Capt. Don's Retirement

Capt. Don's Retirement

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Selling Colorado Affordable Health


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I have sold my one-man health insurance company, Colorado Affordable Health, which I started in September of 2002. I have enjoyed having this business. It has stretched my abilities, introduced me to hundreds, even thousands of people in my community and has provided me with a good income and financial security for the future. Additionally, it has been very satisfying to help clients through the sometimes arduous process of sifting through options and filling out applications for individual health insurance. Many people have been grateful and it has been common to hear a client say, when we are wrapping up the process, “that was a lot easier than I thought it would be”.
Of course it was not easy for me  at the beginning, and I did not make much money the first year, while paying out some significant start up costs. I was fortunate to have money saved to carry me through and lots of experience in sales. Little by little, always willing to try new ideas and invest funds where I felt it appropriate, sales improved and my commissions increased. As the competitiveness of insurance companies varied from year to year, at different times I have been one of the top Colorado producers for Empire, World, Imerica, United Healthcare and Anthem. Among other awards, I have won trips to Hawaii, NYC, Washington DC, Stowe, Vt and St Thomas, VI.
For the vast majority of the time I have been in the insurance business I have met personally with my clients in my downtown Boulder home/office. We would actually sit down at my kitchen table to work. I used to say “I have to do a good job for you because now you know where I live”. Most brokers never meet with their clients, it is all done over the telephone and internet. The reason I met with clients is that I have/had weak computer and typing skills. But it worked well for me in that I was able to establish good personal rapport and over time these relationships resulted in new referrals from established clients’ friends and family.
An important and rewarding aspect of building my business was the networking and referral groups I joined. Membership to the Boulder Chamber of Commerce gave me insight into the workings of small businesses in the city. Participation in Boulder Links, and later, BNI (Business Networking International) provided me with many referrals to clients and, just as importantly, many new treasured acquaintances and friends.
Since I moved from downtown 7 months ago, I have been doing more and more business over the telephone and internet. An example of how the business has stretched me.
Eric Smith is a young, at least to me, health insurance broker whom I meet several years ago at an Anthem function. He and I struck up a friendship that I believe has been beneficial to both of us though shared ideas. From the first time we met, Eric has talked about the possibility of his buying my business one day. This has always interested me because I have not planned to do this work forever and there has been no one close to me who has had an interest in taking over the company.
We have known for a long time that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was going to start up at the end of 2013 and that almost everyone would be required to switch over to an ACA compliant plan before 2104 is over. Colorado decided to be one of the few states to develop their own online marketplace called ConnectforHealthCO.com for these new health insurance policies. Training was set up for “Guides” and “Brokers” in September for an October 1st start date. This training however did not go well, as the practice program we were suppose to work with did not function. All we received was a lot of theory during 10 hours of online work and 8 hours of in person training. Without any hands-on experience, I quickly forgot everything I had learned.
At the beginning of October, when we were finally able to get on to the website and see what they had put together, my heart sank. The first thing that disappointed me was the unnecessarily elaborate and long application that needs to be filled out if someone is looking to see if they qualify for a subsidy, a major selling point for low income clients. Secondly, they have laid out the offered plans in such a way that even me, with all this time in the business, could not readily understand what they covered. I just could not imagine going through this site with all my present 600 or so clients. After stewing over this for a week or so, I was in a conversation with Eric when he brought up again his interest in buying my business. I said let’s meet and talk about it.
Eric came over, we went over my books together and he made me a offer. I told him that it was exactly the same number I was thinking of and we shook hands on a deal. Of course there needed to be a good deal of unraveling of the business on my part, to include assigning all future commissions due me over to Eric. And, Eric needed to arrange for the payment. As I write this almost all the things I needed to do to move the business have been accomplished. Just a few tasks, that can only be done in time, remain. I have also received the bulk of the money and no longer have any involvement in the company. Everything has gone very smoothly with much goodwill on both sides.
It was important to turn my clients over to someone who would take care of them as I had. I believe Eric is such an individual.
So, except for a little mopping up, I’m done.
Now what? When people ask “are you retiring,” I counter, “no I’m going to take a little time off and then wait for the next thing to reveal it’s self.
I’m curious to see what that might be.

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