Covered & Confident with John Lapointe & Ethan Carreiro

welcome to today’s episode we have John and Ethan from Le Point insurance today we’re going to laugh as we dive into our
Journeys and go over some changes in the insurance industry plus we will be debunking a lot of insurance Miss so
let’s have some fun and let’s get started I honestly don’t think enough people understand what goes into
insurance and they get they just think oh you know going to call get a binder nothing’s going to come up not going to
have any problems it’s never going to increase and there’s so many things that could change it you the more people
understand about the business of insurance Mak it easier for you yeah get out there
% welcome back mortgage SES how you guys doing fantastic fantastic I had no
complaints we got the insurance Kings of the South Coast just bind it just bind
it that’s it that’s the logo yeah I think it got a little catchy and our
girls tried to like do a little spin-off for our Christmas gifts really I wasn’t a fan why what was it f I think they did
we got these sweatshirts for Christmas and typically they run most things by me
to like approve them and this one they didn’t and they should have okay because it said dream it find it fund it and I’m
like oh man that sounds like live love at last two months so right across the front a lot big big
I’m like oh boy so yeah no I vo my opinion though they really know how displeased I am but we’re moving on next
year hopefully it’ll see better yeah it’s hard it’s hard to find stuff that some it’s just got to yeah it just has
to like come naturally with that stuff I think I don’t remember what was the what how did just bind it start I’m just like
I W somebody was wearing rip off of Nike yeah yeah somebody’s wearing a Nike shirt in the office and we were still
before our downstairs office was created I remember being in your office and you’re like hey just B
it you’re like oh okay we should do that we should we should just do that and
then I remember talking to like Rick Al well it wasn’t there yet fortunately and
then we just took off with just B it and it was shirts because that’s kind of been our MTO for a while it’s not been uh easy to
do that nowadays Insurance you can’t just bind anything without like lots of red tape but uh yeah for a while that
was kind of our motto because like you know our our agency is closely tied into the real estate
industry where you you guys know yeah you needed you need a finder fast you
know and uh you need you need that policy in place it’s can’t get the loan cleared to close without it so that’s
kind of like become our our motto you know what’s changed that’s caused that you know uh
you know just a couple bad years of losses for insurance companies really insurance companies took a beating after
you know like lot of natural catastrophes like
lot of hurricanes wildfire in California that kind of stuff um and then that
coupled with inflation you know post covid so they were really underpriced on a lot
of policies and were getting just clobbered you know when it turns out you
you know the house gonna cost extra % more to
rebuild than what they thought it was going to cost because all those building materials and cost of repairs all went
up um even car insurance like all supply chain disruptions and stuff like that
really just kind of reared its ugly head and insurance claims were just a lot more than what even the best actuaries
were expecting them to be and so they were underpriced and they were just
paying out a lot more in claims than they expected to and then the other thing is insurance companies you know they make money in a lot of different
ways besides just collecting our premiums insurance companies take the money that they earn in premiums and they invest it in the market and so when
the market doesn’t perform well then that affects their overall loss ratio as a company too if those Investments
aren’t performing well so it was kind of like a triple whammy you know see how that could happen with how much
everything has gone up so quickly and if you’re binding a policy it’s for a year exactly you’re pretty much like rolling
the dice on hey hope whatever I think this house is going to cost to rebuild today in months it’s going to be the
same if not you’re losing % and insurance is regulated by the state too and every single state has their own own
division of insurance or Department of Insurance that regulates insurance rates so if I’m running an insurance business
and I decided that you know tomorrow I realized that I need to charge % more
on my policies to turn a profit I can’t just do that you know I need to actually file those rates with the division of
insurance and get them approved by the division of insurance to be able to start issuing policies at those rates
and you know most of the states that we live in and operate in are pretty con consumer friendly and aren’t necessarily
going to be the states that are quick to turn around they yeah they’re not the states that are going to turn around and
immediately approve you know insurance companies wishes to increase rates for consumers so they’re going to drag their
feet on it and especially when we have an election pending those things take even longer to get done because there’s
so much uncertainty as to you know who’s going to be in charge and what the Fallout of that’s going to be so it’s
taking a long time for the insurance companies kind of rebound from this because even though they have identifi
they have a problem they couldn’t necessarily put it in practice to get a solution and that’s where it becomes
hard to just bind it because if an insurance company knows that they’re going to take a loss on the policy that
they’re selling they’re going to do everything possible to not sell it you know higher premiums yeah exactly or
they’re just going to flat out the cliet and that’s what we were dealing with for a while in the last year or two and and
still a problem but we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel is that insurance companies are now opening up a little bit more as they’re
getting their rates approved so it doesn’t necessarily mean all you know Rosy for the consumer because yes
they’re getting rates approved at a higher amount than what they were before but there are more availability of
options and that’s the biggest thing for customers is to even have the option I can think of like five companies that
just said you know we’re not doing home insurance right now they just shut off
the flow they just said no no we don’t want to underwrite any new policies and even if they couldn’t flat out that they
would make it extremely difficult to do it like one company even went so far as to say for a couple of months they were
saying that if you wanted to write a policy with us we had to submit paper applications to them like like literally
mail paper applications mail it yeah mail a paper appication to to review and
then we’ll get back to you and tell you if we that doesn’t really work for this business not at all no it doesn’t work so that you know that’s what they were
