Insurance services feed local resurgence [Telegraph-Herald (Dubuque, IA)]

Through a combination of advanced technologies, leadership skills and Midwestern work ethic, insurance services have become an important contributor to the revitalization of the Dubuque-area economy.

Rick Dickinson, president and CEO of Greater Dubuque Development Corp., said customer service organizations including insurers face the challenges of being competitive in a global market and finding a qualified work force at a competitive price point.

"Fortunately, here in Dubuque we have players who have been committed to domestic customer service based on both the quality of that service and most importantly, the delivery of quality service to their customers," Dickinson said. "We've had growth and continued operations with Prudential Financial Services, Cottingham & Butler, Sedgwick CMS and more, so that has certainly been a growing market for us."

An Iowa Department of Economic Development study of the economic impact of the insurance industry in Iowa shows the industry brought 28 facilities projects, 7,200 new jobs and $890 million in new investment to Iowa in the 14 years from 1996 through 2010, and because of the number of corporate insurance headquarters, the jobs they have created tend to be higher paying, with salaries rising faster than most other industries.

The insurance industry had 2.6 percent of the state's jobs but generated 5.6 percent of the contribution to the gross state product, according to a 2008 report by David Swenson and Liesl Eathington, of ISU's Department of Economics. That trend is shown by companies in Dubuque.

Cottingham

& Butler

Cottingham & Butler is the 40th-largest insurance broker in the U.S. and a recognized leader in offering innovative property, casualty and employee benefit insurance solutions. The company is headquartered in Dubuque and employs nearly 500 people across the United States.

The company has a long, rich history, starting with Dixon Cottingham, who opened the doors of D. Cottingham insurance agency on the upper banks of the Mississippi River in 1887. The agency's main focus was to offer personal insurance to local community members.

In 1957, current Chairman John E. Butler joined the family business as one of three employees and eventually took over the commercial business accounts. Butler led the firm through many changes and innovations, and what began as a small, main street insurance agency from the Midwest evolved into a national firm offering a full suite of insurance solutions.

"I think John Butler, our chairman, was very successful at attracting a group of like-minded people who really want to build a business and help other businesses to succeed," said Cottingham & Butler President and CEO David Becker. "The company has, over many years, attracted a certain type of person who takes their career very seriously and takes client service seriously, and everyone we've brought has, over time, brought one other person and that's kind of the way it grew; from word of mouth and referral. It's been kind of a well-kept secret largely because our employees came from other employees."

Becker said new services and new geographies are what started the firm's growth, and it found a lot of great talent from around the area. The company

got into new ways to purchase and then offer insurance.

"We also really expanded our focus to communities outside of Dubuque and so today,

98 percent of our business comes from areas

50 miles or more outside of Dubuque, and that really started back in the early 1980s," Becker said. "We would hope that over the next five to 10 years that we would double the business again."

Platinum

Wayne Briggs, president and CEO of Platinum Supplemental Insurance, said his decision to get into the insurance business came down to timing and demographics.

Platinum specializes in the supplemental insurance field. "At the time we founded the company in 1996, we were just starting to see a need for long-term care insurance," Briggs said. "I had been involved in the insurance industry for six years at that point, and I had encountered many, many people who had seen their entire life savings wiped out because of nursing home bills."

Rising health care costs, coupled with an aging population of baby boomers, made the time right for Briggs and partners to establish his own supplemental insurance agency specializing in selling long-term care policies. These policies pay cash to policy holders if they ever find themselves in the position of having to live in a nursing home.

While the original product was long-term care, Platinum has since diversified to include many other policies that address critical customer needs.

"For instance, our most popular policy is a cancer, heart attack and stroke product that pays cash if policy holders experience one of these catastrophic, but unfortunately very common, illnesses," Briggs said.

"Most recently, we have been selling policies with wellness benefits, meaning that regular screenings are covered and healthy lifestyle choices are rewarded."

