Tell us about Phil Brown Insurance Agency. What makes the company unique? At the time my father started the company, almost all agencies were small, family-owned businesses, or at least they were locally owned. We are one of just a few family-owned businesses left in the insurance arena. Most others have been sold out to national firms, private equity or banks. Because we are still locally owned, we feel it helps us provide more personalized service compared to national firms. We’ve had very little turnover; in fact, the average tenure of our employees is over 15 years. We work hard to take care of our employees, and in turn, they are amazing with our customers. I hear a lot of praise about interactions with our staff when I’m out talking to people. I’ve had customers tell me many times, “Thank you so much for the friendly staff. We really appreciate all their help and support.” What does Phil Brown Insurance Agency specialize in? From the beginning, our focus has been on association health plans. We work with a number of Kentucky trade associations, including the KTA. There are only a handful of agencies that operate and market these programs. The program allows association members to band together and join a larger pool of not just trucking but other trade associations for more buying power. The trade association program that we have right now includes KTA with four other associations that are all pooled together. We’re in the process of joining an even larger pool that will have 11 different trade associations all together. There will be thousands of lives insured in that program. The biggest thing that pooling helps with is stability. With a larger pool, if there’s a high-cost claimant or two, they won’t drive rates astronomically higher because you’ve got enough other people to balance it out. If you’re on your own or if you have a small pool, one or two big claimants can drastically affect rates. When it comes to health plans, there is strength in numbers. It’s important to our agency and to me that our members do not have to worry about their plans. You can’t add any time to your life by worrying. We are here to help support employees in making decisions when there are changes, or even if there are no changes, help them decide which plan is best. To do this, we conduct on-site and virtual meetings, and we even create videos to go over the benefits. The videos are sent to individual employers, and they can distribute them to their employees. The video offering has been very popular, especially for large employers that experience more turnover. For these employers, they can send the video to new hires and say, “Here’s our benefits package. Watch this and let me know if you have questions. You can even send it home to your spouse if they want to take a look at it.” This saves the companies time and money as they don’t have to have their HR person explain the benefits time and time again. It’s easier for open enrollment too, conveying a consistent and concise message to every employee. In addition, we create custom booklets that cover all the different benefits the employer might offer. There are a lot of different ways and channels we use to educate people on their benefits. Even with all that, we understand that it still can become overwhelming at times. We are always happy to answer questions and offer further assistance when needed. What do you like about working with the trucking industry? The KTA, like the other associations we work with, share many of the same qualities: There is longevity and loyalty to the association. The people who actively participate in trade associations tend to come to all the meetings, and as a result, there is a lot of camaraderie. Everybody gets to know each other. They’re all competitors but good friends at the same time. Year after year, when we go to the annual meetings, we see many of the same faces. It’s nice to get to know people and build long-term relationships. Our target market for the KTA Health Plan is small employers, those with less than 100 employees on their health plan. But certainly, we’ve had larger employers that have joined and taken advantage of the many benefits. Do you have a favorite client success story? We have a lot of client success stories, but I like to focus on what the association programs have done for the people who have been in the program for 10, 15 and 20+ years. From the employee standpoint, change is not typically welcomed. So, having a stable program for a long period of time is Kentucky Trucker | 13
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