doing for a while and so yeah starting to turn a corner companies are coming back with their new rates um which is is
better you know even if that company took a % rate increase they’re still better than the Alternatives that we had
because you know the ones that we did have were really expensive so it’s yeah it’s coming back around and even to like
piggyback off the rates if and you said like if a company us to make % more they a lot of times they don’t just file
that hey % increase usually it’s gradual over time yeah they’ll take like
a you know % increase this year you know eight% increase in next you guys
see a lot of binders or insurance policies that you guys write say you know ask you for an insurance policy you
get it bound they’re going to do an inspection on the house right usually after closing or very close to that time
period are they coming back and increasing the the cost to it or requiring crazy repairs on top of what
you normally would have seen a few years ago great great point that you brought that up that’s another thing that yeah
underwriting is just overall become strict whether it’s up front and even prior to binding coverage or on the back
end where inspections come into play they’ve definitely been a lot harsher
than I ever remember and anybody in the industry I think remembers them being uh to the point where it’s like you know
become like memes and stuff and there’s people on Tik Tok talking about like you know how how bad insurance is with uh
stuff like this because they’ll you know they do all sorts of stuff with um aerial imagery of properties like
they’ll they’ll take like Dr and fly them over whole neighborhoods and towns and stuff and and create a
catalog of images of rooftops and houses and they’ll just use that to non-renew
somebody’s insurance or cancel it based on the way the roof looked in a picture that a drone took six months ago and
then they put the burden of proof on us the agent and the client to try and you know if it’s inaccurate information to
to prove that you know and I have to provide photos of their house and their roof to get them to reinstate coverage
and it’s definitely been frustrating for us too and of course we we bear the brunt of it because we’re the messenger
right we tell the client that and we have we have to remind them too like hey you know if your policy cancels I stop
getting paid so I’m on your side here like I want to resolve this issue so
we’re going to figure it out but of course the initial reaction is people are like ah this an invasion of my privacy how could they possibly do this
whatever and yeah there’s there’s definitely going to be more to come from that as to you know how much insurance
companies can get away with but um you know as it stands right now any information that they can gather within
the you know legal confence they’re GNA they’re going to try to yeah they don’t go in houses though right well some of
them will some of them will require interior inspections and typically we see it on multif Family Properties uh
especially so if there are any rental units usually they’re going to want some sort of interior inspection um and then
high value homes so homes that are in excess of what would you say like
$probably yeah those those homes they’ll want to do an interior inspection too and you know it it comes
from a good place in the sense that the insurance company is um responsible for
covering the property if something does happen and they want to make sure that they have an accurate idea of what it actually costs to replace that home that
the coverage is good but also you know what comes with that is if you’re not
doing a perfect job as an agent which is it’s hard to do a perfect job right now it can see seem like what you’re doing
is like deceitful because oh well you only insured my house to the
insurance company is now saying it would actually cost to rebuild my house the insurance company’s going to
require that you increase the coverage costs more and feels like a bait and
switch right it’s hard to articulate that and explain like no it’s about
getting you the right coverage doesn’t always go well most people are pretty understanding definitely you know more
often than not you get your faith in humanity restored most clients but every now and then sounds like a new tras rate
going out your business is a lot more lik ours than I really thought you know I mean
I’ve learned a lot more about it those over the years we all get Underwriters you the rates it’s like we’re the messenger at times you know with certain
things like they’re asking for some crazy condition or some thing on the appraisal it’s like I didn’t do the appraisal yeah you didn’t do the
appraisal the appraiser the appraisal and we’re The Messengers we can’t even talk to the appris you got your FHA
three or four family right and the appraiser comes in the rents are y p you’re just like way off or we’re
screwed we’re like John how low can you get that by here buddy like my policies are going up possible now but I mean we
do what we can with yeah with the cards we’re dealt but thankfully things are definitely starting to get a little
better and I think part of it too is expectations for for everybody it was a time where just none of it was aligning
right like clients expectations of what premiums were we didn’t have enough real data or like experience with what the
rates were coming out at to explain that to our partners and like so a pre-approval is going out with you know
monthly payment estimates on on the loan application that you know insurance is going to cost $a month and then the
rates come in and everybody’s like whoa why is it why is it $yeah or more a
month and now the monthly payment is this and yeah so a lot of that is kind of shaken out over the last months
I’d say as like those expectations have become more realistic clients know going into it that what to expect for costs
and that goes a long way I mean yeah it’s one of like that sales it’s like under promise and overd deliver you
know so definitely I always turn that I always talk to my clients and then what
what are some of the things that you guys suggest like I always Joker on my clients you know they’re like how’s how much is my insurance going to be depends
on the house but do you want a Pit Bull or rot Wilder do you have a trampoline you there a swimming pool how much I
mean I say this to my clients for the last like years kind of in a joking way I know it has some impact but what impact are those things that the
homeowner brings on themselves right it’s the decision to have a trampoline in their backyard yes I’m GNA have to cover that with the drones flying over
so I did learn something but like having a swimming pool or you know a dog that’s on a list I guess there’s a list on the
insurance side how much does that really carry and increase somebody’s premium I’m going to say for the most part it’s
it’s got less of an impact than people think okay um it’s more of an
underwriting guideline as it is a rate Factor so if you can think of it that
way it’s it’s not necessarily going to like the presence of a pitbull or
