‘Insurance is in my blood’ – UIP CEO on taking the reins of the household enterprise

Jenny Bortman (pictured) didn’t initially plan a profession in insurance coverage. After majoring in chemistry, she joined Nestle Purina’s veterinary division in a gross sales function. But quickly, she was heeding the decision of the household enterprise.

“I think insurance is in my blood,” stated Bortman, who grew to become president and CEO of Universal Insurance Programs (UIP) in May, after her mom, Randy Tipton, stepped down. Tipton moved into a brand new function as chairman of the board.

An Arizona-based MGA, UIP gives specialised insurance coverage applications to area of interest markets, together with the self-storage, tanning, salon, and day spa industries.

Bortman has fond recollections of being in UIP’s places of work whereas her mom led the small specialty agency by way of years of progress.

“Everybody needs insurance,” Bortman stated of her determination to hitch UIP. “Helping people is what I like to do, whether it’s at the office or outside of it. When you find your passion in a career, it makes life so much easier. And what better way to help somebody than protecting their biggest assets and their livelihood?”

Steering the household enterprise

Bortman has helped bolster UIP’s progress throughout her greater than 15 years on the agency, together with her work spanning from gross sales to progressive advertising methods.

As chief working officer, she was chargeable for managing customer support, gross sales, enterprise growth, and operations for the corporate’s rising group.

“Throughout the past year, we’ve been really focused on vision, strategy, and leadership,” Bortman advised Insurance Business.

“We employed a enterprise coach about 2-3 years in the past to assist us deal with mapping our three- and five-year plans, creating profession paths for our group, and establishing metrics so that everybody is aware of the place they stand.

“Through that, we’ve promoted some of our team leaders, so now we have a management level team that’s helping with the daily operations that Randy and I used to have to be involved in, which is going to give us time to work on improving our systems and growing the agency.”

Technology is a big problem

Bortman acknowledged that expertise is likely one of the most vital challenges going through smaller insurance coverage companies, together with UIP.

But fairly than attempting to compete on pace with large tech companies, she stated insurance coverage corporations can distinguish themselves by offering specialised care and repair to prospects.

“In this world, everybody wants answers like Amazon,” Bortman stated. “What I want is to build the ‘white glove’ service of insurance, where even if we can’t provide something quick, at least we give reasonable timelines while still moving as fast as possible and wrap our clients’ business up with a bow.”

UIP additionally creates added worth by fostering a consultative method with shoppers.

“Not everyone is meant to be insured by us, but we can still help you through the process of finding insurance. It doesn’t need to be complicated, and we break it down for you and explain what works and what doesn’t,” she stated.

“Because we’re a specialty company, we know the answer almost 100% of the time when people ask us questions, and I think that’s a huge value-add. Being in niche markets, we know what’s going on in the industry and have relationships with all the vendors, and our carriers love it because we get to be the boots on the ground for them.”

Looking to the longer term

As she ushers UIP into a brand new chapter, Bortman stated she desires to create sustainable progress whereas sustaining the values that constructed the corporate.

She is aiming to carry a renewed deal with methods and expertise, which is able to streamline processes to create a greater expertise for shoppers, brokers, carriers, and group members.

“We’re looking at some additional bolt-ons to our current programs and expanding into different avenues within our industry,” Bortman stated.

Aside from bolstering its applications, UIP can be trying into increasing to different “like-kind industries”, such because the medical spa area.

“It’s a niche where there’s not a lot of players and there are unique exposures that we’re doing research on,” Bortman continued. “We also want to find a broker partner that specializes in it, and their experience could work hand in hand with our robust insurance offerings.”

The CEO advised Insurance Business that there aren’t any plans, for now, to promote the corporate.

“We have major growth plans right now. We’ve got some amazing rising stars,” she stated.

One of these rising stars might quickly be Bortman’s 10-year-old daughter.

“It’s funny because she just started working at the agency, which is still a little antiquated. We need to mail non-renewals as we’re doing the carrier change, and she’s in charge of folding, stuffing, and stamping envelopes,” stated Bortman, who additionally has an 11-year-old.

“Seeing my daughter come to the agency just brings a smile to our faces, because that’s how I started.”

Does this CEO see herself passing the baton to her personal youngsters ultimately?

“I could totally see my daughter coming back [to UIP] in 10 or 15 years,” Bortman admitted.

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