Krista Kautz

Commercial lines producer

Berrong Insurance

Edmond, Oklahoma

Age: 29

Go-to drink order: Craft beer

Desired superpower: Teleportation

Favorite candy: Sour Punch Bites

How did you get started in insurance?

I started as a receptionist for an agency that insures a lot of oil and gas. Members of my family worked in the oil and gas industry, so some of the terms were not new to me. As I processed all the documents and pulled things from portals and put them into systems, I began to pick up insurance terms. When an account manager announced she was going to go on maternity leave, the agency asked me to get licensed and take over as an account manager. I didn't necessarily like all the processing that an account manager does and valued building relationships and sales far more— that's why I'm now a producer.

Mentor or role model?

I think that it's really important to find a mentor or role model no matter what role you have in this industry. I'm participating in the Big “I" national Young Agents Committee's mentorship program, and my assigned mentor is Daschle Larsen, a national Young Agents Committee leader. Also, one of the owners of Berrong Insurance, Stewart Berrong, is also my mentor, and he helps me with day-to-day challenges and goal setting.

We're doing a mentorship program on a state level as well, for the Big I Oklahoma's Future Insurance Leaders of Oklahoma (FILO). Not only am I being mentored, I'm also mentoring.

Industry challenges?

Perpetuation. Are agencies willing to allow an employee to come up and take over the agency, or would they rather sell and be acquired? Even if it's not keeping the agency “in the family," agencies should try to stay “family owned and operated" by redefining that term. Employers claim that their employees are part of their family, so why not treat it that way and pass that legacy down to them? No one's going to know that legacy better than the people that have helped to uphold it.

Work-life balance?

My agency provides a lot of flexibility. If I need to take my dog to the vet or to go pick my kid up from daycare, they are 100% supportive of that. We have a really good team that supports pretty much anything and everything. It's more than just work-life balance: it's my personal life, plus getting involved in FILO, getting involved in the community, and my daily job. Having flexibility for all that is so important.

Future of the industry?

In Oklahoma, we're having more captive carriers moving in, and underwriters have less authority than they used to five years ago. I'm interested to see if companies keep restricting for fear of loss or if they can try to allow their underwriters and actuaries to grow and expand and trust them to take some of this risk.

AnneMarie McPherson Spears is IA news editor.