trampoline isn’t necessarily going to mean that there’s a rate for that where
they charge you % extra for that it may mean that there’s an option that’s unav
ailable for you you can’t fit that program anymore they just don’t allow it exactly so that you know the so now your
options are just higher exactly yeah or just more limited so on average you
might pay more because you can only pick between three insurance companies as
opposed to yeah but doesn’t always work that way in practice it may just so
happen that one of the three companies that accepts pit bulls or trampolines has the lowest rate for your house and
so you know sometimes that’s the case are there any things that go into you know that people have their extras like
a trampoline that kind of like the insurance compan is like no we don’t want to see this like overall like total
noos on things uh Coons yeah yeah like yeah like random random hazards uh just
hazardous conditions of a home in general or just like a house that’s a total [ __ ] hole it’s going to be hard to
ensure expensive to ensure you know like just taking care ofit
yeah yeah the koi Pond’s interesting yeah like koi ponds can be uh like a
it’s it’s usually not like a fenced off struct
drowning exactly anything where a small child could drown or drunk it’s going to be the yeah is is it’s somebody drinking
a lot just Bal slipped off the rod like a swimming pool right swimming pools have like rules you yeah you got to have
a fence in or if it’s a road ground you need a ladder that like lifts up so somebody can’t just like walk on in
there if they’re especially for kids that’s like what you know the the biggest risk God God forbid you know no
no insurance company no person wants to deal with like somebody’s kid drowning at your house but an insurance company
is going to be the one footing the bill so that’s yeah the kind of things that they get very concerned with um but yeah
I guess try to think what what’s going to make Insurance really expensive it’s it’s generally you know I mean pretty
much location more than location you know the areas that are coastal do
you feel like we we pay more here than it would be because of other areas in the country that have just gotten killed
with all it’s all connected yeah and it comes down to something called reinsurance so reinsurance is basically
insurance on the insurance so like if you’re an insurance company and you’re a really you want to be a wellestablished
well-respected insurance company that’s financially stable um and rais as such
you know like with uh financial institutions they have was like standard and pores or moody or whatever rates
them um with insurance companies am best is the one that everybody refers to for
insurance company Financial ratings to in order to be you know strongly rated with a company like am best you need to
have a lot of reinsurance and what that is is if you insure a bunch of homes in Florida and hurricane Harvey wipes out
all of them the insurance company can file a claim under their reinsurance contract to pay all those claims so it’s
just a way for them to transfer that risk again and also not have to keep like billions of dollars in the best to
pay those claims yeah and the problem is that reinsurance companies have gotten
absolutely wrecked over the last C only imagine because they’re the ones taking all% they are taking the hit and their
investors are wondering where the money’s at and their investors are not getting Returns on that investment and
so the re insurance companies have to turn around and increase their rates accordingly and while we’re not getting
hit as hard as areas like Florida we we totally are still getting hit by it and it’s especially difficult and more
expensive to Ure areas like you know New Bedford Dartmouth anything on the cape
like you know anywhere Coastal Massachusetts is more expensive to Ure
or less options because they’re the insurance company’s either paying more for every dollar that they you know
ensure they’re paying x amount more in reinsurance to do that um or they’re
just saying no thanks because the reinsurance costs are they’re like we we don’t want to bother yeah know it’s just
not even worth paying that much you know it’s cents on the dollar no thanks you know so but eventually it all gets
passed on to the consumer yeah you guys have done a great job by me I mean I think you guys have some cars some
houses you guys were one of the old like I called like probably five or six insurance companies when I was searching out for a log up in New Hampshire that’s
right uh and I remember calling around they like tell me about the house I’d tell send them the pictures everything
and you guys are the only ones who asked like if the interior walls were exposed logs or if it was like sheetrock or
whatever covered up and that was able to get me you know a pretty good callot I mean I think it’s not expensive at all
for what it was but it’s crazy on the invest on the investor side they don’t even want to touch some of these right
and you guys were able to find a carrier who uh who ensured that and it wasn’t it wasn’t I don’t think it was any more
than what Pay Here in Don for the insurance policy so it’s really just like how much information is actually
given to you guys to to buy just buy the policy yeah it’s finding the yeah it’s
just finding those little like I don’t know just thinking outside the box yeah right the little tricks the little
things that all right this could be a fit for this company I mean you guys know it too as a broker it’s like it’s a little bit different where every every
company could be a little bit different and what they’re looking for um every product can be a little bit different
and trying to find the match for the client that makes the most sense how many insurance companies carriers do you
guys deal with uh you know we have contracts with like
uh on a regular basis we’re probably writing insurance with like six or seven
seven or eight something like that you know yeah different ones I mean we have we’re a broker and we also deal with
other Brokers as well so be similar to like your non-qm stuff so right like we
have if you ever see like Lloyds of London right that’s the equivalent of our non-qm insurance doesn’t fit any of
our normal regular six or seven in uh investors or carriers you guys ship it out to Lloyds they’ll cover it like okay
and to access Lloyds you go through what’s called a surplus lines broker which is like Johnson and Johnson or
Dakotas insurance or RPS and those those companies have direct contracts with
Lloyds what um what states are you guys like and I’m you know New England all of New England so you don’t want to write
any condos in Southern Florida at this time sounds like be a difficult one it’s
wild what’s happened down there along with just the hurricanes and the weather
uh we see it here now we’re we’re feeling the effects of the condo complex
crashing down and uh are you guys running into that on condos that you’re seeing even in New England where they
want that structural little engineering report no no that we I haven’t run into
