BEHIND THE LIST WITH JANE KOPPENHEFFER [Central Penn Business Journal (PA)]

president and CEO of The Insurance Alliance of Central PA Inc.

Q: What is The Insurance Alliance, and what services do you offer?

A: The Insurance Alliance is an umbrella organization for a group of 10 independent agencies located in Central Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley. We provide an opportunity for collaboration and expertise sharing among the member agencies.

Agencies are the owners of the Alliance. ... It's a little more than just a membership kind of thing - it actually is a joint venture among them.

What are the advantages of the collaborative effort of the Alliance?

One of the main things is it allows them (the 10 agencies that comprise the Alliance) to have access to many more insurance companies. We represent over 40 different insurance companies that the Alliance has contracts with - most independent agents might have eight, possibly 10 - so the huge advantage is when they're talking with a business or individual, they can really find the best insurance solution for their clients.

Also, because of the size of the Alliance, we have very strong relationships with carriers. We have a lot of interaction with their executives, we understand their strategy and, to some degree, might even argue we might have some additional leverage because of that relationship with them.

You work with a wide variety of agencies and businesses. What do you enjoy about the diversity of your client base?

That (the diversity) is exactly what I like! Having worked 25 years for one insurance company, I knew exactly how they ran their business. What's been interesting - now that I'm dealing with these 40 different insurance companies - I've been able to see such a variety of business models that are all very successful but very different. I've found that the insurance industry is full of wonderful professionals, and even though it's a very technical financial industry, it's also very people driven. And I really enjoy the people that I've met.

How will the Supreme Court's ruling on health care affect the insurance industry? What repercussions will it have for employers?

The Insurance Alliance is a property- and casualty-oriented (insurance organization) only. The effects that the law will have on us are more as business owners ourselves and what the impact will be on us. That, I think, is largely still to be determined.

Several of our member agencies do write quite a bit of health insurance, though, and I think their feeling is that the landscape is certainly going to change, and it's going to be interesting to see how the insurance exchanges actually end up working and to what degree health insurance business moves toward the exchanges versus the independent plans that are available. But at the very least, we all understand that it's going to be a huge change.

For example, in our home office, we only have three full-time employees. We do provide health insurance now, and we use a highdeductible plan with a health savings account. For smaller employers, we're waiting to see what will be the changes in the premiums, the required coverages, whether the high-deductible plans will be allowed or disallowed, and we're also very interested in how the tax credits play out, how that will actually emerge.

In regards to the flooding in Central Pa. last fall, could you describe the ins and outs of extending flood and other weather-related insurance to companies?

It's critical that companies understand what their risk is - and individuals as well. What many people found out was that you can have flooding even if you're not located within a flood plain, in addition to realizing the importance of looking at what kind of water damage coverage your policy does or does not have. Again, with our 40 different insurance companies, we have a lot of different options we can offer people.

But since there are several price points and coverage options, you really need to sit down with an insurance agent and think about what your exposure is. And just as important as the dollars of coverage are the services and expertise that these insurance companies can bring to bear if you have a claim.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, the former director of policy planning for the U.S. State Department, wrote an article in the July/August edition of The Atlantic discussing the difficulties of balancing work and life, and it helped bring to the forefront again the discussion of how different sectors of the workforce are evolving - in this case, women. What advice would you give the next generation of women entering the workforce on balancing a career and a personal life?

Well, I think it's definitely, in some ways, gotten even harder for women, because of always being available. Now you can get email and texts and calls all the time. When my children were young, pretty much once I leftwork - whatever time that was - at least I was sort of offduty.

I think the best piece of advice that my mom gave me when I was trying to create this balance was: "Ask yourself: Ten years from now, will this really matter? Do I really need to go to this extra event or attend this meeting as opposed to going to my child's recital or ballgame?" I think when you ask yourself that 10-year question, it helps put things into perspective and maintain that balance.

Moms really do know best, don't they?

They really do (laughs). It's interesting - my mom was a teacher; she was never in business. But that was one of the best pieces of business advice I ever got.

Can women "have it all"?

It all boils down to your level of expectations. You can "have it all" to a certain degree. For example, I might be buying the brownies for my kid to take to school versus making them from scratch. Or from a career standpoint, I might decide that I'm not going to take a job that will require extensive travel, but I'll still have a very fulfilling career.

I'm thankful I have a very supportive spouse. I could have never ended up both with the fulfilling family life that I've had and my career without his support, and I think that's something that often does not get discussed enough in these discussions about work-life balance: It isn't really just the woman's choice. It's, a lot of times, the choices that her husband is making as well so that the best balance can be created.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

It's funny - my son has said that my primary job is "schmoozer," meaning that I get to visit and talk with a lot of people. I'm very much a people person. What I really enjoy is getting to meet other people and to try to help create connections between our members and insurance companies. And it's the perfect job for me.

ABOUT Jane Koppenheffer

Before coming to the The Insurance Alliance of Central PA Inc., headquartered in Cumberland County, in 2004 as president and CEO, Jane Koppenheffer worked for 25 years for Penn National Insurance in Dauphin County in a variety of roles.

Koppenheffer graduated from Wake Forest University in North Carolina in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in history. In 2004, she earned her master's in insurance management from Boston University in Massachusetts.

She lives with her husband, Fred, in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County. Her son, Peter, is a doctor in a residency program in Oregon, while her daughter, Grace, is a sophomore at Wheaton College in Illinois.

-Roger Van Scyoc, contributing writer