License to Lead: Meet Young Agent Lucas Anderson
Lucas Anderson
Sales agent
Westbrook, Maine
Age: 31
Go-to drink order: Cold brew with a touch of cream
Favorite move or TV show: “Severance,” “The Big Lebowski” or “Forrest Gump”
No. 1 item on bucket list: Learn another language
Why insurance?
After college I started my career in advertising, working in Washington, D.C., for about four years until the pandemic struck. I came home to Maine and reevaluated what was important to me. The decision to join the hundred-year-old family business was clear. I wanted to perpetuate the family tradition. I’ve seen the impact that it’s had on my community all my life. It was challenging starting over, and if I had started earlier, I’d be so much farther along. It offers a lot of opportunities, challenges and endless learning.
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Background in advertising?
The insurance industry is aging and with that comes old ways of doing things and hesitation to pick up technology. From working in digital advertising, I got into the world of a more modern sales environment, and it gave me a tremendous amount of perspective on the way other organizations manage their sales staff, track their goals and outreach to new prospective clients.
Role in the Maine Young Agents Committee (YAC)?
I’m the chairperson of the political action sub-committee for the Maine YAC. We just had our annual convention, and we YAC members created a short video about InsurPac and why it’s important to contribute to. Supporting InsurPac is supporting yourself and your career. It’s shocking how few agents and insurance professionals actually contribute to it, despite everyone benefiting from it.
I’ve been trying to get different people to come to our subcommittee and give a talk. We recently had a broker talk to us about PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) exclusions and how they work. We also contact our local representatives because we know grassroots advocacy is the strongest way to make an impact. We connected with the Chamber of Commerce for Maine. When I went to Washington, D.C. a couple years ago for the Big “I” Legislative Conference, I noticed a lot of the things the Big “I” was advocating for on the Hill were focused on small business needs and making it easier to be a small business owner, so we had the Chamber of Commerce give us some pointers for how we can better advocate for ourselves.
More on advocacy
Current agency role?
I am a producer but part of my role has morphed into designing new workflows and training new producers on how our workflow is supposed to work. When I came in, we had some workflow processes, but it wasn’t as clear as I was comfortable with. The way a producer worked wasn’t really a standard operating procedure. So, formalizing that and coming up with standard operating procedures was important for me.
Favorite thing about being an independent agent?
Problem-solving. I can’t tell you how many times people come to us and they’re trying to do it themselves and they mess up how the policy is supposed to be written. We have the opportunity to educate them and set them on the right track. We’re here to be their sherpa and guide them to the insurance mountaintop.
Biggest challenges in the industry?
Brain drain and the aging workforce is a challenge for the industry at large, but even more so here. The state of Maine has the oldest population in the country. We need to encourage other young professionals to get into the industry and understand that it has a lot of opportunities. I had the privilege of being born into it, there are a lot of people who fall backwards into it, but we need to turn it into an industry employer of choice. When I talk with friends from different walks-of-life about insurance, they’re surprised, with all the education they have had from high school or college—they don’t know anything about insurance.
Technology adoption would be another one. We acquired an agency a couple years ago that was still using all paper files. It’s wild to me that agencies are still very much using pen and paper over digital documentation. And of course, hard market stuff. I’ve only been in the industry for four years, so seeing what a soft market looks like would be kind of cool.
What do you love about insurance?
It’s the most under-loved financial product. You pay a small amount of money for the potential of saving hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars.
AnneMarie McPherson Spears is IA news editor.
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