that at all thankfully yeah but I know in um yeah in Florida it’s just anything
to do with property property insurance they’re yeah not only are like if we
think inspections and stuff here are bad right you can’t even get an insurance policy takes days just to get a
binder because they they made their fourpoint inspection on the property that shows like you know all the details
of the uh I guess the resistance to hurricanes right the roof replacement
yep it’s much much more difficult yeah um insurance companies roofs especially
insurance companies can get taken for a ride on and it’s the way that insurance contracts are written because everybody
talks about replacement cost right replacement cost is kind of a buzzword even with like mortgages and when it
overlaps with insurance because you guys sometimes need to show uh us to show proof that like okay maybe your loan
amount on this like beach house is like a million dollars like why are we only insuring it forlike we need to
prove why this little Shack on the beach only costs even though you’re financing it for a million right we just
got to prove why that structure only costs that much so replacement cost you’re not reping the land yeah exactly
so replacement cost is how insurance companies Ure properties right but um you use the example of a roof right like
you have replacement cost coverage on that roof your roof could be years old and it’s like nearing the end of its
life is this roof is just just about ready for a new roof right and you just get that one bad Windstorm or like
average Windstorm that happens to blow a couple shingles off that roof you might qualify for a brand new roof through
your insurance $poliy $roof not bad gig exactly and you’re ready to like
pay for it out of pocket right but here comes a local roofer knocking on your
door saying I noticed a couple shingles fell off your roof did you know that you could actually get that paid through your insurance because you have a
replacement cost policy well let’s check it out make sure but oh yeah you have replacement cost and your roof was
damaged by a windstorm I mean I can prove it there’s you know shingles missing here so why don’t we just put
that claim through your insurance for a new roof and the client’s like sure that sounds great contractor just double on
that roof they made way more because yeah because it got paid from the insurance company too so they can yeah
Bill them for all the extra stuff too um but insurance companies definitely get taken advantage of
uh with that and it’s not even like it’s really you know in most you sure there’s
some stuff that you could say it’s kind of like you know Shady but it’s it’s not even it’s just working within the you
know legal contract of what you’re getting through an insurance policy so
um insurance that that that reason is why they got drones flying over houses
you know is because too many people took advantage of it they were ready to write a chest for the roof that’s years old
and they’re like have a picture your your roof already messed up before you got your policy yeah that and also just
them looking at it saying we really because we’re offering this coverage we
really want to make sure that there’s a you know lower percentage chance that that is GNA happen that we’re not going
to have to pay for somebody’s new roof but that being said knock on wood I’ve never had to put an insurance claim on
any property it’s why you’re pretty much ever ever on anything how much does the policy go up
when somebody does put a claim in and I’m not talking about like a complete loss a fire right I don’t know what that does but I’m just like the person who
like they they’ve lived in the house for two years the roof’s years old couple shingles that example Yeah by them doing
that how much does that go up and is it like car insurance where it follows the other houses that they might own or is
it just to that specific property yeah again I wish there was a hard and fast rule but every company’s going to be a little bit different in how they rate
claims um I was I say on average we would say like % something like
that that’s honestly a little higher it it also depends on like how big the house is yeah cuz if it’s if that roof
is only going to cost grand probably going to be about % yeah if that roof is going to be or does that stay
on for a certain amount of time usually five years some companies will do three years of like a look back on claims um
to your other question like yeah it matters um regardless of if you have other properties a claim tied to your
name is still going to show up on a report it doesn’t necessarily mean that that it’s going to be affecting the
premium on your other properties but it does mean that if you’re applying for new coverage at least going to be
something that an underwriter questions for the most part if you had a claim on
your home in New Hampshire and you were applying for new coverage on a home in Massachusetts it would show up on a
report and I would just have to tell an underwriter that it was on your home in New Hampshire and they’d say oh fine yeah it doesn’t impact your rate what
whatsoever it won’t impact your renewals on other properties um but you know it’s
the kind of thing that they will take a holistic approach in underwriting so if you have like four claims five claims in
two years you’re like exactly like but none of them are on this property it’s like yeah but you know they buy three hour five years and they all get brand
new roofs you’re like hey time out I don’t want this guy no but I’ve can they turn down Insurance yeah they can
definitely decline Insurance um and that’s all like you know that’s all legal too like insurance companies have
to F clining Insurance are declining claims an insurance policy so yeah just
declining coverage right yeah so they absolutely can um a lot of companies do
it all the time but that’s another thing that does need to be um you know like written down in stone as to like their
what their reasons are for declining coverage and that has to be approved by the state too so like if you’re going to
you know be a company that declines coverage for insurance core which is
like basically a consumer um like credit based consumer report so kind of credit
score if you’re in a company that’s going to decline based on credit score that needs to be approved with the state
you know they need to like be okay like what’s what’s the credit what’s your threshold and what what will you allow
and get that approved but some companies do um use credit score to either approve or you know deny coverage some companies
use it to rate coverage and better your credit score better rates you’re eligible for let’s talk about something
fun I mean yeah yeah I don’t think our you just want to talk about insurance the enti night before we jump into having some fun me and CRA over here
learning we could talk to you guys like three four hours about this stuff I learned more about you’re talking about insurance yeah I think it’s important I
don’t I honestly don’t think enough people understand what goes into insurance and they get they just think
