EP 60

Christi: Welcome to the smiling at the future podcast. My name is Christi Rose and this is my pursuit to glean practical wisdom on, femininity homemaking, finances relationships, and singleness from the God-fearing men and women in my life. Hope you enjoy this journey with me as we learn to smile at the future.

Christi: Hey, everyone. Congratulations on clicking on this episode. I want you all to think of this conversation as someone giving you just life advice. Insurance is the kind of thing that we know we need to know more about, but it always gets relegated to the back burner because let’s face it, it’s a little boring. But I can guarantee you that this conversation will not put you to sleep and you will come away with more knowledge that you can walk wisely on this path of life. My guest today is Insurance expert, Daniel Clark, and he’s here to make Insurance a little more interesting for you. So here is our conversation. Okay? Welcome. Daniel to the smiling at the future podcast. Would you introduce yourself to the listeners and share your interest in and experience with the topic of insurance?

Daniel: Sure. Well, let me start by saying thank you for having me on your show. I appreciate the opportunity to speak about my line of work and something that I’m really passionate about. And I really respect what you’re doing here with your podcast. My business partner, and I have started our own over the past few months, and it’s not easy to think about relevant topics and to be engaging and entertaining, and to, you know, commit to producing one on a consistent basis. So, my hat’s off to you for that.

Daniel: So I have been married to my wife Kristen for almost 19 years would be two years in January. And I got into the insurance industry about 15 years ago. I interviewed and was selected to open my own State Farm Agency and I own that Agency for nine years. I closed that business when I saw an opportunity to move into the independent segment of the industry, meaning that I would be able to represent dozens of insurance companies, instead of just representing one.

Daniel: The problem that I was running into over and over again, when I was working for State Farm, was that if they no longer wanted to ensure an individual or their business, not only was I looking at customers who had grown to know me and trust me and I was not only telling them that they couldn’t be insured with State Farm anymore, but I couldn’t be there insurance agent anymore. And I helped a lot of people through the church and their friends and people that they refer me to and those conversations were really difficult. So I wanted the opportunity to remain their insurance agent and just offer them a different insurance company. So it changed the conversation from, “I can’t help you anymore” to “Hey, this company no longer wants to ensure your specific risk, but I have these four other companies that are interested in that.”

Daniel: And then after about four years of working for an independent agency, the opportunity arose for me to be a business owner again and go into business with a good friend and a fellow believer. And so we opened Gray Hawk Premier Insurance Solutions just a little over a year ago. That was actually October 1st of 2021. So yeah. We’ve been making a run at it. The last year and we’ve moved over 95% of our clients from our, from our previous agency over to Grayhawk and so the client response has been really, really overwhelming and God’s been really kind in that regard.

Christi: That’s awesome. And Daniel, your wife Kristen came on the podcast. It’s quite a while ago. Back 2021 on episode, 21 to speak about third-wheeling with couples and families and how to do that. Well, so if the listeners want to go back and take a listen to that one, that was a really fun episode with Kristen.

Christi: But yeah, the topic of insurance, not especially glamorous. Some people are probably hesitant to click on this episode, but you know, it falls into a category that at least for myself, I feel like I’m relatively ignorant about and so I feel a little uncomfortable, maybe even fearful about making decisions in this area. I kind of think of it in the area of like going to the car mechanic and the mechanic telling me all the stuff I need done on my car and I’m so ignorant. I don’t know if I should trust him. So I think the more we know the, the better we can make decisions and so that’s kind of the idea behind this conversation is to not have fear behind it, but to educate ourselves to make wise decisions as single women and to be independent in that way.

Christi: So I said, I don’t know a lot about this topic. That is very true. I’m going to definitely flock my ignorance but I’m hoping that it’ll strike a chord with some of the listeners who are in the exact same boat that I am just here to learn, ask the questions and hopefully makes them better decisions moving forward.

Daniel: Yeah, yeah. Well hopefully I can help.

Christi: All right, well, buckle your seatbelts everyone to start out with the most basic of basic questions, what is insurance and why do we need it?

