From the Front Lines: Aviation

How did you get started in your agency?

I worked for a smaller agency and a large agency for a total of 12 years, upon leaving the banking world after 10 years. With 12 years of insurance experience, I decided to brand my own agency. I am in a partnership with a large agency out of Fort Wayne, Indiana: Stewart Brimner & Peters. The experiences from the days at the bank and now 15 years in the business have shown me there is a place for old-fashioned customer service, with relationship, expertise and carrier choices all important in securing and retaining clients.

Why aviation?

As principal of the agency, I learned a long time ago to surround yourself with good people! I’ve known Ed Hautala for 20 years. Ed is a local pilot who has over 10,000 hours flying time and flies daily in and out of airports, transporting and flying corporate planes. Ed became licensed in insurance five years ago and serves as our aviation agent. His knowledge of airplanes is unmatched and gives us an incredible advantage. Without Ed, we likely would have never entered into this space.

Biggest aviation passion?

The quality of the client. If you own a plane, you likely have done well in life. We love to write a client that has a good net worth, nice things, and cares about keeping those assets!

Biggest aviation changes?

Drones! The impact in agriculture, Amazon delivery, and everyday life, as well as the unknown Federal Aviation Administration rules, continue to be something to monitor. Liability, for instance, with $1 million can cost $1,000. Rates on physical damage can be 7%. We’ve seen some drones equipped with $50,000 in cameras. It’s an area that needs to be watched.

What do you say to a first-time aviation client?

Understand what you own and what you’re buying, and be comfortable understanding the limits.

Advice for a fellow agent?

It doesn’t matter what niche you are looking at—it’s important to have two things in order to have success: 1) Knowledge. You must understand what the coverages are and what the asset is. We would never do this without our aviation agent, Ed. 2) Markets. You must have solid access to markets that can serve you. We have an outstanding relationship with Arlington/Roe. They afford us a lot of markets. Standard carriers don’t participate in this segment.

Favorite aviation success story?

The one that sticks out to me involved a small airport in which one agency was writing the worker’s compensation and another was handling the general liability. When we approached them and began asking questions, we discovered that the buildings and contents were not insured. It is that same age-old situation where, on occasion, when you find multiple agents on a risk, more times than not, there are gaps.

Future of aviation?

The competition between carriers and rates have been really soft. In the insurance world, we all know that when pricing remains soft for long periods, there is a “point of no return.” There are rumors of reinsurance increases. If that occurs, we can expect some firming of rate.