Entrepreneurial Spirit

Addressing the needs of large commercial clients may not be the same as managing some high school chums as part of a start-up landscaping business, but both have been attractive to Clay Germain.

“I’ve always had an entrepreneurial background. I got this from my father. I’ve always wanted to own and run various businesses,” says Germain, now managing director of Vancouver-area AC&D Insurance Services, which has five offices in British Columbia.

Germain’s entrepreneurial spirit persisted as landscaping led to other things, including what developed into a keen interest in the real estate industry. That interest was transformed into knowledge when he completed a marketing management and real estate course at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, and that education blossomed into pride when, at 19, he sold his first house.

But life selling residential real estate took a turn one day while Germain, currently first vice president of the Insurance Brokers Association of British Columbia (IBABC), was buying a car and saw a mobile auto dealership insurance broker in action.

“I thought the job looked really fun. I thought it looked really exciting,” he recalls, adding that the work appeared to be fast-paced and the broker had a great attitude. “I thought, ‘Hey, I should maybe explore a career in the insurance business.'”

And so he did. Although an entirely different area, at its heart, insurance fed his entrepreneurial bent while also offering variety and many points of interest.

GROUND UP

Germain’s first job was at Atkinson & Terry Insurance Brokers’ office in New Westminster, British Columbia.

Over the course of his 12 years there, he worked at a number of different locations in several different positions, securing progressively more responsible jobs over time. “I learned the business from the ground up,” he says.

The first phase of building his technical knowledge began with his very first job at Atkinson & Terry Insurance Brokers, selling auto insurance at the front counter. From there, he “learned home insurance, then commercial insurance and then I became a manager and I managed the personal lines section of their head office in Delta,” Germain says.

“One of the things that I always liked about the insurance business was the various forms of ownership opportunities that were available,” he notes. So when an opportunity came along to become a partner in a brokerage in Coquitlam, where he had grown up, “this seemed like the perfect fit for me. I knew there would be opportunities to grow, so I just jumped on it.”

Germain has a hand in owning or managing three locations and is partnered with Jack Meier, president and chief executive officer of The InsureBC Group, a group of general insurance brokerages with 75-plus offices in British Columbia, as well as locations in the United States and The Netherlands.

Germain says he learned a lot from the five partners at Atkinson & Terry Insurance Brokers, skills he uses to this day, and valued the experience.

“I learned my management skills and the actual technical insurance knowledge needed with them,” he says, adding he thinks it is vital to know the business from the ground up.

As for the partnership opportunity Meier provided him, Germain says “it is with the InsureBC Group that I have gained most of my knowledge of running a successful office, in particular, managing people.”

Day to day, his activities include dealing with the largest commercial insurance accounts and managing staff, as part of a team effort.

“I consider myself to be a trusted advisor just like a lawyer or an accountant. I like to think of myself on the same level so that my customer views me the same way. I want my customer to be able to call me for all things insurance and for me to give him answers and develop his trust,” Germain says. “I want my staff to hear me and see me deal with my customers so they can learn.”

Learning was also among the reasons Germain decided to serve on IBABC’s board. “I guess the biggest one would be that I thought it would be great to work with other like-minded individuals and I thought learning other points of view and the sharing of ideas would be valuable.”

CHALLENGES AHEAD

Various viewpoints will, no doubt, be of use as brokers, provincially and federally, address challenges in an ever-changing environment. In British Columbia, Germain says that one clear challenge is earthquake, about which many misconceptions persist.

“A lot of people think that the damage will be minor. But, really, our building code was designed to just minimize the loss of life. Physical damage to property resulting from an earthquake will be huge.”

“Whether it’s a business or an individual, there’s the loss of use aspect,” Germain says, noting that a business could be down for a year or longer following a big quake.

People may also believe the provincial government will step in to cover losses, Germain says. But disaster financial assistance programs are for uninsurable losses. “Because earthquake losses are insurable, they’re not eligible for this compensation.”

The same questions arise around overland flood, a hot topic regardless of region.

Noting that Aviva Canada has plans to release an overland water product – Germain commends the insurer for helping to find a solution – that begs the question of whether or not provincial disaster assistance would apply. What does the introduction of insurance mean for those expecting to receive aid? he asks.

“Now that insurance is available for it, that fund, we don’t necessarily know if it will be available,” Germain says. These are early days, of course, but it is an issue that IBABC is watching closely.

Also top of mind for IBABC will be the review of how to improve the preparedness of British Columbians in the event of a major catastrophic earthquake, Germain says. The association will be among the stakeholders working with the provincial government to implement the report recommendations.

IBABC will also be looking to offer input on another big issue, the British Columbia Law Institute’s review of the Strata Property Act. The institute is expected to submit recommendations to government later this year.

More generally, Germain says he would like to see process improvements to help enhance efficiency and minimize double entry for brokers. “Just about every insurer that we deal with has their own portal. These portals are really helpful, but I think there can be some improvements that can be made with integrating them with various broker management systems.”

Germain also supports any efforts by both the industry and individual brokerages to help make the insurance industry, which seems to be an afterthought as a career choice, a first choice. “I think one of the ways to do this is make it more fun,” he says. So beyond industry events, individual brokers “need to bring fun into their own individual offices in a style that’s suitable to them,” he says.

“We’re definitely heading into some interesting times,” Germain notes, but suggests “most of the people I talk to, I think, are excited about these changes.”