Daniel: Yeah so as you alluded to, I am attempting to do what many have failed at in this podcast today which is to make insurance and interesting topic. Insurance is drier than a Saltine cracker, okay? So I will work hard to be energetic and insert some storytelling today in order to make this industry that’s really comprised of legal contracts. It’s really all that we’re looking at and try and make it interesting and beneficial to your listeners.

Daniel: And also, I don’t want to come across as fear-mongering, which is what a lot of people in our industry can be accused of if they’re just talking about, you know, these are the things that can happen in your life. So I don’t want to come across that way as well. At its most basic levels, an insurance is a financial safety net for an individual or a family to purchase that protects you from catastrophic Financial loss, right? So whether that could be a car accident, a home burning down, the unexpected loss of a loved one, a debilitating injury that removes your ability to work in your given profession. I like to say that at its core insurance is investing in your future.

Daniel: You don’t have to go far in your Bible before you realize that trials and tribulations will come in this life, especially when you recognize that chronologically Job was the first book written in our Bible. And so given the difficulties will come in our time, we have the opportunity to hedge against some of those risks, and purchase, a legal contract, between an individual, and a multimillion-dollar corporation in exchange for that Financial safety net. So at its most basic level, that’s what we’re looking at.

Christi: Well, you mentioned Job and that’s a good segue for asking. What is the balance for Christians between purchasing insurance or trusting in God’s sovereignty over our lives?

Daniel: That’s a good question. And probably, I would tell you one of the more prominent questions that I get when I work with believers as to, why they’re not buying insurance. I hear it mostly in regards to life insurance.

Daniel: First, I would say that buying insurance and trusting God are not mutually exclusive. So you can plan wisely, you can prepare for possible disasters in times of trial and still rest in God’s plan, God’s Sovereign plan for your life. So there’s a lot of people that God is going to sovereignly care for their family, through their forethought and purchase of life insurance.

Daniel: But if we, if we simply see insurance, as a means of investing in the future and hedging against risks, then I actually think that we see several examples of that throughout our Bible. In Proverbs 6, for example, I think, you know, the, the ant is extolled and given as an example of diligent work, but also of forethought and planning, as Gather food in the summer while food is in abundance in order to prepare for winter, when food is scarce, we see it. I think in the life of Joseph as well when he’s storing grain in Genesis 41 in anticipation of the famine that would come.

Daniel: And then I think a good example of both planning and trusting comes in the book of Nehemiah and chapter 4 when they’re building the wall around Jerusalem and they’re getting worried that there’s, you know, opposition to them building this wall and their enemies are trying to intimidate them. And in chapter 4, it explains that the Jews prayed to God for protection and set a guard as protection against their enemies day and night. And so I don’t think that it needs to be this either or of, you know. Now we’re just going to, we’re going to trust God and we’re not going to do anything. I think that there is a lot of wisdom in putting safeguards in place as well as you know, trusting in God’s, you know, protection for you, or for your family.

Daniel: I think it’s fair to conclude that God gives us ordinary means, and common Graces that we can wisely use to protect ourselves and our families, our businesses and our churches as well. Like, our churches usually carry insurance policies and really what we’re dealing with Christi is a lot of people think that bad things will just never happen to them. And then the fallback position is, “But if it does, well God’s going to take care of me and my family.”

Daniel: But if you play that out, logically what they’re saying is that their friends or their family or their church or the state will become the provider for their financial needs. If something unexpected happens to them, one of the saddest things that we see in our industry is when somebody passes away unexpectedly and then the family has to create like a GoFundMe page in order to crowdsource, you know, for life insurance. So Insurance gives us the opportunity to place that risk on the back of a multi-million dollar Corporation rather than friends, family, the church or, you know, worst-case scenario the state.

Christi: Yeah, I think, even with like, going to the doctor, you know, you could say well I’m just going to trust God to heal me and and and I don’t need to worry about going to the doctor, but that’s a common Grace. It’s something that the Lord’s provided now, in our society, and the benefit of medicine. So we use those means that God has provided for us and see that as his provision that he’s he’s not always going to work in miraculous ways. He works in common ordinary ways with the things he’s placed in our lives.

Daniel: Yeah, well and I love, I just love the mindset in that in that scene in Nehemiah because it’s like, hey we’re we’re going to pray and we’re going to trust that God is going to protect us and we’re also going to set our guard as protection so that God can use them, you know, to protect us as well. And so I love the attitude of pray first and plan, and I think that that’s very wise.

