “I would ask the clients questions and then go and meet with the underwriters,” Nilsson says. “They were gracious enough to help me through the process and say, ‘Well, you ought to think about this and this…these are some opportunities.’ It was a great lesson for me and I had some great tutors in the process as I began to learn the business for myself.”
Focusing in on Commercial Lines
He worked in his father-in-law’s agency for four years until another family member decided to take over the business. Nilsson left in 1982 to go to medium size agency—with 20 employees and two locations—that focused on commercial lines. After years of building his book as a successful producer, the principal stock holder of Nilsson’s agency decided that he wanted to sell in 1995.
The owner had an offer from a financial institution and then came back to the major agency producers, including Nilsson, and asked if they would be willing to buy the agency and pay what the bank was offering. “The problem was at the time banks were offering stock for stock and we would have had to sweeten our offer by at least 20%—and that just didn’t make sense for us,” Nilsson says.
So, the agency was purchased by First Security Bank, a small regional bank, which a few years later was bought by Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo had purchased Acordia Insurance, which at the time was the fifth largest broker in the United States. Nilsson says that Wells Fargo was a large organization which had a different approach to business than Nilsson. “I liked strong personal relationships, and wanted to be in the insurance business, not the banking business,” he says.
Ultimately, Nilsson and two other producers started discussing a possible transition to another opportunity. “We decided to take a look to see what was out there and package the three of us together,” he says. The three producers wrote a contract they would be willing to sign and then marketed themselves to the top four brokers in the area. When they found a fit, they went back to Acordia and worked out a deal that was fair to both parties.
In July 2006, Nilsson joined The Buckner Company, a large agency with 120 employees and three locations, as a full time producer still focused on commercial lines. He characterizes the company as a regional broker that also does business throughout the world.
A Broad Perspective
“The bottom line is I feel like I represent a broad spectrum of our association,” he says. “I feel like I can almost relate to any agency—I’ve had experience with each type of organization. I can feel their pain and understand what they’re trying to do.”
Nilsson attributes his success—regardless of what type of agency he was working in—to being active in the community. Potential clients see the names of producers and rub shoulders with them through involvement in local associations, country clubs, colleges, etc. “They see our commitment to our organization, they come to know us and feel comfortable with us,” he says. “A lot of good friends that have businesses have referred business to me. I’ve put in a lot of time and paid the price by educating myself and making sure I understood the principles of insurance and what our customers need.”
The Association Pull
Nilsson first became involved in association work in 1982 when one of the principals at his second agency was on the board of directors of the state association and had not been attending the meetings.“He felt guilty about it, and he asked the state association if I could fill in the balance of his assignment,” Nilsson says.
So Nilsson started his work with the state association board and worked on the junior golf tournament, among other programs. He worked his way up through the state board structure, finally serving as president of the Utah association in1994. During the year he was president, the national board director from Utah retired from his position, and Nilsson was selected to represent Utah on the Big “I” national board. He served as a board director for nine years before being elected to the executive committee.
Nilsson is a firm believer that you owe something to your life’s work, and thinks his involvement in the industry and the association has molded his personal and professional life.“Our business has always been a people business, and I’ve been enriched by the people I’ve worked with,” he says. “There isn’t a state in the country that I don’t know someone in the insurance business—if I need help to place business, if I need to answer questions, or if I’m traveling through and I want to stop and see somebody.”
Tackling Big “I” Priorities
Nilsson says being involved at the Big “I” national volunteer level has helped him to clarify what the association is all about. “In one word, it is really advocacy,” he says. “Really, by the stroke of a pen, our business could be completely different overnight if we don’t have a watch dog for what is happening on Capitol Hill.”
He says Trusted Choice® will be a continued focus for his year as chairman. “If we’re ever going to compete with carriers like GEICO we have to have a brand,” he says. “Our challenge will be to make sure we educate our folks and try not only to add more agents and companies, but to do everything we can to live the brand.” And it’s not just principals—he notes that the rank and file producers and employees in agencies need to live the brand, too.
Nilsson also places recruiting the next generation of the insurance industry workforce as one of his top priorities. Through InVEST as well as carrier-sponsored programs, Nilsson sees an opportunity to address the increasing age of agency principals. “We have to involve generations X and Y—we need young people to takeover our business,” he says. “Insurance just isn’t a fancy word. It’s not like saying ‘I’m a doctor or lawyer,’ but in insurance you can have just as much of an opportunity and still have a family life.”
InsurBanc is also an important initiative to Nilsson. He notes that that the association made a commitment to members to have an institution set up with their dollars designed to help them. “These are educated bankers who know what an expiration date is; they understand the valuation of agencies and intangible assets,” he says. With a difficult investment market and taxes more than likely going up, Nilsson emphasizes the ability of Insurbanc to provide financing for personal loans and as well as business operations and equipment.