oh you know going to call get a binder nothing’s going to come up not going to have any problems it’s never going to increase and there’s so many things that
could change it yeah the more people understand about the business of insurance Mak it’s easier for you get
out there % and even even clients man like you know you you have clients that have bad experiences they’re upset about
something if you can explain it in a way that makes sense to them and they get why like there’s a reason behind it
there it doesn’t necessarily make the situation any different but it makes them feel better about it they feel like it’s not just some arbitrary thing
that’s like making their life [ __ ] miserable you know John so you guys have been around for a long time I know tell
tell everybody that’s watching how long you guys been in business how you guys kind of what what got you you into the insurance game yourself and you know you
what what got you into your insurance where did you guys meet anything cool there yeah uh so it’s a family business
my grandfather started the agency in the s I’m super proud of that that’s awesome Yep um he was a
mailman he worked at the post office he wasn’t a mailman he worked at the post office he was a clerk and um back in the
day mail was super important like you know people actually went to the post office for things there was a gentleman
in uh in t you know town of Fall River uh who owned an insurance agency his
name was Wilfred porier and he came to the post office one day and uh you know
my grandfather if you if you ever knew him he was a very gregarious guy always you know like everybody just you talk to
a wall you know and uh yeah STP conversation with him whatever and he was like hey Herman I’m I’m looking for
this specific package if it comes in today I I really needed is it here
whatever and uh he was looking for like a claim check for one of his clients that you know he was hoping back in the
day the claim checks went to the agent and they would like to hand deliver them to people it’s crazy but uh he was
looking for that and and it wasn’t there but like you know later on in the afternoon it had been delivered and my
uh grandfather thought like oh let me you know call him you know and and he did and followed up on it guy came picked up the check he was so grateful
for it and you know I think based on that and the conversation he had with him he was like Hey do you ever want to get into insurance because I I’d love to
have you come work for me and he did he took him up on it he’s like but uh can I like work for you part-time in between I
work a split shift at the post office you know so in between like the four hours that I have in between can I go
work for you then he was like yeah sure so he worked like two jobs worked the post office he’d go work in Insurance go
back to the post office was a hardworking guy and then started cutting his teeth in insurance and like fast
forward you know years later had an opportunity to buy the agency and he did um which was a big risk for him at the
time because he had been working at the post office which in like the s and
for somebody who grew up like Depression era baby was like the Pinnacle of a St
stable job with benefits and like you know like this was like you know his
parents were like you’re leaving the civil service job to go sell insurance what are you nuts like what a big risk
you know and he was like no I think this is the right thing for me and uh and he did and you know the rest is history so
that that’s how the agency got its start my dad started working for him pretty much straight out of college um he went
to nor Eastern nor Eastern does like a co-op you know or like your fifth year you get to do like an official
internship that’s also part of your schooling and my dad used that opportunity to co-op with the business
and uh ended up turning that into a career you know my grandfather had always been doing like Personal
Insurance a little bit he was also heavily involved in real estate he was a real estate appraiser he delivered Groceries on weekends guy did everything
and he didn’t make it B man yeah so a funny story about my grandfather driving home from a Red Sox game with my dad one
time my dad was just a kid he was doing real estate appraisals at the time and uh driving home he like pulls off the
highway in Freetown drives down a street goes to look at a like pulls into somebody’s
driveway flashes the high beams on the house he’s like all right I’ll do the appraisal in the morning try
Zach see free outout yeah there some bad spots over there sad so uh anyway a
hardworking guy my dad started working for him and really had a focus on Commercial Insurance my dad has like a
very strong background in uh finance and like he’s very analytical kind of guy and he really understood a lot about
business insurance which is a lot more intricate than what I do with home insurance um and he really really did
did a a lot of good stuff with business insurance um back in the day there was tons of like manufacturing businesses
around here even more so than there are now like Texas Industries had like a plant in attelboro and there’s all sorts
of spin-off machine shops that he picked up and started doing their business insurance for a lot of businesses in New
Bedford you know the with the fishing industry here Fall River stuff like that
and uh grew a big business in commercial insurance and they also acquired some agencies during that time my dad and my
aunt had owned the agency for a number of years and then fast forward to like you know years ago uh I was just kind
of a floundering kid coming out of college Beyond honest with you I had a lot of fun in college don’t get me wrong
but I didn’t have a lot of Direction had no clue what I wanted to do my dad offered me a job when I was a senior and
I was like no part of me didn’t want to do insurance part of me didn’t feel like I had earned anything from him at that
point because I had just like you know Grant I did all right in college but I didn’t feel like I made the most of my
opportunities there like here’s this guy just sent me to a private college for four years you know and he’s going to
offer me a job and what I’m going to go work for him now like I just didn’t right with me so I wouldn’t got a job somewhere else I work for a hospital um
doing fundraising actually so I have a little bit of you know we’re going to talk about uh friends of Jack and and
that you know I have a little bit of background in uh you know uh development and like nonprofit fundraising um and
worked that job for like six months before I was like Hey Dad does that offer and he was like no it doesn’t he’s
like you just were you going to quit on the first job you had six months in now you think that’s making impression like
definitely not no uh you know go get back to work so I did got a promotion at this job I really didn’t love um kept
working at it and then about you know another months after that asked him if he would hire me and he reluctantly
agreed to hire me I’m like the most base salary of all time and like you know just to be a you know just anybody else