Christi: So a lot of the listeners, I would imagine most of the listeners don’t own homes, but they’re probably renting an apartment, a house. So where does renter’s insurance fit in and would you recommend that? We rent or carry it even if their landlord doesn’t require it.

Daniel: Yeah, I would. Renters insurance is one of the most inexpensive forms of insurance that you can buy. When Kristin and I were first married and we were living in Burbank, we had a one-bedroom apartment on a corner and we parked our car out front of our apartment every night and I came out one morning and my car had been broken into and they stole my my backpack which was in my trunk. They stole my backpack at had my, my laptop. I had a leather jacket in there. School supplies. And and then they busted my car stereo out of my car, and speakers, and all kinds of things. Anything that wasn’t attached to the car. So my, all my school supplies and my computer, and then it’s funny I used to listen to my music very loudly. And I had an amplifier and a subwoofer in my trunk that also was not. That also is not mounted to my vehicle, but my renter’s insurance paid for all of those items to be replaced.

Daniel: And a lot of people don’t realize that your personal property is insured by your renters insurance. And so we tell everybody, you know, if you could, if you could physically, you know, pick your apartment up, flip it upside down, shake it out, everything that would fall out, is what needs to be covered under your renters insurance. So kind of, you know, add it all up and whatever the cost would be to replace all of that. That’s what we’re looking to ensure. And that also extends to items that are temporarily in your vehicle or, you know, outside of your apartment.

Daniel: And a lot of people don’t recognize that it’s incredibly affordable. It’s for most people it’s going to be between 13 and 20 dollars a month and so very very practical, very inexpensive. And you know, people are like you know I have 20,000 dollars in personal property that would need to be replaced. You know, they asked like well what if it’s you know 23,000 or 25,000 I tell them you know the difference is literally you know 40 to 50 cents a month. So we might as well estimate a little bit here and make sure that we’re properly insured rather than trying to get it exactly on the nose.

Christi: Yeah, well, that’s a good point and most like homeowners need to have insurance. So they’re already thinking about that and protecting her home and their property. But I don’t think renters really think about that a lot. So good. Practical tip there.

Daniel: Yeah, it’s really commonly overlooked.

Christi: So there’s a lot of types of insurance that your employer is going to offer to you. And that’s probably why a lot of people just don’t even think about insurance because it’s like I’m covered. I have dental health, life insurance, maybe. So beyond what your employer will offer, what other types of coverage should ladies consider.

Daniel: It’s an important distinction, I think to recognize that employers offer benefits. So they’re going to offer your medical insurance. If you’re working full-time, you know, and you should absolutely take them up on that, but those benefits end when you no longer work there. So if you take employer-sponsored life insurance, it’s important to know that that life insurance ends the moment that you terminate employment there.

Daniel: So we’re always going to recommend that people secure products that require a physical exam like, like, life insurance or disability, we’re going to recommend that people get those outside of their employers, because if they strictly rely upon what they get through their employer, then if they stop working there or like if they have a change in their health and they can no longer qualify for that type of product on their own, then they become dependent upon this benefit that the employer offers and the employer can also terminate things like the life insurance coverage. They can decide, you know, hey, we’re not going to we’re not going to offer that benefit again next year. So those types of things can go away. So I think it’s important for people just to recognize what’s a, what’s a benefit, and what’s an insurance product that you own and that you control.

Daniel: The three, most commonly overlooked insurance policies, and from my perspective is because, like you said, everybody has homeowners insurance. If they own a home, they’re required to, if you’re driving a car in California, or, you know, almost every other state of the union, you’re going to be required to have car insurance, but the three ones that are most overlooked, our disability insurance. So if you’re injured or temporarily disabled and you can’t perform your regular job, duties, that insurance policy replaces your paycheck. So the common argument is, you know, you ensure your, your car, your home, your life, you should probably ensure your income. That’s the that’s the argument for that.

Daniel: Life insurance is actually very commonly overlooked. They’ve said that 57% of people that would qualify or need life insurance actually carry it, and it’s important to note that life insurance isn’t like winning the lottery, it’s income replacement, when the sole income earner has passed away unexpectedly, so it’s important distinction. And lastly, I would say, very commonly overlooked is long-term care, and that’s money to pay for skilled nursing care as you get older.

