The transition from being a broker to managing an entire branch within a brokerage is one filled with both challenges and rewards, as one insurance professional has learned over the course of his career.
“I’ve been in personal lines during my whole nine-year career. I started in 2010 as an account manager, learning from the brokers around me and dealing with clients on a day-to-day basis, and then I got into the sales chair, and that’s where I thrived,” said Myles Kuharski (pictured), today a personal insurance sales manager and branch manager at Gillons Insurance Brokers in Thunder Bay. “I really enjoyed teaching the public about insurance, and offering them insurance products. An opportunity came up about four years ago for me to, through mergers and acquisitions at Gillons, move to Thunder Bay [from Fort Frances] to take over the branch there, and my role shifted to a manager at that time.”
This move brought on new responsibilities, but also a new source of fulfillment for the young broker.
“The work shifted from customers to staff at that time, and that was a challenge because as someone that likes sales and dealing with the general public, shifting to that manager role and dealing with staff was challenging, but also very rewarding at the same time,” said Kuharski. “You get a different perspective of insurance when you’re helping people through issues or problems with customers, insurance wordings, or whatever the case may be, and I found that very rewarding and the right step in my insurance career.”
Kuharski hasn’t just been involved with the insurance industry through his role at Gillons. He also took on a position for the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario’s Young Brokers Council (YBC). He went to his first YBC conference two years into his career, and got a taste of the type of work the council does.
“I remember thinking, this is something I want to be a part of long-term,” Kuharski told Insurance Business, and a few years later, a role opened up on the council. “I became a team lead, so that’s a three-year term, and then last year ran to become part of the executive and to be the president.”
This year, the broker is YBC’s president-elect, and continues to see the value in participating within the organization.
“The friendships you gain with brokers and company people throughout the province is invaluable. We share emails back and forth all the time with different risk questions, and ‘I’ve got this risk, does anybody know what would they do,’ so the networking has been a major focal point of this for me, but also the opportunity to be in front of company executives on a year-to-year basis and be speaking in front of large groups of people,” he said.
As for what’s kept Kuharski interested in the insurance industry since he met his wife while working at the Keg in Winnipeg, got hired on at her father’s brokerage, and jump-started his insurance career, he says it’s all about staying alert and always learning.
“You rarely have the same day twice, as far as what comes at you, and I think the fact that you have to be on your toes in that regard really makes it interesting when you show up to work every day,” said Kuharski. “Whether it’s customer questions or staff concerns, you never know what you’re going to get.”