that would walk in the door you know like we didn’t do draws at the time but he would have if that it was an option
you know like that’s a yeah so he hired me like that and um really just just
started throwing a lot of [ __ ] at the wall and seeing what would stick and um happy with everything we’ve done since
I’ve been part of the business I know he’s happy with it too it’s just yeah couldn’t have been a better situation
getting into a family business that I think the way that he handled it and kind of given me uh he you know this
this might be inappropriate for some people but he the the words he said to me was I’ll give you a lot of rope you
can either run with it or you can hang yourself and uh that’s kind of how he approached the whole thing you know with
with me coming into the business and I took that rope and I gr [ __ ] run with
him all right just find it it’s awesome Yep as your dad and uh Aunt still
involved in the business no my dad’s in Florida he’s still involved in the business he is the owner of the business
yeah but uh but he’s in Florida nice that way yeah so he’s lot more leeway
lot more roow oh yes absolutely miles away yeah and my aunt has retired
my aunt retired maybe years ago so five six five years yeah yeah five six years ago she retired she um and this
was like um that was like a critical moment for a lot of things that was a
critical moment for a business um for for me personally my relationship with
my dad because my aunt was ready to retire she had earned that right you know she had been doing the business for
a long time but of course when you want to retire from a business you loan that means selling it yeah and so she owned
half of the business and she wanted to retire which left my dad with a choice of
either also selling his half of the agency which like at the time you know
he’s years old um been doing this for a long time and he could have very
easily you know said like the sun I’m good right and uh the alternative is
that he has to buy her house and you know I’m sure there was a lot of
soul searching going on but he uh yeah he ended up buying her half of the
agency which was you know I didn’t know I had no
Illusions going into the whole thing with him you know it was one of the first things he said to me too was like you know at some point in time I’m going
to want to retire and depending on how things go like I you can’t be upset with me of how whatever way I decide to go
and that was that moment and uh yeah he didn’t you know and it
was just I think for me just that last little bit of like confidence you know
in like what we were doing that not only he wasn’t just doing this for me at this point we’re talking big sums of money he
trusted you as a business partner he knew you guys had the ability to I’m just GNA do this for my kid you know
like it’s beyond that at that point it at this point you got multi Generation plus year old institution in the in
the city that he worked so hard and your grandfather Yeah pass it along to you down the road someday that that means a
lot to him too yeah % and uh you know yeah we all made it possible but it’s uh
got your pennies to buy from him oh yeah man we’ll see how old definitely he’s uh
so I mean he’s down in Florida collected mailbox money I mean there’s nothing wrong with that good yeah ex I’m
funding his retirement man it’s all pring you right now now so yeah we got no plans to do anything crazy in the
near future but uh but yeah it’s all good you got you got family connection to the business too yeah so speak about
family my mom and my aunt both have worked at the point for my aunt’s been
years since I was a since since was a kid since I was a baby she started out
as a receptionist and remembers John calling in as talk to his dad all day um
and then my mom ended up coming in uh a couple years after her but my aunt she’s
the COO so she kind of runs the show Sue is the boss you boss she reports to Big
Daddy Leo that’s all I’m hearing she’s like hey they’re they’re going crazy over here everybody reports to sue who
is the B and when there’s a problem Sue calls Sue calls Florida yeah he’s got
the yeah exactly she’s got the direct line that’s awesome I’m only I’m right now turning and it was Co when
Co hit I just came home from quak started to go to UMass Dartmouth Co hit
so College was at a stand was all online I picked up a job at Northwestern Mutual
selling life insurance trying a cold call try to sell life insurance to my -year-old friends who didn’t have a
dollar to their name in college and all they wanted to do was party that’s it and they don’t need life insurance they don’t no but I’m seeing the commissions
I’m like I have to make this work some way somehow so then I talked to John and
Rick well actually my aunt talks to John and Rick and goes hey can you meet with him like he’s help like networking how
do you guys do it yeah she was like just give them some advice on like what you guys do you know like that thing you
guys do you like to talk to the people and then they give you people to buy insurance for you you know nothing
because she’s not in sales yet she’s just like you she just like you know like however you do it like just teach
him a little bit about sales yeah so I had a meeting with John and Rick at the time give me great advice like oh you
have to meet it’s not about just selling the policy it’s about building a connection with everybody so it’s always
friends before referral partners and % of our referral Partners they’re all our friends um we can always call
them at the end of the day and be like hey you catch that game last night or whatever it is um so I take that I go
home about month or two later I text them again like hey guys can I meet up again like I’m I’m really
really struggling of the time go back to the office we meet and
then I text John after I’ll never forget it was on I forget what day during the
week it was a AM call Zoom call that I had with you vaguely remember yeah I was at my
fiance’s house in Marion and uh yeah it was a. call I’m like John I I want to make the switch
over my family didn’t know about it nobody knew about it like hey can I make this switch I was like uh yeah I got to
talk to my dad well um and then after that I jumped
into the business didn’t know a single thing about insurance home insurance I knew life insurance with the back of my
hand everything I wasn’t even licensed when I got hired um I talking about my licensing because that’s a story in
itself uh yeah I’ll just say it now I have to I took the exam five times H we
know some people like that the mortgage for last time I it three times in a week it doesn’t teach you anything about insurance yeah so good at taking tests
okay you can get your insurance license yeah if you’re good at cramming information and like retaining it for
hours until you show up that’s it if you’re good at that you you pass the test but yeah it’s it’s nothing to do
with like being good being an insurance agent yeah yeah that’s ours is the same it’s the same thing you have to you
bring somebody in they take that test they pass it you still have to teach them every that they show can they know