Christi: Yeah, I’ve never even heard of that as being a type of insurance. That’s interesting. So you mentioned life, insurance being important for the sole Breadwinner of a family but single people, we don’t have people necessarily depending on us. We don’t have kids, maybe spouse. So, do you think that single people need life insurance at some level?

Daniel: Yes, funeral services are a big industry in America and they’re incredibly extensive. The average funeral cost in California is about 13,000 dollars. So, a very basic life insurance policy for, for final expense. Or if people want to, there’s types of life insurance that you can invest in is like a long-term investment. They can, you know, they can go that way as well. And then depending on, you know, if you own a home as a single person and you’re like I don’t want my family to lose the asset if something were to happen to me, then you could certainly buy an inexpensive policy that would pay off the mortgage on the home. And then would leave the asset to your parents or to a sibling or, you know, whatever the case may be. But I think yeah, at its most basic level, there is, at least a small need there in order to pay for final expense so that family isn’t isn’t saddled with the with the bill.

Christi: Yeah, it’s good to think ahead about these things because the majority of my audience are our young people, people under the age of 40, and so maybe this is not even on the radar, but you never know when the Lord is going to call you, home and just being prepared, is a way to bless your family because they’ll be the ones. You know, if God takes you sooner be the ones to have to figure that out.

Christi: Related question. What about stay at home mom’s do? Do you think life insurance is important for them?

Daniel: Yeah, 100%. Yes. And mostly because, you know, if something happens to me, my wife needs income as soon as possible. So, you know, the mortgage payments still need to be made. Car payments, still need to be made. Food still needs to be put on the table and so my wife’s immediate need is income. If something were to happen to Kristen, my immediate need is time. I need time with my kids. I need time to step back from my job, from my business. I’ve got to figure out how to manage everything that a stay-at-home mom does. And and they are numerous.

Daniel: And for any husband out there who’s listening or every stay-at-home mom who’s listening? They know that the ways in which a stay-at-home mom, works are innumerable. And so we have to figure out everything from how to, you know, get children back and forth to where they usually go to, you know, going grocery shopping to caring for the home to, you know, sometimes a lot of stay-at-home moms will manage finances for the family and so a husband needs time to figure all of that out. Not to mention the fact that without Mom, you know, kids are going to be really, really having a hard time.

Daniel: And so Insurance can be purchased very affordably on, on a stay-at-home mom. I will tell you guys that we spend $19.97 a month for my wife’s for life insurance on my wife. It’s a good policy. It’s affordable and it makes it so that I will have time to manage my life and figure out my life. If anything were to happen to Kristen. Lord willing. Obviously, we hope that that would not be the case, but if it did, yes, I would, I would strongly recommend people carry Insurance on their, on their stay at home spouse for sure.

Christi: And that just takes one hurdle away from that scenario and situation and gives some peace of mind to all of that. So, on the same topic of death but we hear a lot about wills and living trusts, do single people need to think this far ahead and have things like that set up as well.

Daniel: So if you, if you own anything, if you own anything property or, you know, property real estate life insurance, anything like that, then I would say, yeah, absolutely. I’ll also be very transparent and say that my wife and I didn’t get our living trust put in place until we’ve been married for 10 years now. I don’t advise that. I don’t advise that at all, but that was it just took us a long time to get around to it and it wasn’t until we were we were going to on a Mediterranean cruise for our 10-year wedding anniversary and we were both like, you know, where we’re going to be flying over the Atlantic. You know, we’re both on the same flight. We’re going to be in a foreign country driving in a foreign country, you know, we should we should probably get this in place.

Daniel: And it’s it’s important to understand that a living trust is essentially you make all of the decisions for your assets for your income, you know, life insurance things like that ahead of time. So that it’s like, you’re still making decisions with all of those things. After you’ve passed away. It becomes really important when you have children because you’re going to spell out in there, you know who gets care, custody and control of your kids when they get inheritance money and you know, things of that nature and how they get it, who’s the custodian for that money and all of those things.

