From the Front Lines: Classic Cars

How did you get started at your agency?

This is my father’s agency. He got started when he married my mother. It’s been in my family for a while.

Why classic cars?

This goes back to the early ’90s. It was one of those things where you’re trying to find a solution to a problem. I thought, “There’s got to be more than one company that can do this.” The only company I knew of then was Great America. I reached out and said, “I would love to talk to you about doing business.” They said, “Great, but there’s already an agent around you who does that,” so I reached out to Grundy Worldwide. They said, “We’d love to have you on board. We’ll send you a packet.”

An envelope showed up with a how-to guide. From there, we went to car shows, and then even bigger car shows. At that point, we had about 100 policies on board. I have two brothers younger than me, so we thought this would be a neat little niche we could get into. It’s a good return on investment. We grew from 100 policies to 1,000 policies. And 1,000 became 5,000.

Classic car challenges?

Value. Customers usually give me a story: “I’ve been working on a 1958 Chevy pickup truck.” From there, they’ll fill in the blanks. They’ve taken multiple different parts and put it together into something they want to be able to drive, and they come up with a value.

So we say, “OK, that vehicle is worth X amount.” The thing we’re after there is that most companies do agreed value of replacement cost. They get a good feel for their investment in that vehicle. We look at what’s it going to cost us premium-wise. What kind of coverage do we want? Companies have become really good.

What do you say to a first-time classic car client?

I usually ask them, “What do you have? What kind of vehicles do you like to collect? Do you want the classic Mustang or a street rod? Or do you want something like rat rods—do you want a junkyard conversion? Do you have an exotic car like a Lamborghini?” From there, we can get a feel for what they collect, and whether they are particular. And here, most of the time we’re talking about folks that have a Chevy Camaro or a Chevelle or some muscle car.

Classic car advice for a fellow agent?

Learn the language. You need to be able to talk to a collector. It’s an endearment. If you know the language, it gives them some degree of comfort knowing you’re as enamored with their beautiful automobile as they are.

I’ve seen a lot of new agents entering the market since we started, and we’ve found some of those folks being genuine, but some do it just because it’s one of those things. We write antique insurance, and those agents don’t really have a handle on what it does and how it works. We hear about all kinds of prohibitions of usage that don’t exist because the agent doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Restrictions like mileage and storage? Know it. We’ve had 20-plus years of knowing it. You can’t just go to the Insurance for Dummies book and say, “Now I know how to work this.”

Future of classic car insurance?

We’ve had this conversation a lot. What’s the new car or truck or vehicle or whatever the case? After the ’70s, the ’ ’80s-model vehicles, the sexiness of styles has gone away. We’re really in the ’80s and ’90s where it’s about function, and there are some pretty cars, but we’re all wondering, “What will be the thing my grandson collects?” We don’t really know.

There are still thousands of vehicles out there that have yet to be discovered. For the next 25 years, there will be old cars. Somebody will bring them out and re-envision them as something else, and we’ll still be insuring for several years. The industry is trying to reinvent old vehicles and bring them back as kit cars. And they’re very good vehicles—they’re just not original.