Gail Locker - Underwriter Profile

The first things that you notice when you look at Gail’s desk are the two huge computer monitors with pictures of buildings, reports and database searches pulled up. With detailed notes covering a legal pad Gail is busy researching a recent submission.

When I ask Gail what personality traits a good underwriter has she laughs and replies, “A little bit of cynicism!”

Gail’s work as the Senior Property and Casualty underwriter is a lot like being a good detective. Looking at a potential risk from several different angles has resulted in an excellent loss ratio for the department. One of the things I was curious about were the most unusual submissions she has seen come across her desk.

Without missing a beat Gail responds, “Well, I had one lessor’s risk that was classified as a dating service. I was thinking something like an E-Harmony setup. When I pulled it up online it was a Gentlemen’s Club!” Did you write it? “Umm, no I declined that risk.”

She continued,” I do remember a little catering business we wrote in College Station. They started as a tiny business and now they are nationwide. That was really exciting - to be able to see that happen.”

Interested to learn about how Gail came to be an underwriter, I asked her to tell me a little bit about her background. Gail made her way to Waco having been born in North Dakota and raised in Gillette, Wyoming. She met her husband, Jesse, in Laramie, Wyoming, and that’s where her three daughters were born (Sarah, Jackie and Paige). Around the time that Paige was three, one of Jesse’s friends who was from Waco asked him to move to Texas to help him with his electrical business.

Once in Waco, Gail got a job with a Credit Union starting as a teller and working her way up to a real estate loan officer. Deciding that she would like to try something outside of banking she applied for a job at Insurors where she was hired by Tom Chase to work in underwriting.

Today, Gail and Jesse live in Waco.  Jesse is an inspector for the City of Waco and they have just bought some land near Tradinghouse Creek Reservoir where they are planning to build a house.  Their daughter Jackie along with their granddaughter, Mari, live in Waco. Gail’s second grandbaby is on the way as Jackie is expecting a boy and will be having their first grandson! Gail’s oldest daughter, Sarah, lives in Mansfield and their youngest daughter, Paige, lives in San Antonio.

New Web Conference Meetings

We heard you!

Many of our agents have expressed a desire to increase their quote to bind ratio when it comes to writing business with Insurors Indemnity Companies.

With this in mind we’ve developed a live web conference for CSRs, producers and agents wanting to know more about the many risks that can be written with Insurors Indemnity Companies as well as some of the special programs that are available.

To make the process easy you can participate in a web conference at your desk. A great deal of work has been done to streamline the content so it is relevant to the agent/CSR and to insure that it is beneficial and an efficient use of your time.

One of the other goals of the web conferences is to get to know our agents and CSRs better and to make sure these sessions are as close to an actual face-to-face visit as possible. As such you will be able to see the underwriter via a webcam and we encourage you to utilize one as well in order to make the most of the experience.

Please feel welcome to click the link below to request a web conference:

I would like to schedule a web conference

After clicking the link and sending the meeting request you can expect a call back to schedule your web conference.

If you have any questions or would like to know more before requesting a web conference meeting please click the link below:

Learn more

We look forward to talking with you!

Favorite Apps

With over 1,200,000 apps available in Apple’s App Store and over a million apps available for download in Google’s Play Store we thought it would be a good idea to do a few articles on people’s favorite apps.

To kick things off, Dave Talbert, Insurors Indemnity Companies’ President shared his favorite app which is ‘Grocery Gadgets’. This app simplifies shopping by allowing you to organize and share shopping lists.

Living in rural Texas, this simple app has been especially useful to Dave as a trip to the nearest Wal-Mart usually means a thirty minute drive. By sharing this app with his wife and their son, Mason, whoever happens to be in town can check the shared list and pick up any items on the list on their way home.

You can find out more about this app by clicking the link below:

Grocery Gadgets App

Tell us what your favorite app is by clicking the link below. In the next issue you will have the chance to vote on the apps people recommended and see which apps people enjoy using.

My Favorite App

Angela Dahl Interview - DeMasters - Daniels Insurance

 In 1983 two good friends who had retired and settled in Wimberley decided to become partners in founding an insurance agency that would become DeMasters-Daniel Insurance. Tom Daniel had retired from Southwestern Life and Leonard DeMasters had retired from Exxon. Within a few years their agency had grown and they hired two customer service representatives, one of whom was Angela Dahl who joined the agency in 1994.