Daniel: So yeah, I would I would highly recommend it for individuals before they’re married. I would just say, if you own property and have life insurance or one of the other or both, you should definitely look at at getting that put into place and it’s it’s an estate attorney that you talked to. At Grayhawk, we have, we have an estate attorney that we work with and I’d be happy to refer anybody to him. He wrote my wife and eyes living trust and he did a great job.

Christi: So, okay, so that’s not something you just sit down and write out on a piece of paper. So you have to set up.

Daniel: No one actually. I had a, there’s a difference between a will and a living trust and my aunt. When she passed away had a will and that she had written down typed out she signed for it, it was notarized but the state still took possession of all of her, her property, her her bank accounts, her life insurance, or annuities, all of those things. And it’s been over two years. And my mom is still dealing with the state on all of those things. So if she had written a living trust as opposed to a will, then the state would have never taken control of it and it would been, you know, much, much smoother so. But that’s something that an estate attorney can speak more specifically to is to what’s best for, you know, for each individual situation.

Christi: Okay, interesting. What are other situations? Where you’ve seen that if the person had had the right kind of insurance, they would have saved themselves a lot of heartache.

Daniel: Well, it’s not necessarily about having insurance, it’s about having the right insurance. So I was recently referred to a young lady from Grace Church that had been involved in a car accident. She had called one of those 1-800 number insurance companies that we all, you know, that we’re all aware of and she had purchased an insurance policy through them that didn’t work. Like not at all. It didn’t work at all. And so she was uninsured and had caused some pretty significant damage to someone else’s car.

Daniel: The Geico’s and Progressives of the world have done society a great disservice because they’ve made Insurance into a commodity. They’ve made it into a pack of gum like the cheaper. It is the better. The problem is that along with cheap insurance, usually means bad coverage. So if somebody sends me a quote that they received and, you know, I currently do their insurance and that quote is, you know, seven to twelve percent less. Totally. Like I can see that. You know the, the insurance industry is priced to be competitive, you know, different situations different, you know, different zip codes that people live in whatever the case.

Daniel: If somebody walks in with a quote, that’s 40% less than we are looking at two very different insurance policies. And this is where we talk about the fact that it’s, it’s a legal contract and to your point earlier about just, you know, kind of being ignorant to insurance and what it is and what it does. A lot of people see a price on a page and they go that like that’s the one that I want and they don’t have any idea of what the legal contract is that they’re purchasing that goes along with it.

Daniel: So this poor young lady had been given really bad advice from probably a minimum-wage employee at this 1-800 number and had purchased the policy that just didn’t work. Now, we’ve referred her to an attorney, she’s working with some people with the church that are helping her draft letters and things like that to the insurance carrier, to say that she got really bad advice, basically. But ultimately you you don’t want to find yourself in that type of situation. So it’s really important to find a good advisor. Somebody that you trust and not necessarily focus on what the cheapest thing is that you can buy because in the end you do you do get what you pay for in the end.

Daniel: I would say that the second story is something that my family is currently going through. My dad is beginning to get senile, dementia. And that situation is getting worse and worse and worse and my dad never purchased long-term care. It’s something that you really should buy it until you’re in your 40s. Anyway, there’s a couple of insurance carriers that will offer to people in their 30s, but really it’s something that people in their 40s should start looking at. And it should be purchased before you’re in your 50s or 60s, the policies, just get more and more expensive, the older that you get. So if you’re capable of purchasing it, when you’re younger and you’re early 40s, then you should you should certainly look at doing that.

Daniel: Long-term care pays for skilled nursing care for elderly people, when they can’t perform the regular activities of daily living. So like they, they can’t get dressed or they can’t, you know, they can’t drive there. Confused they can’t feed themselves. And the statistics on this Christi are really alarming because they say that 75% of people over the age of 70, will need long-term care in their lifetime. And I’ve worked at a retirement home. I know that you have as well, but retirement care and especially for for memory care and things like that is incredibly extensive. You know we’re looking at at its bare minimum four thousand dollars a month and at its most expensive somewhere between fifteen and twenty thousand dollars a month.

