Kalim Wells

Vice President
Tri-State Insurance, Inc.
Belmont, Mississippi

Age: 32
Guilty pleasure TV show: Chicago P.D., Chicago Fire and Blind Spot
Uber or Lyft: “Never used either—my town has a population of about 2,600.”
In your earbuds: “I don’t even own a pair of earbuds—I’m more of a people watcher.”

Why insurance?

My dad’s always been in insurance since shortly after I was born—he bought into this agency. But I had always just said, “I’m not doing that. I want to work outside—I love being outdoors.” When I graduated high school, I went to community college and I was going to be a veterinarian. Well, after about the second week of zoology, I decided Kalim ain’t gonna be no veterinarian. I changed my major after first semester and decided to get a two-year degree and do something with that.

In the meantime, I had started working for my dad here. At that time, everything was still paper files, so I would come in in the afternoons when I had a few minutes to spare and just do some filing and whatnot. And then the secretary/CSR he had at that time got pregnant, and she was wanting to take an extended maternity leave, so at that point I went and got licensed and started working as a CSR.

When I completed my two-year degree, I decided I was going to transfer and get my four-year degree, so I started working on that. I was going to school at night and working during the day full-time as a CSR, and I just got burned out. I quit school and didn’t go back, and decided to see if I could make this work.

What’s to love?

You never know from one day to the next what’s going to happen or the people you’re going to get to meet and interact with. You see people at their worst when they just had an accident or they’ve had a house fire or something, and you get to try to be there for them and help them through that process. I like showing people that yes, we do sell stuff—that’s how we get paid. But we’re selling you a product we hope you never need, and if you do, we want you to know we’re here for you.

Biggest mentor?

My dad, because he gave me the opportunity first. He taught me a lot about the commercial lines side of it, especially dealing with excess & surplus markets. With the admitted stuff you can almost wing it and figure it out with enough time, but in the E&S world, there’s so much more paperwork and codes you have to determine yourself.

Thoughts on Gen Z?

We’re definitely going to have to continue to evolve, and probably at a faster pace than what we have been doing. With millennials, before we contact a business, we’ll check them out online to see if we can find anything good, bad or ugly. But when it’s time to purchase, we typically want to buy from a person or at least speak to a person. With the generation under us, it’s going to be interesting to see if they continue the same thing or if they’re just going to want everything to be all online, period—"I don’t want to talk to anyone. Send me a text or a Facebook message, don’t call me.”

Industry’s greatest challenge?

We’re going to have to continue to make changes as needed to not just maintain our market share in the independent agency channel, but also to try to grow market share from the direct writers and captives. I hope I’m wrong, but I could see direct writers being more popular among this new generation that’s coming up, just because they’ve got the technology in place to meet their needs.

At my agency, we’re working on making some changes to our website to make it a little more user-friendly—I think we’ve got too much stuff on there, too many options. I’m currently reaching out to one of our carrier’s vendor partners to see what they can offer in that area. I’m also in the process of trying to find some kind of class or program to help with marketing through Facebook. That seems to be a big thing right now—Facebook gives you so many options to place those paid ads, especially in terms of who sees them and target marketing so you can make sure you’re getting the best bang for your buck.

Managing change?

The industry is changing so fast—almost daily. My dad’s been through it from paper applications to getting a computer in the office to having internet and email. When I first started working, he didn’t even have a management system. When we put the management system in place and I told him we were going to start scanning and shredding everything, he said, “You’re gonna do what? But what if something happens to it?” I explained that the management system hosts it on the cloud so they’re responsible for it, but he was like, “I don’t know about all that.” That’s been a learning curve.

Future goals?

We haven’t had the official perpetuation conversation yet, but once my dad saw that I can take care of the agency, he’s kind of backed out of the picture—I can’t even get him to come to the office anymore. He took leave a few years ago to take care of my nephew during the day when my brother and sister-in-law worked, and then he just recently opened up an appliance store, so he’s been keeping busy. But he says he’s about ready to come back to the insurance, so we’ll see.

I hope I last a long time in this industry. I hope I continue to evolve as the customers’ needs evolve, remain profitable and able to grow a book of business that’ll I can pass down to somebody else or sell at some point, hopefully a long time down the road.

Advice for a fellow young agent?

Hang in there. You’ve got to know what you’re talking about before you can sell somebody something, and you can’t just vaguely know what you’re talking about. Don’t have high expectations quick, and don’t ever think you know it all, because just about the time you think you know it all, it’s going to change.

This interview is the last in a series that profiles 10 millennials in the independent insurance industry, based on IA’s July cover story.

Jacquelyn Connelly is IA senior editor.