everything about a mortgage or delete everything yeah I thought a binder was like a legit binder not like a a binder
that you know had turn fire um yeah so I passed the exam now I work under John so
I’m doing all the admin stuff the binders the applications I’ve worked through a ton during that time because
now it’s that’s kind of how we start most producers in the office is just like reverse engineering of like
you have to do the all of the other parts the process besides the actual part where you talk to clients yet like
granted you’re not allowed to talk to you yet like in your free time go out and network with people and start making
some connections right start to know who you are for now uh what you got to do is just learn like what a binder looks like
and learn how to like go into the company and download the application and do you know and just start to get your
feet wet there and where they sign you even shows up with a Trapper Keeper
then sudden look it’s got full built-in calculator yeah the uh yeah I mean same
thing I sore I would never work my mom my aunt never we’re polar opposite people and here I am four years later
it’s the best thing I’ve ever done a awesome yeah it’s great business to be funny man your guys story is I feel like
is a little different but so similar to ours as how we kind of came into this and started working together some of the
people we’ve brought on and how that you you weren’t doing anything sales related getting mortgages right you’re
firefighter firefighter yeah yeah and then did you like do your loan with f or
something or like how did you guys I did actually so our uh our wives are friends okay so Mommy and Me classes uh is how
our wies met and then we didn’t really know each other I did there alone and I just moved on like it was anybody else
in like two years later they’re like we didn’t really have like a relationship from that like I showed up talked to him
once talked to his sister you know throughout the process a little bit but bought my house and then moved on never
really thought about it again and then our daughters were in preschool yeah at
kushman and at this time i’ been on the fire department for quite a few years before that I was a paramedic so I’ve
been doing it since I was and I was just kind of getting tired of doing just that and I was looking to do something
else my wife’s a nurse so I was like what can I do that isn’t working on an
ambulance part-time because that’s what a lot of guys a little bit more of a flexible yeah schu try to maybe
hopefully she doesn’t have to work as much if I can make decent money doing it and then
uh I mean I was like maybe trade stuff like I I had no clue I just knew I didn’t want to like try to do something
and then not do well at it because there were so many guys in my fire department that would be like oh today they’re selling solar tomorrow they’re selling
you know new I don’t know Shakeology or whatever like I’m like I don’t want to do that stuff oh was a carpenter not
trying to do that so it was Halloween we were over at uh your favorite blaz Ying
Dynasty and he kind of just like fan said it uh like jokingly I think you
know at one point and then I hit him up about it and he probably was like damn why the hell did I uh I say that to
myself every time like have a tell you you tell everybody to get into this
business like stop telling people that but that’s we got Steve White from Verizon my Verizon got Tire now I don’t
have a Verizon guys I’m like damn it took my Verizon guy away shit’s all [ __ ] up
oh wellow next and then I hit him up and he was like gu we met for lunch and he
was late and we got home very very late that that lunch turned into all night we
ended up in Providence at a Christmas party and I think thank you Zach yeah to
Zach’s Christmas party voice Christmas party Christmas party yeah it was it was a wild one we had some fun down there
and and then back so this is what this is all is more
next day he’s like I’m in I’m like Go pass your task go take your cast I’m like he’ll never do it that’s what I say to everybody I’m like no they probably
won’t follow through kids calling me like he’s like can I come in and just hang out the office I’m like okay we
don’t have an office yet I’m soting like that’s right and leaving caliber and Milestone opening so there
was no Milestone yet like he was kind of in that in between stage was when I got my license or was like studying to get
it so I started to just come in we put all the chairs we put the whole darmouth office together
and then it just took off from there and you and you probably had some good connections coming into it because you
had uh probably through like your working as a paramedic and firefighter
yeah definitely knew you know like a decent personal Network right so like a good not so much like in this business
like the people that we all kind of know now but I think like a big part of it was I always and I I’ve said this before
but you know I’ve always since I was worked with people that were or or
in this and then also dealing with people so I was just always used to just kind of getting along with anybody that
doesn’t matter who they are and just you know becoming friends with people like you were talking about like that was how
I went into business is just hey I’m just going to become friends with you guys and hang out with you guys and you know try to do a really good job at this
too and it just started to snowball and snowball and and took off you know it really there’s not really like a secret
sauce that I think I had that other people don’t have that op hard work so it really is we just did it every day
all day long nobody we don’t have like any particular product that nobody else
has or like you know our process is our process and we think it’s pretty good
but like the Secret’s not the process either no I mean you said it reverse
engineer right so when Craig came in I would give him like an application handed to him go go find out where this
fits go find the carrier go find the investor the product where you’re going to put it in I already knew it in my head but I’m like I get this guy off my
bed back he’ll learned something and it turned out this kid just went to the next level like he’s coming back and he
had all the right answers and then he throw in another curve ball where I’m like I didn’t think about that one oh yeah good job Craig good job I do that I
do that like all right we got something here but it was crazy because I remember
just sitting there and he just started a company he started on day one of Milestone right like he’s been here since since the very beginning and it’d
be like and I’m like I’m exhausted and he’d come in with like scenarios and I’m like I’m here till so
you saw the work ethic you don’t see that in a lot of people now when you do see it you’re like okay here we go we
have another Diamond In The Rock he would be busy like all day long and I’d be like you just have a couple things to
do so I’d be sitting there all day pricing out loans trying to figure out what works talking her at ease trying to