Daniel: So what we’ve seen is well recently is several states that are starting to require that people buy it because the burden was so heavy on the state that the state couldn’t even handle it. And so they started to mandate this just happened in Washington. They started to mandate that people buy long-term care coverage after a certain age and so it’s something that we’re going through right now with my dad, my dad is 81 years old and it is without a doubt. The most difficult thing that we have gone through as a family. And I saw that you had somebody on your podcast early on that. Talked about caring for caring for an older relative. And so long term care coverage can pay for can pay for care in a Skilled Nursing Facility or it can pay for the wages of a family member to care for another family member as well.

Daniel: So, yeah. So there’s some things to take advantage of there but really, especially if you’re a single individual, if you’ve been blessed with God’s Gift of singleness and celibacy, then there’s chances that later on in life, you could run into difficulty with even with getting care from family members and that’s where a policy like long-term care would be very beneficial for you and your life as you get older.

Christi: Yeah, it’s really important to think about and yeah, Daniel like you alluded to. I worked in assisted living for a long time and you get what you pay for. There’s there’s all different levels of types of care and ultimately, you know, having a family member able to care for you is probably you’re going to get the most loving and compassionate care but that’s really neat that you said that they would even pay for that, a family member working.

Daniel: So well and it’s not just if they, you know, the care can be done in their home. It can be done at a skilled facility and depending on the type of policy you can get coverage for things like if you need to, you know, if you need to renovate your bathroom. So that there’s like a roll-in shower and things like that, that make it easier for elderly people. Depending on the type of policy, you buy a lot of those things can fall under our expenses. So really important to talk to somebody who knows what they’re doing and can help you can help you pick the right type of coverage for for your situation for what your wishes would be for your future?

Christi: Yeah. And I think in the next 10, 15, 20 years you’re going to see. I mean just because of the baby boomer generation hitting that age. You’re going to see that burden, grow massively, as we have a lot of people that are going to be in their 70s and 80s and needing that type of care. So, oh yeah, yeah.

Daniel: Well in the situation that we’re running into it, my dad is, you know, he lives in an apartment but, you know, my wife and eyes home like we still have three kids in the house. You know, my sister lives out of state so she’s unable to you know, to care for him. My brother also lives in an apartment and so we’re not in a place as a family and this is where a lot of people find themselves is, you know, how do we provide the best love and care for this family member who we love dearly? When we don’t have the space or the setup, you know, to provide, you know, that type of care. And so, long term care solves a lot of those situations. Yeah. It’s a very very wise purchase and it’s something that is easily overlooked.

Christi: So switching gears here a little bit. Let’s say someone has a part-time job or maybe their self employed, they’re going to have to seek out their own medical coverage. So where would you direct somebody in that place?

Daniel: That’s a really good question. I know a lot of people, especially in the church, go through like, a MetaShare organization. It’s basically like a, you know, a pool of people that have pooled all of their resources together, and there’s an administrator behind it. I personally wouldn’t recommend that only because we’ve seen people wait months, and sometimes close to two years for reimbursement, on medical expenses, depending on the size of the expense. So, I personally wouldn’t not do that.

Daniel: I always lean towards depending on the largest company, the largest financial company to pay medical claims. So I don’t agree with the formation of the Affordable Care Act that was enacted under President Obama, but the bottom line is that it gives everyone access to medical insurance. So I would most likely recommend that people look at the health Exchange in their state. So that’s, you know, Obama care as as people like to dub it, but depending on your income level, you can qualify for subsidies and things like that or you can just, you know, pay for it outright.

Daniel: And if you’re comparing the two, you know, a MetaShare Group, maybe a little bit less expensive, but I would just encourage people to take a higher deductible on their medical insurance plan, save money in an emergency fund and then let the bulk of the cost weigh on the multimillion-dollar corporation as opposed to a group of individuals trying to pool their resources together. Yeah, that’s I mean, that’s going to be where I lean because I work in this space because I see the benefits of insurance every day and waiting two years to get a medical claim reimbursed is really unreasonable for most people.

Christi: Yeah, and I did have one of those. I went through a Christian Care Group, back when I was just a musician and and trying to find my own coverage and the one, the one benefit that I always appreciate it. When I had to call them is that they would always pray with you at the end of their call. Sure that was awesome.

