Vice President of Commercial Lines, Financial Design Insurance Agency

My name's David Kent. I'm the vice president of insurance at a small, medium-sized insurance agency in north central Ohio. My primary role is to assist others in our office with ensuring that the products that they are presenting to our customers are as accurate as they can be. I conduct a lot of reviews with customers as well as work with some new customers, whether that be doing a walkthrough of a factory, walkthrough of a farm, helping a farmer understand certain coverages, or assisting another agent within our firm disseminate coverage themselves with the customer. If you boil it down, it is writing contracts for customers, and they are buying an intangible, which is a contract to say if you have an accident or your business burns down, or tornado hits your home, we are agreeing to fix it. That's pretty much the boiled down of what an insurance agent does. Bigger responsibilities would definitely be helping ensure the longevity of our firm, growing the business. We just recently had a new hire, so we're onboarding her into our firm. It's a great source of pride when you see anyone that you've helped lift up in this career do well. And I think when you get into the big picture, it's really helping, helping people of all kinds, whether that's employee or a customer. Little bit of travel. Some customers like to meet at their kitchen table, which is always great 'cause you see pictures of grandkids, you get to meet the cat, all those fun little things. There is a number of office hours, nine to five, but you're not limited to that. If somebody has an accident and it's 9:00 PM on a Saturday, they need a rental car. Or if there's a big claim, somebody wants to talk to someone, and that's what we're there for, is to listen in those times. You find yourself being motivated when you have things on your desk. It's exciting.