bother our processor to try to learn as much as I could from her and then just waiting for him to be free to try to
like go in and get the questions I need answered and we just did that for a while it was wild but it went quick like
it didn’t feel like work I could say I could say so so many similar things like when Ethan was working under me I he he
would basically uh look at a quote that I did and try and figure out how I did it yeah
you just work backwards and try to like start his own one and figure out how to exactly match what I did and make the
file look exactly the same as I had created it and just kind of like that as like a manager like that’s the ideal
person right it’s the person that’s like curious enough to like want to do that and you don’t even have to teach them
like step every step of the way you’d come to me with questions you’d be like hey like how did you do this or that but
like for the most part you just like kind of figure it out it’s wild now because I go from the mentee to the
mentor back to the mentee I’m like What’s Happening Now I go to Craig for like loan questions because I don’t deal
with it as often and things change so so drastically in our businesses and I’m like hey Craig what’s the guideline on
this again and I’m like oh God I remember like when you started you didn’t know what debt to income was or
you know how to calculate income at all and now how the rules have reverse over time it’s uh I’ll do that pretty crazy
like one we we were writing so much homeowners insurance I didn’t even have time to ask people about their car insurance right and we just had a bunch
of like clients that had homes with us and we never bothered to ask about the car insurance and so we were like Ethan
here’s this Salesforce program that’s going to give you a list of all the clients that you can just call and say
like can we do your car insurance every single one like it’s a thousand people like have fun and you get to keep the
commission on any anyone that you sell like it’s you know they’re your clients if you can sell I give him at bats and
and Ethan got so freaking good at car insurance that I would like to this day and know I’m like hey like you know does
does Plymouth Rock offer a discount for this like yeah yeah they do you just got to go in here and like have a spare tire
in the back and you gotta have this the thing and you get % off yeah but uh
that yeah s similar right similar story and uh it’s so it’s so funny it’s really
hard it’s funny it’s hard to find people that have that drive to actually want to
to learn something to do it to work hard yeah that to match that level of uh work
ethic where you’re in the office early or late and like they are too but man we
you can string a couple of people like that together all all of a sudden you
got a business you know really like doing great yeah it’s oand it feels like it’s : in afternoon you’re
like oh that’s it it’s already doesn’t like it doesn’t feel like we’re yeah you know I like the fire but
I was like all right I would like not to be here too right you know and this is like it’s the opposite you know it’s not
like it doesn’t feel like work I I’m like wake up in the morning it’s like I want to get here as soon as possible because I want to just get working and
get through it’s rewarding on so many levels like everybody thinks like I think people look at it and and probably
many people may get into the industry thinking that like the W is the money right like granted if you’re successful
at any business like heck yeah like that’s why we work do anything % but
like if you can find passion in what you do and find that it’s enjoyable in the
parts where you’re not just doing it for money like that’s not the only enjoyable aspect of what you do that genuinely
helping people and like you get a you get a high off of that like that’s like
just you know you’re going to be unstoppable because there for me anyways that’s how I feel
like nothing makes me feel better than like somebody ends a phone call with being like man thank you so much for
your time like I learned so much I really appreciate it you know like I don’t care I get more excited about that
than if I’m gonna make X number of dollar WI a $commission I don’t care I’ll give me of those phone calls a
day that gets you going again because sometimes you just get beat up oh yeah you’re just
getting this is just never going to end and then you get that one you’re like I’m live again exactly that makes you
feel good % it is funny man that’s awesome well guys I really appreciate you guys coming in you guys shared a ton
of information and knowledge for everybody I think this is probably definitely one of the most informative
uh podcasts that we have which is great I’m sure everyone’s gon to have a lot more questions and uh I wish you guys a
lot of success with your company and your growth I hope you find a lot more ethens we found we found we found Bubba
yeah you you got Bubba now Bubba’s a different flavor but he is he’s a flavor
hects he is the man yeah we are so lucky to find Bubba’s Bubba oh there forget Rick and I hired
him like literally on the spot and then we just spent the rest of the minute interview just [ __ ] with him and
making him think he didn’t have the job it literally took seconds for me and Rick to look at each other and be like we gotta hire this kid it takes if you
know we gotta get and know each other a lot of you guys know him like if anybody’s watching this and knows them
you just know like you seconds with Bubba is all you know to realize that he’s the type of person that you could
have around you’ll find a place for him right and uh yeah the rest of but you also seconds into KN and Bubba you
know that he’s the kind of guy that’s a lot of fun to pick fun at you know and kind of like mess around with and uh
yeah that’s the rest of that interview but he’s the man yeah we got a good team from the day that we hired him he became one of my best friends yeah like
instantly it’s pretty cool when you get to work with people that you actually like and want to hang out with and it
makes life a lot more fun yeah % man and it’s been fun working with you guys and like just you know in the time that
you started your business it just a lot of the similarities that we have is kind of like you know fraternal aspect of the
business and like people gravitate towards you because you just got a good crew and people that like you know love
what they do it shows and just get a good vibe you know like and it’s fun
working with you guys because I feel those parallels that we have like as businesses you know you can have that
mutual respect to businesses but also like appreciation for what you guys are doing and how you’re growing and like
that that’s the kind of thing that I think uh you know makes you guys a good partner to work with too because you
feel like you have the same values and like same you know like drive to keep growing this thing I definitely agree
with you on that one my man and the feeling is mutual well guys that’s all the time with God thank you guys very
much you guys Soap Box