Daniel: Yeah. Well and there’s certainly a place for it. I would never I would never look at people and say, you know, you know, don’t buy that if that’s the most affordable option and that’s the best choice for your family. Then, you know, then we make decisions based off of budget. And I think it’s I think it’s important to recognize that. That there’s Insurance products out there for everything. And, you know, the last time that we were recording, our podcast, I made somehow made a comment about having some type of insurance. I forgot what it was and the producer was like, oh, yeah, it’s right. You’re an insurance agent. You own all the different types of insurance? So I’m like, no, no, no, no. I don’t because you can, you know, you can spend your entire monthly budget, trying to protect and hedge against every single risk that is out there. So everybody is going to make decisions based off of their convictions, what’s best for them, what’s best for their family. As insurance professionals and Brokers? Our job is to advise and help people analyze the type of contract that they’re purchasing and help them make wise decisions in that regard, but everybody’s going to make different choices for them and their family.

Christi: I want to Circle back to one thing. You made a comment about emergency funds and so I think that’s worth noting that you should have that setup as well. Because depending on your deductible, you need to have some money in the bank. So yes, any other points you want to add on that?

Daniel: No, I don’t agree with a lot of things that Dave Ramsey says, but Dave Ramsey is really good at getting people out of debt and getting people to save money. I have a lot of clients and friends at church that believe in everything. The Dave Ramsey says and that’s totally fine. One of the things that he preaches is emergency fund. And I think that that’s incredibly wise. I think that those are right decisions. And yeah, they can be very helpful when you need to, you know, satisfy a deductible, whether that be car insurance, or health insurance, whatever that may look like for you, an emergency fund is going to be of, you know, of great importance in that regard.

Christi: You also. So there’s, you know, there’s insurance for almost anything and one type of insurance that I think a lot of us run into is just a warranty, when you buy something. Even on Amazon you’ll click to buy something and I’ll say, hey do you want to add on this warranty? I’m like I don’t know. Sure. What do you what would you say to somebody about like when’s it important to buy a warranty when you make a purchase?

Daniel: Well it’s important to know, I don’t sell warranties. So I speak just as a it’s just a general opinion. I sold computers for a long time for for Best Buy and for Gateway. And I tried to sell a warranty on everything, you know, every that I sold. I tried to sell a warranty on it but, you know, every home that you purchase usually comes with a 1 year home warranty for, you know, an air conditioner that breaks or refrigerator that breaks or whatever. The case may be. I think for for Big Ticket items cars, homes, if you’re spending a lot of money on a, you know, a home entertainment system or anything like that, but everybody’s going to reach a point where they’re analyzing and saying, you know that five thousand dollar truck that I purchased. I’m not going to spend $500 on a warranty. I’ll spend $200 on a warranty. And so everybody just kind of has to analyze and evaluate. So, you know, and say what’s the, what’s the likelihood that this thing is going to, you know, go badly for me.

Daniel: I think, cars and homes. It’s an easy decision. Home electronics, you know, purchases on Amazon. That’s a different story, but it is an insurance product and it is basically a fail-safe of if this thing breaks over the next year or two years, whatever the length of warranty is that they’re going to replace it. To each his own, I don’t buy a whole lot of them except for all my cars.

Christi: So, we’ve covered a lot of questions and I’m sure we just wet the appetite for people to do their own research. So, sure. Where would you direct if someone wants to just educate themselves more, any, any resources, you would Point them to.

Daniel: Okay, so I may disappoint you and your listeners here. The internet is full of a lot of really bad advice. So if you, if you Google it, if you look it up on YouTube, you know, everybody is trying to sell expensive products. They’re trying to get you to, you know, buy every Insurance product imaginable.

Daniel: The best solution for people is to find an advisor that they trust, that could be somebody through their church. That could be, you know, they’ve been referred, you know, through may be there through their accountant to somebody that their accountant, you know, respects and trusts. I think that almost every article that I’ve read through Forbes has been pretty reliable, but even then, I’m still going to recommend that they talk to a professional about it. And this isn’t a sales plug for me, or for Grayhawk, it’s but simply just to say that insurance providers, insurance professionals, don’t charge for their advice. So we give, we give free advice all the time on what insurance products to purchase.