Today the agency comprises of offices located in Wimberley and Dripping Springs. Despite being primarily a personal lines agent their commercial book is growing.

Below are some excerpts from my interview with Angie:

Tell me a little bit about how you got into insurance?

Angela: Initially upon moving to Wimberley, I was planning on continuing my career in school administration, I had not considered an insurance career. That all changed though when Tom and Leonard offered me a job to work in their insurance agency as the office manager/customer service representative. With three young girls I decided this would be my best option for being able to work locally and be available to my family.

In my previous job as an administrative assistant with the school district I had some experience with workers compensation and annuities but I knew nothing about P&C! Because I worked in a small office (there were only four of us, including me), I had to do a bit of everything. This helped me to learn about all aspects of the insurance business.

When appointments with new carriers came up they would ask Tom and Leonard what their perpetuation plan was. I was involved in all aspects of the agency and was also active in community and school events.  They ask me if I would be willing to take over the agency when they could no longer run it. So I became their perpetuation plan.  I think initially for all of us it was the plan, it was something we put in writing and could reference to, at the time I don’t think I believed it would ever happen, that I would ever actually own the agency.   Then...

In 2008 Leonard passed away. He and Tom had a buy/sell agreement in place which allowed Tom to buy out Leonard’s interest in the agency.  Tom in turn sold 50% interest to me, we became partners and executed our own buy/sell agreement.  In 2011 Tom fell ill and was recuperating most of the year, he felt it was time to execute our buy/sell agreement to ensure the future of the agency.

In January 2012 I purchased his interest in the agency.  Tom stayed actively involved in the agency throughout 2012, but he loved the Texas Coast. He purchased a condo in Port Aransas, sold his Wimberley home and moved to the coast in April last year, sadly Tom passed away last July.

Who has had the most influence on you and in what ways?

Angela: My former partner, Tom Daniel. He was a very kind and considerate man who put his family first. I got to see how his compassion allowed him to relate to the people he worked with. He was a great leader and coach.

What do you think it takes for an Agent to be successful?

Angela: Having a good foundation – strong ethics and a moral compass, the agency was founded in 1983, serving Hays County for 30 years.  We’ve seen many changes in our community and the industry in that time span.  You adapt, always do the right thing and press on.   

In your opinion where is the insurance market headed and where do you see opportunities for growth?

Angela: I won’t even try and guess where the industry may be headed, I’ll leave that to those who have much more knowledge than myself.  As far as growing our agency, I believe there is  opportunity in rounding out accounts.  People are a lot more coverage conscious now than they ever have been before both from a liability and property point of view, comparing coverage and cost.  I think this is especially true in our area; for the most part our clients are conservative. Making sure they have all the protection they need is an opportunity to better serve your clients as well as grow your agency.

Finally, when you are not building DeMasters-Daniels Insurance Agency what personal interests do you have?

Angela: I am passionate about spending time with my family. I married my high school sweetheart, Wade, and we celebrated our 35^th wedding anniversary yesterday (9^th July). We have three beautiful daughters (Jennifer, Julie and Jantsen) as well as three granddaughters. My parents also live close by as well as my brother and his family. We like to get to together with family and friends,to barbeque or have a fish fry and enjoy each other’s company.

Youth Soccer Article

Clint Dempsey - third from the left

America’s strong showing in the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament has its roots in the explosive growth of youth soccer across the country. During the 1970s the U.S. Youth Soccer League had just 100,000 registered players nationwide. Today there are over 3 million registered players according to the U.S. Youth Soccer League which is based in Frisco, Texas. The increasing popularity of the game was reflected with over 25 million viewers watching the second U.S. game against Portugal which exceeded the number of viewers who watched the NBA Finals.

This has given rise to extraordinary players like Clint Dempsey. Dempsey grew up in Nacogdoches, Texas and is captain of the U.S. men’s team. In America’s first World Cup game against Ghana he scored the first goal just 29 seconds after kickoff. He is also the highest paid MLS player commanding a $6.695M salary from the Seattle Sounders.

Dempsey came from humble beginnings growing up in a mobile home with his four siblings. Youth soccer gave him the opportunity to develop as a player and early on his high school coach, Farshid Niroumand spotted his talent when he would show up with his older brother Ryan to practices. As Niroumand recalls, “He would show up with his little water jug and always wanted to play with the older boys...He was tiny, but he was so determined. I knew then that he had a fire burning inside of him.”