Overall, Nilsson says the association needs to make sure that members are aware of everything the association offers. “Everywhere I go when I talk about the Virtual University there is someone taking notes and talking to me afterwards—and these are things that have been around for a long time,” Nilsson says. “One of our challenges is to make sure we’re not hiding things in a closet.”
Ready for the Future
On the horizon, Nilsson sees the continuing challenge of market access, specifically for agents in coastal areas. In addition, he sees continuing pressure to have federal intervention in insurance regulation, which will require everyone to be vigilant. But despite the challenges, Nilsson says he sees unprecedented opportunity as long as agents focus on what they do best—customer service.
“When my daughter Kristy moved from Connecticut to Iowa, she needed an insurance agent, and it was easy for me to go find a Trusted Choice® agent in their area to refer them to,” Nilsson says. “When they drove their U-haul into the driveway of their new home, they discovered their insurance agent had driven 15 miles and left a basket of flowers and welcome note. Those agents were Bob and Jan Fulwider. And that’s what it meant to be a Trusted Choice® agent—it’s how we impact people. We’re not only out there to make a living, but also making a difference.”
Katie Butler (katie.butler@iiaba.net) is editor in chief of IA.
A small family agency. A medium size agency with a local market focus. A bank-owned agency. The fifth largest insurance broker in the United States. And a large metro agency with a national and international client base.
Big “I” Chairman Brett Nilsson has worked in all of these environments in his independent agency career. And in his new role as chairman, Nilsson thinks his broad perspective will help him relate to almost any agency’s challenges, opportunities and goals.
A Family Business Start
Like so many others in the insurance industry, Nilsson says he was considering a career in something else—perhaps law—when his father-in-law asked if he would be interested in coming to work at the agency. So Nilsson decided to join the Main Street, two-person agency in Ogden, Utah, that was mainly focused on personal lines.
“[My father-in-law] gave me a wonderful opportunity and helped nurture me through the process,” Nilsson says. “I didn’t know anything about insurance. I went and got licensed and just made phone calls.”
Nilsson discovered that commercial lines interested him more than personal lines, and he relied on his father-in-law as a sounding board on what questions to ask his prospective business clients. “I would ask the clients questions and then go and meet with the underwriters,” Nilsson says. “They were gracious enough to help me through the process and say, ‘Well, you ought to think about this and this…these are some opportunities.’ It was a great lesson for me and I had some great tutors in the process as I began to learn the business for myself.”
Focusing in on Commercial Lines
He worked in his father-in-law’s agency for four years until another family member decided to take over the business. Nilsson left in 1982 to go to medium size agency—with 20 employees and two locations—that focused on commercial lines. After years of building his book as a successful producer, the principal stock holder of Nilsson’s agency decided that he wanted to sell in 1995.
The owner had an offer from a financial institution and then came back to the major agency producers, including Nilsson, and asked if they would be willing to buy the agency and pay what the bank was offering. “The problem was at the time banks were offering stock for stock and we would have had to sweeten our offer by at least 20%—and that just didn’t make sense for us,” Nilsson says.
So, the agency was purchased by First Security Bank, a small regional bank, which a few years later was bought by Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo had purchased Acordia Insurance, which at the time was the fifth largest broker in the United States. Nilsson says that Wells Fargo was a large organization which had a different approach to business than Nilsson. “I liked strong personal relationships, and wanted to be in the insurance business, not the banking business,” he says.
Ultimately, Nilsson and two other producers started discussing a possible transition to another opportunity. “We decided to take a look to see what was out there and package the three of us together,” he says. The three producers wrote a contract they would be willing to sign and then marketed themselves to the top four brokers in the area. When they found a fit, they went back to Acordia and worked out a deal that was fair to both parties.
In July 2006, Nilsson joined The Buckner Company, a large agency with 120 employees and three locations, as a full time producer still focused on commercial lines. He characterizes the company as a regional broker that also does business throughout the world.
A Broad Perspective
“The bottom line is I feel like I represent a broad spectrum of our association,” he says. “I feel like I can almost relate to any agency—I’ve had experience with each type of organization. I can feel their pain and understand what they’re trying to do.”
Nilsson attributes his success—regardless of what type of agency he was working in—to being active in the community. Potential clients see the names of producers and rub shoulders with them through involvement in local associations, country clubs, colleges, etc. “They see our commitment to our organization, they come to know us and feel comfortable with us,” he says. “A lot of good friends that have businesses have referred business to me. I’ve put in a lot of time and paid the price by educating myself and making sure I understood the principles of insurance and what our customers need.”
