Nevada Young Agents Group Grows the Old-Fashioned Way

The Nevada Young Agents Committee started out small with a young insurance agent collecting and passing out a few cards around the state, and it’s now a rapidly growing organization that has garnered a bit of national attention. The group isn’t stopping there. Its aim isn’t just to give young agents a place to meet; it ideally wants to bring more young people into the business.

The committee’s membership base of 50 people may not sound too impressive, but it is given that the group started only two years ago, growing at first slowly, to a membership of six last year. From there, it took a year to get to its present number.

“We really started to revitalize it about a year ago,” said 24-year-old Chance Lockhart, the group’s liaison.

The reasons for their success? Social networking? Video chat conferences? Something new, cool and high-tech few have yet heard of?

Nope. They chalk up their growth mostly to plain, old-fashioned grassroots networking.

The committee was around in various forms in the past, but it never really gained much momentum. “It had a presence, maybe 20 years ago, but petered out,” Lockhart said. “We thought that perpetuation was important, so we started to rebuild the committee. When we started out in 2009 it was just one guy collecting business cards.”

The group now has its own website, is becoming increasingly active in lobbying, fundraising, and of course, recruiting more young agents, said Kay Lockhart, president and CEO of Nevada Independent Insurance Agents. Lockhart is also Chance’s grandmother.

The interest shown around the state from those in the industry was unexpected, the elder Lockhart said.

“I was really surprised. It seemed like these kids were waiting around for somebody to ask them,” she said.

Both Lockharts attribute part of the committee’s recruitment success to a few areas where one would expect a group of young people to attain mastery: its website, a series of 15-minute-long “coffee break” webinars and some social networking.

But according to the younger Lockhart, the bulk of their recruitment efforts, and success, can be credited to good, old-fashion “grassroots efforts.”

“We just try to get people to recruit in their offices,” he said.

The group encourages its members to go to their firms with literature, or positive word of mouth, about the committee and network within their own firms, explaining the benefits of joining.

Additionally, the committee has been pushing to get agency principals involved by sending new, young agents their way.

The max age for joining is 40, but the group welcomes people who are new to the insurance industry.

The group’s recruiting efforts have garnered national attention. In September, the committee won the Outstanding First Time Award at the annual Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America annual Fall Leadership Conference in Minneapolis for its recruitment efforts.

“They won overwhelmingly because of what they’ve done over the last year,” said Jason Cass, national chairman of IIABA’s Young Agents Committee. “There’re one or two states that are stepping up every year.”

There are roughly 35 states with Young Agents groups, said Cass, a 33-year-old with his own agency, JDC Insurance Group in Centralia, Ill. The Nevada Young Agents’ recruitment success becomes even more impressive considering the economy, which Cass said has put a damper on efforts to recruit of agents into these committees.

“A lot of young agents come to networking groups based on backing and support of principals,” Cass said. “As agencies are scaling back, one of the areas they are scaling back is how involved their young agents are. Principals believe the young agent needs to be in the office more, and it’s so counterproductive it’s unbelievable.”

He added: “The rock stars of the industry are in the young agents. Older principals don’t understand we want mentors. Principals just don’t understand that we don’t get that anymore.”

According to IIABA, more than 60 percent of the insurance industry’s employees are over age 45, with the average age of an agency principal around 54.

“Perpetuation is our industry’s big issue,” the younger Lockhart said. “Getting people involved in the insurance industry, getting people involved in the associations, attracting new people to a career in the insurance industry, these are all things we are trying to do.”

And getting new people into the industry in Nevada is the group’s next focus.

“I think that when young people hear insurance agent, they think it’s a pretty boring job where you sit around and fill out applications,” he said.

To help combat this notion, the committee is writing up a business plan to bring to Nevada the IIABA InVest program, which works with educators by providing curriculum to teach insurance and business skills to high school and college students around the nation. The program, which is celebrating 40 years since its inception, is currently in more than 180 high schools and community colleges across the country, with an estimated 5,500 students participating, according to IIABA.

“That’s something that we really want to get involved in this year,” Lockhart said.

Pete Moraga, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Network of California, said the diversity and new ideas from young agents coming into the industry are invaluable.

What groups like the Nevada Young Agents are doing “is admirable and is something that should continue,” Moraga said. “We need all perspectives in this business. Insurance affects people of all ages. It’s important that we have young people in the mix.”

Not everyone’s dialed into the insurance business like Lockhart, who works on the for-profit side of the Nevada Independent Insurance Agents selling insurance products. He is a third-generation agent, following in the footsteps of his grandmother, Kay. His mother, Amy Lockhart, also works in the industry.

“On our committee we have about 12 people who are legacies,” he said. “A lot are second- or third-generation insurance agents.” He believes insurance stays in the family because “people who have grown up in the industry are more inclined to see the value in working in the insurance business.”

But the industry can’t count on legacies to keep its ranks afloat.

“If we don’t grow a base of young people to replace the existing agency system, the industry itself is facing a big problem,” Lockhart said. “We could go the way of the travel industry.”

Topics Agencies Market