Clint was the fourth of five kids and his father Aubrey, a carpenter, drove the six hour round-trip to Dallas three times a week for him to participate in a youth league soccer team called the Longhorns. His mother Debbie took on extra shifts as a nurse to help pay for the gas money. Debbie remembers, “Nothing was ever given to Clint, he had to work, I always felt like, twice as hard to get what maybe some other people already had.” Dempsey’s perseverance and passion for the game paid off as he was offered a sports scholarship to play soccer for Furman College, a small school in Greenville, SC. From there he went on to play for a Premier League team in England returning to the States last year to play for the Seattle Sounders.

Today over 20% of children under the age of 18 participate in youth soccer. With an abundance of leagues to play in and practices ranging from 45 minutes for six and younger to about an hour and half for older players it is easy for most kids to get involved. A ball, soccer shoes and shin guards are all the equipment needed to play. Soccer is also great exercise with players averaging 7 miles of running per game!

Added to that a recent University of Michigan study put the odds of a high school soccer player receiving a full ride to a Division I or II School at 1 in 90.

Even though the US’s hopes of a World Cup title were dashed in the final minutes against Belgium, soccer is a growing sport and we are that much closer to a strong showing in 2018. For more information about youth soccer click on the link below:

Find out more about Youth Soccer

Half Time Report

As Insurors Indemnity Companies crosses the halfway point of 2014 I thought the timing would be good to give you an update on how the Company is doing.

The first six months of this year have put us on track to grow by 20% over 2013 and, to exceed some high goals for 2014. The Company’s attractive business results exist because we have some terrific managers running disciplined operations.

Let me share a couple of the highlights with you.

First, our Property & Casualty Department whose underwriting is managed by Nancy Tussy, is up 22% over last year. The P&C Underwriting department combines speed, decisiveness and most importantly, common sense in a manner unique to our regional market. While growth is important, Insurors Indemnity’s capable team of underwriting professionals never expose the Company to risks that are inappropriate for its expertise or capacity. Indeed, we are more conservative in avoiding risk than most large insurance companies.

A sound insurance company follows four important rules:

1. Understand all exposures that might cause a policyholder to incur a loss.
2. Conservatively assess the probability of any exposure and the related costs should loss occur.
3. Set a premium that on average will deliver a profit after both prospective loss costs and operating expenses are covered.
4. Be willing to walk away from a risk if an appropriate rate to risk ratio cannot be obtained.       

Many insurers observe the first three rules but are frequently tempted to violate the fourth.

Nancy and the P&C team observe all four rules and it shows in their results.

The Bond Department is managed by Somers Goodman. Somers took over the Bond Department in 2004 and it has been soaring ever since. Year to date, Contract Bond premium is 66% greater than that of the same period in 2013 putting Insurors Indemnity well on its way (58.5%) toward achieving an aggressive 2014 written premium goal.

Underwriters for both Contract and Commercial bonds have delivered admirable results in keeping with the company’s continued commitment to build strong agent relationships.

The growth and profitability of the Company cannot be adequately relayed without the mention of its outgoing president, Jim Piper. Jim’s tireless dedication to the success of the Company, its agents and its employees leaves an indelible mark of achievement. Our best wishes to him as he enjoys some well deserved R&R before getting back to work to focus specifically on helping our agency partners grow.   

Simply put insurance is the sale of promises. The agent is paid by the customer for a policy today in exchange for a promise from the insurer that they will pay in the future if certain events occur.

For many, the promise will not be tested for decades, or perhaps not at all. Therefore, both the ability and the willingness of the insurer to pay – even if economic chaos prevails when payment time arrives is all-important.

With A.M. Best renewing its confidence in Insurors Indemnity Companies by awarding it an A- Excellent Rating again in 2014 along with a stalwart reinsurance program with GenRe; a growing force of professional agency partners working with our team of experienced and service oriented employees, I feel confident that we are more than capable of keeping our promises.

Your clients rely on you as an agent to place their business with a carrier that will allow them to sleep well at night. Based on our results over time and especially through the first six months of 2014 I feel Insurors Indemnity Companies has the best mattress in the Southwestern U.S.

We look forward to continuing to work with you to make 2014 a record year.

Dave Talbert

President & Chief Operating Officer

Insurors Indemnity Companies