The Association Pull
Nilsson first became involved in association work in 1982 when one of the principals at his second agency was on the board of directors of the state association and had not been attending the meetings.“He felt guilty about it, and he asked the state association if I could fill in the balance of his assignment,” Nilsson says.
So Nilsson started his work with the state association board and worked on the junior golf tournament, among other programs. He worked his way up through the state board structure, finally serving as president of the Utah association in1994. During the year he was president, the national board director from Utah retired from his position, and Nilsson was selected to represent Utah on the Big “I” national board. He served as a board director for nine years before being elected to the executive committee.
Nilsson is a firm believer that you owe something to your life’s work, and thinks his involvement in the industry and the association has molded his personal and professional life.“Our business has always been a people business, and I’ve been enriched by the people I’ve worked with,” he says. “There isn’t a state in the country that I don’t know someone in the insurance business—if I need help to place business, if I need to answer questions, or if I’m traveling through and I want to stop and see somebody.”
Tackling Big “I” Priorities
Nilsson says being involved at the Big “I” national volunteer level has helped him to clarify what the association is all about. “In one word, it is really advocacy,” he says. “Really, by the stroke of a pen, our business could be completely different overnight if we don’t have a watch dog for what is happening on Capitol Hill.”
He says Trusted Choice® will be a continued focus for his year as chairman. “If we’re ever going to compete with carriers like GEICO we have to have a brand,” he says. “Our challenge will be to make sure we educate our folks and try not only to add more agents and companies, but to do everything we can to live the brand.” And it’s not just principals—he notes that the rank and file producers and employees in agencies need to live the brand, too.
Nilsson also places recruiting the next generation of the insurance industry workforce as one of his top priorities. Through InVEST as well as carrier-sponsored programs, Nilsson sees an opportunity to address the increasing age of agency principals. “We have to involve generations X and Y—we need young people to takeover our business,” he says. “Insurance just isn’t a fancy word. It’s not like saying ‘I’m a doctor or lawyer,’ but in insurance you can have just as much of an opportunity and still have a family life.”
InsurBanc is also an important initiative to Nilsson. He notes that that the association made a commitment to members to have an institution set up with their dollars designed to help them. “These are educated bankers who know what an expiration date is; they understand the valuation of agencies and intangible assets,” he says. With a difficult investment market and taxes more than likely going up, Nilsson emphasizes the ability of Insurbanc to provide financing for personal loans and as well as business operations and equipment.
Overall, Nilsson says the association needs to make sure that members are aware of everything the association offers. “Everywhere I go when I talk about the Virtual University there is someone taking notes and talking to me afterwards—and these are things that have been around for a long time,” Nilsson says. “One of our challenges is to make sure we’re not hiding things in a closet.”
Ready for the Future
On the horizon, Nilsson sees the continuing challenge of market access, specifically for agents in coastal areas. In addition, he sees continuing pressure to have federal intervention in insurance regulation, which will require everyone to be vigilant. But despite the challenges, Nilsson says he sees unprecedented opportunity as long as agents focus on what they do best—customer service.
“When my daughter Kristy moved from Connecticut to Iowa, she needed an insurance agent, and it was easy for me to go find a Trusted Choice® agent in their area to refer them to,” Nilsson says. “When they drove their U-haul into the driveway of their new home, they discovered their insurance agent had driven 15 miles and left a basket of flowers and welcome note. Those agents were Bob and Jan Fulwider. And that’s what it meant to be a Trusted Choice® agent—it’s how we impact people. We’re not only out there to make a living, but also making a difference.”
Katie Butler (katie.butler@iiaba.net) is editor in chief of IA.
Finding the Next Generation of Principals
Agency principals are rapidly getting older—and Brett Nilsson thinks the issue of agency perpetuation has to be front and center.
“Less people available to come in and take over the business means it is more likely agencies will sell out to larger agencies and banks,” Nilsson says. “Principals are frustrated that they can’t find people to sell their businesses to and that quite frankly is their retirement. But the principals have to be willing to give up something as well—they need to be creative in structuring ownership [for the next generation]. We need to attract them and say how do we build in some ownership provisions for them, etc. or give them an opportunity to buy through a course of years.”
—K.B.
Lessons to Pass On
Brett Nilsson’s 24-year-old son just recently joined The Buckner Company as a producer—so the question of how to mentor producers entering the business isn’t an academic question.
“I’ve told him he has to get involved in whatever community he wants to live in and find niches in what he wants to do, whether it’s personal lines or manufacturing or insuring golf courses,” Nilsson says. “Then you have to work hard at it…and put the time in. It fits in within what I’m trying to do [about recruiting the next independent agency workforce] when I have a personal experience with it within the walls of my home.”
—K.B.
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