10 Young Agents Tell All: Meet Jaime Hopkins

Jaime Hopkins

Insurance Agent
Hopkins Insurance, Inc.
Pocahontas, Iowa

Age: 25
iPhone or Android? iPhone
Favorite streaming service? Spotify
What’s in your earbuds currently? Eric Church

What brought you to insurance?

It was always in my head because of the family. My mom started the agency when I was young, maybe five. So throughout high school and stuff, I would go in and do little things for her. I went to college and came back almost every summer and worked for her. I decided I wanted to come back and do insurance between my sophomore and junior year of college, and I got licensed when I was a junior.

I didn’t study anything insurance-related—I majored in animal science, so agriculture. A lot of our clients are farmers, so I have a knowledge of what they do. I’m really glad I had that major because I really enjoyed it. Something I always thought was cool is that you don’t need a degree to sell insurance.

What keeps you in it?

It’s a personal business. I know people think it’s super boring, but when someone buys a house, if people are having a baby, if people are getting divorced—you’re just constantly in people’s lives. You really get to know people through selling insurance.

Role model/mentor?

Definitely my mom, who’s the owner. Before I started working with her I was a little concerned about working with family, but we’ve always been close, and I love it now. I would not have it any other way. I feel like friends and family never really want to sit and talk about insurance or things we find dramatic or interesting, but we have that in common where I like listening to her insurance stories. We go back and forth.

Perpetuation planning?

The plan is for me to take over, but I’m hoping that it’s very far off in the future—at least 10 years away. When my mom starts deciding when she wants to retire, then we’ll probably open up that conversation.

Millennial stereotype that fits you?

We’re are all techy. If anyone has a tech or computer problem, they always come to the young people in the office. Things like paperless billing and storing your ID cards online—that mindset is something millennials bring to the table.

Industry’s biggest challenge?

I do mainly crop insurance, and there is a lot going on there that’s always kind of up in the air. About five years back, they cut back commissions dramatically, and whenever I’m at crop meetings now they seem to want you to be prepared for it to happen again. Or they’re warning us that crop insurance is just going to become completely a government thing, kind of how health care. And I could see that happening someday, but I think the crop insurance companies are doing a really good job of over-servicing accounts and other things to prove their worth, because it is a huge industry where every little detail matters.

Right now they’re trying to push something called the Acreage Crop Reporting Streamlining Initiative (ACRSI), and what they’re trying to do is show the government that we can do it well. So a farmer will usually certify their acres at the Farm Service Agency (FSA) office, and then they’ll bring us the FSA forms and we insure their acres based on what they reported to the government for multiperil. ACRSI is trying to eliminate the steps where they go to the FSA office so that instead, they just report their acres directly to us, because they’re afraid the FSA is going to try to take over the crop insurance agent part.

But from what I’ve heard from everyone I’ve talked to, I just don’t see how that works. It’s just a whole other step and process, and it’s already super busy during acreage reporting time. I can’t imagine adding that step to it. I think as long as we keep on working together with the FSA office it’ll be fine, and if they do end up cutting commissions again, fine. I don’t think it’s wise that we are trying to take their jobs too, because then I think that would prove that just one person could do this.

The industry is always trying new things, which is good. There are always new crop products that don’t need to be government subsidized. And they’re doing great with map-based systems right now for the farmers. I think it’s going well so far, but there is a lot happening in crop insurance, so you have to always keep up on it.

This article is the sixth in a series that profiles 10 millennials in independent insurance, based on IA’s July cover story. Keep an eye on IAmagazine.com and upcoming editions of the News & Views e-newsletter for more insights into how young people are working to secure the future of your industry.

Jacquelyn Connelly is IA senior editor.