Platinum played a role in the revitalization of the Dubuque economy when it chose to refurbish a historic building and plant its headquarters on Lower Main Street in downtown Dubuque. "When we relocated downtown we had 40 employees," Briggs said. "We now have nearly 80 employees, with plans to add 25 or more employees over the next year."

The insurance industry is a bright spot in the Dubuque economy that Briggs believes will continue to grow. "Insurance has been around for hundreds of years; there will always be a need to transfer risks. We don't see an end to that basic concept," he said. "How that insurance looks will certainly evolve. For instance, with the Affordable Care Act the insurance industry is definitely changing, but for us that means that we have the opportunity to serve our customer base with insurance policies for things not covered under that plan. And that is what we do " we specialize in creating these unique types of policies."

Prudential

Prudential Financial companies serve individual and institutional customers worldwide and include The Prudential Insurance Company of America, one of the largest life insurance companies in the U.S. These companies offer a variety of products and services, including life insurance, mutual funds, annuities, pension and retirement- related services and administration, asset management, and banking and trust services. Prudential is among the top 10 employers in Dubuque.

Kunkel &

Associates, Inc.

Kunkel & Associates, Inc. is a rapidly growing insurance brokerage that provides consultative insurance services to commercial accounts for group benefits, property and casualty, and transportation coverage.

"A dream of mine since I was a kid was to have my own business as my dad did," said Kunkel and Associates Inc. President and CEO Tim Kunkel. "I always had planned on it. When I was in college, I wrote my thesis on starting my own ad agency, but my dad suggested I go get some experience first. So I went to work for a few years, and when I turned 35, I started thinking more and more about it."

Kunkel attended a seminar, and the speaker told his audience to picture themselves as if they were 80 years old. "He told us to look at our 80 years of life and ask what your 80-year-old self would tell you," Kunkel said. "For me it was,'Hey, your dream was to start your own business and you never did.'So, I started exploring that possibility and decided I didn't want to be 80 and regret not trying, so I did it."

Kunkel & Associates is a regional insurance brokerage and consulting firm founded in July 2003, in Mineral Point, Wis. In 2007, Kunkel & Associates expanded operations and built a state-of- the-art facility in Dubuque, now its corporate headquarters. The operation has seen significant growth and consists of 43 employees.

Kunkel & Associates works hard to develop relationships with both clients and insurance companies, and has been identified by numerous companies as their preferred organization based on the experience, expertise and communication skills developed over time.

Kunkel & Associates also provides brokerage services to both health benefit and property and casualty operations. The company's Midwest presence is strengthened with offices in Dubuque, Richmond, Ind., and Madison, Wis., and has clients in more than 40 states.

"When we started, we didn't have a single client or insurance company," Kunkel said. "I went 14 months without a paycheck while we tried to piece it all together. I found a couple insurance companies, added some clients and then more companies and now it's all working very well."

Kunkel said honesty and making a consistent attempt to align people with their dreams and strengths are the foundations for his company's successes.

"We ask everybody,'What is your dream and what do you want to do?'so we can try to find a fit here to help them pursue their goals," he said. "To do that we look at the things available to us as a company and what some of our company goals are, then we look at what they aspire to in their careers and hopefully find something where what we are shooting for as a company aligns with what the individual wants."

He said the method is working and, as a result, he gets to work with his best friends every day.

"Our people care a lot about what they do, and they care about the clientele while having very respectful relationships here in the office," Kunkel said. "It's a neat thing."

Sedgwick

Sedgwick Claims Management Services is the leading North American provider of innovative, technology-enabled claims and productivity management solutions, delivering expert resources to a diverse client base. Sedgwick has more than 10,000 colleagues providing claims and risk management resources in workers'compensation; disability, FMLA and other employee absences; general, automobile, product, and professional liability; as well as serving specialty markets such as affinity and first- and third-party fleet programs, health care risk management, and retail and consumer care services. Sedgwick ranks among the top 20 employers in Dubuque.