Logan agent starts family insurance business, says area is underserved
Don Harrold, Executive Editor
editor@enterprisepub.com
Eric West of Logan is starting an independent insurance business focused on Medicare, life and health coverage, saying the area is underserved by local agents. West said many of the people he meets bought their plans through call centers across the country.
“They don’t help service the clients after that and take care of them, help them with their claims, help them understand what they’re purchasing or what they’re being enrolled on,” he said. “What my wife and I are trying to build is a family business that is not insurance marketing, but it’s actually working with clients and people in the community to help them and serve them.”
West grew up in Sedona, Arizona, and moved to the area almost nine years ago for family and a career change. “I wanted to get into the insurance business. I started as a marketer for eight and a half years, and that’s how I learned insurance, for the senior market, life, annuities,” he said.
West lived in Missouri Valley before settling in Logan. “I moved up here to help my brother grow his marketing group,” he said. His brother, Doug West, runs a Missouri Valley group that markets to insurance agents around the country, and West no longer works for him.
“Me, I’m an independent agent, so I can go and work with any insurance carrier out there that wants to work with independent agents,” West said. “We focus on life and health. So the Medicare side of the business.” He also sells supplemental health products, life insurance and annuities, but not property and casualty coverage such as crop, roof or home insurance.
West said a lot of people are now comfortable doing business over Zoom and the phone, but he still believes in “the personal touch of having somebody local.” He said people will say, “Hey, let me give Eric a call because I tried to file this claim with this dental product, and they’re telling me that I’m not covered here.”
“I think harnessing AI is going to be the future of the insurance business and probably really any businesses,” West said. “... I think my philosophy on that and my approach is I’m not afraid to learn it when new stuff comes out to implement it to serve my clients better.”
“If I don’t have the answer for you, I’ll find it. I’ll get back to you,” he said. “I am going to constantly, not constantly, but check in, make sure that you know what coverage you have, how it works, and be that resource for you when a claim gets denied, or all of a sudden a doctor says that, ‘I’m no longer in that network.’ What do we do? How do we pivot?”
West said he thinks about 95% or 96% of clients on a Medicare Advantage plan don’t have a hospital indemnity plan. “But agents don’t want to present them ’cause they feel like it maybe will confuse their client, or they don’t want to have to help them with the claims process, which is the biggest factor,” he said.
West met his wife after moving to the area, and the couple has seven children. “My wife right now is studying for the test to go pass her life and health ... Her focus is going to be more of that, ‘Okay, we have a claims issue here. Let me help our client out. Let me go to bat for that client and get that taken care of,’” he said.
“I think the school system’s great. I like the small-town feel,” West said. “... Also, I love living out in the country. We’re a few miles outside of town on a little acreage. We have our little funny farm with goats and our horses.”
“Really, I would think anywhere between, you know, 60 to 80 miles of coverage from Logan,” West said of his service area. He said he is licensed to help clients in Nebraska, including the Blair area, Omaha and Council Bluffs, but expects his service to be strongest in Denison, Carroll, Woodbine, Logan, Missouri Valley and surrounding areas.
“We’re just getting off the ground, but there is the dream of having the brick-and-mortar agency in Logan, and maybe even some other areas as well,” he said. “... We want to help our hometown and our surrounding communities as well.”
West can be reached at 402-513-0168, by email at eric@midwestbenefitcenter.com or through Facebook. He said many clients reach out through Facebook.