Daniel: I’ve looked over hundreds and hundreds of policies for people that are not my clients that have been referred to me through the church. And I’m happy to advise to give instruction to say, you know, hey this looks really good. You may want to increase coverage here or decrease coverage here and certainly Grayhawk is not the only company, you know, in the United States, that does that, there’s, you know, there’s a lot of honest, ethical Insurance Brokers out there that do their job well and do it at a high level. But I would say that that’s, you know, you should probably have a good CPA, a good attorney, a good financial advisor and you should have a good insurance professional. That can advise you on what the right purchases are and when to purchase those things.

Christi: Yeah, Integrity is so hard to come by in this world. And so yeah that is that is really what it comes down to. Is someone going to give you the council that you need or are they just trying to steer you trying to manipulate you in a certain direction?

Daniel: So, yep. And really I mean we’ve given a lot of advice to to our own hurt. Really, you know, where we’ve told people now this is, you know, this is a better deal from a company that we can’t that we can provide to you and, you know, this is the best choice for you and your business or you and your family or, you know, whatever the case may be. But yeah, important to have somebody who understands that they’re going to answer for it someday. You know, and I have to be able to put my head down on the pillow at night, you know, come before the Lord with a clear conscience. And so, quality advice, advice that cares for a client and looks out for the best for the client is really Paramount for us.

Christi: And Daniel, I’m happy to link your website in the show notes. So if the listeners have questions or want to contact you, they can do that by clicking that link. So would you recommend the insurance industry as a place to find a career?

Daniel: Yes 100% yes. It’s going to depend on, you know, who you are and what your strengths and abilities are. I would say in general, on the brokerage side which is the side that I see the most often, it is a, it is an industry that is aging out, meaning that we’ve got a lot of older men that are like own agencies and our sales people in agencies. I think the average age for an agency owner is 58. And so there’s a lot of opportunity for young people and young women to make a career in the insurance industry.

Daniel: It’s hard work, it’s it’s not easy, but it can also bless a family down the road. So, if there’s if there’s a single female who’s like, you know, hey I feel like I would love to advise people on these Financial products. Help people manage their risk and sell insurance products. They can actually build up a book of clientele that can continue to pay them even when they’re Homemakers. And so there’s there’s certainly opportunities there. And then, of course, you can always go onto the carrier side and work for, you know, a Fortune 500 company and do claims or, you know, any type of adjusting your management or anything like that.

Daniel: But I think that the insurance industry can get a bad name because, because people have been sold products that they didn’t use, or were sold products that didn’t work, the way that they were told that they would work or, you know, they crash their car and they didn’t get as much, you know, money as they felt like they should have, you know, from the settlement. A lot of people have had bad experiences. And so, but I think it’s important to recognize that the industry as a whole, is not is not a bad place. There’s a lot of honest, and ethical people. People that work in it, that want to do a good job and want to help people just, you know, manage their their risks and to recover from, you know, from a bad experience or from a, you know, a claim or a bad car accident or something like that.

Daniel: So yeah, I think as a whole, the industry is a safe place to make a career. And I think especially on The Brokerage side, you can make a great career that can provide people with a lot of a lot of flexibility, a lot of time with family, good income wealth building for the future all of those things. So yeah, I personally would recommend it. Yes.

Christi: Okay. And the two highlights that you brought up that are sticking in my mind right now are that you can bless people in the church by helping give counsel or they can come to you and I love how you said, it’s something you can do even as like a stay-at-home mom because I think a lot of women are looking at careers that give them that flexibility. Like they want to be able to make money but they want to be able to stay home someday and have something on the side. So I know when I was in college. That was only my dad helped me think through, like, pick a degree where you could do it from home some day if you wanted to. So, I think that’s really important to be thinking about.

Christi: Well, Daniel that was not as dry as a Saltine cracker. It was very interesting and held my attention the entire time. I learned a lot, I’m sure the listeners did and yeah, it’s just just so helpful to not, like I said, not be worried that we can smile at the future. We have information, we can make wise choices. So really, appreciate your time and expertise sharing on the podcast today. And yeah, looking forward to see what God does with your with your new company and how he how he grows that.

Daniel: Awesome Christi. Thank you so much for having me on. I appreciate it.