Insurance is a people business – especially when it comes to brokers.
Brokers are the force that take insurance beyond a complex financial contract to a transaction of human caring and value. Insurance is there to protect, and it’s always nice to know your protectors care about their role.
Bobby Forster is an account executive at Elevate Insurance Brokers in Grande Prairie, Alberta. He’s one such broker who’s well and truly in the business for the people. Forster accepts that everyone works in different ways and wants different value from a broker.
He told Insurance Business that dealing with different personalities is one of the ‘exciting challenges’ of the broker profession. We caught up with Forster to find out more about his insurance journey:
How did you get started in the insurance industry?
I was working in sales and thinking about changing jobs when Pierce Krol (president) reached out to me from Elevate Insurance Brokers. We met up and had a few chats about the insurance industry and what a great career it can provide. We thought we could work well together and I joined Elevate just over four years ago. I’m now an account executive, working primarily in commercial lines. A lot of our business is based around the oil industry because of where we’re located in Grande Prairie, Alberta.
What are the best parts of your job as an insurance broker?
Insurance is a people business. For me, it’s all about meeting new people and new business owners. Everybody runs their organizations in different ways, which is an exciting challenge for me. As an insurance broker, you’re always facing new things and dealing with different personalities. It’s great.
What are some of the key challenges you’ve faced in your role?
Nothing comes easy. Being an insurance broker definitely has its challenges. Generating new business is often the most challenging aspect of the role – but it’s something you get better at as you gain experience. It can sometimes be hard to get your foot in the door and overcome existing relationships that have been built over the years. That’s why it’s important for brokers to stay on their toes and keep offering the best products and services to clients.
How has Elevate Insurance contributed to your success?
Being a local brokerage has definitely helped with the business we write. We don’t go all over the country to look for business. Instead, we fine tune our expertise to our local area here in Alberta. The level of insurance expertise here at Elevate is second to none. When we run into different and new scenarios, there’s always someone to bounce ideas off so that, as a team, Elevate comes up with the best game plan to move forward.
What advice would you give to someone working their way up the insurance ladder?
Soak in all the advice you can from every single person you encounter. Whether you’re working at a big brokerage, a small brokerage, or even studying insurance at school, everybody you meet will have a different perspective on insurance. This means there’s always something new to learn. If you take a little bit of knowledge from everybody you meet, that can be a hugely beneficial step moving forward with your career.
My second piece of advice is to acknowledge that insurance is challenging. New people will find that out in a hurry, and my advice would be to stick at it and see it through.
If you weren’t working in insurance, what would you be doing?
Based on where we live, I would probably be doing something oil field related, or perhaps real estate.
What are your hobbies?
I’ve always been a huge hockey fan. I also love getting away to the lake in the summer.
