Raised on a tobacco and beef cattle farm in rural Shelby County, Kentucky, Scott Brown learned the value of an honest day’s work while he was young. On weekends, one could find Scott working alongside his father, Phil Brown, in the tobacco fields, driving the tractor or whatever was needed. Phil was also managing the association marketing department at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kentucky. In 1988, Phil branched out on his own and started the Phil Brown Insurance Agency and Brown Realty Company. He was still farming at this time, and despite the long hours, he found success in all he did. 

By the time Scott was 14, his father was winding down the farm and wanted to focus on his insurance business. He told Scott, “You can start doing more farming and earn some money to buy yourself a car.” Scott took over many of the farming duties, becoming an adept operator of the tobacco setter and raising beef cattle. He did this for a couple of years until he had saved up some money, and with the help of his mother and father, purchased his first car, a Dodge Spirit. 

Scott went on to attend the University of Kentucky, where he earned a business degree. After graduating, Scott joined his father at the Phil Brown Insurance Agency in 1999 and has been there ever since. Today, Scott serves as President of the agency. 

When he’s not working, Scott enjoys spending time with his wife of 18 years, Jennifer, and their 11-year-old daughter. Whether it’s taking a walk together through the neighborhood or having fun on the beautiful beaches of Florida, the family is very social and enjoys spending time together with friends and family. Perhaps his favorite activity, though, is being sous chef when Jennifer cooks up a delicious meal for the family. 

We recently had a chance to visit with Scott and learn more about the company, KTA membership and the amazing benefits that are offered. The following are excerpts from our conversation. 

Tell us about Phil Brown Insurance Agency. What makes the company unique? 

At the time my father started the company, almost all agencies were small, family-owned businesses, or at least they were locally owned. We are one of just a few family-owned businesses left in the insurance arena. Most others have been sold out to national firms, private equity or banks. Because we are still locally owned, we feel it helps us provide more personalized service compared to national firms. 

We’ve had very little turnover; in fact, the average tenure of our employees is over 15 years. We work hard to take care of our employees, and in turn, they are amazing with our customers. I hear a lot of praise about interactions with our staff when I’m out talking to people. I’ve had customers tell me many times, “Thank you so much for the friendly staff. We really appreciate all their help and support.”

What does Phil Brown Insurance Agency specialize in? 

From the beginning, our focus has been on association health plans. We work with a number of Kentucky trade associations, including the KTA. There are only a handful of agencies that operate and market these programs. 

The program allows association members to band together and join a larger pool of not just trucking but other trade associations for more buying power. The trade association program that we have right now includes KTA with four other associations that are all pooled together. We’re in the process of joining an even larger pool that will have 11 different trade associations all together. There will be thousands of lives insured in that program. 

The biggest thing that pooling helps with is stability. With a larger pool, if there’s a high-cost claimant or two, they won’t drive rates astronomically higher because you’ve got enough other people to balance it out. If you’re on your own or if you have a small pool, one or two big claimants can drastically affect rates. When it comes to health plans, there is strength in numbers. 

It’s important to our agency and to me that our members do not have to worry about their plans. You can’t add any time to your life by worrying. We are here to help support employees in making decisions when there are changes, or even if there are no changes, help them decide which plan is best. 

To do this, we conduct on-site and virtual meetings, and we even create videos to go over the benefits. The videos are sent to individual employers, and they can distribute them to their employees. The video offering has been very popular, especially for large employers that experience more turnover. For these employers, they can send the video to new hires and say, “Here’s our benefits package. Watch this and let me know if you have questions. You can even send it home to your spouse if they want to take a look at it.” This saves the companies time and money as they don’t have to have their HR person explain the benefits time and time again. It’s easier for open enrollment too, conveying a consistent and concise message to every employee. In addition, we create custom booklets that cover all the different benefits the employer might offer. There are a lot of different ways and channels we use to educate people on their benefits. 

Even with all that, we understand that it still can become overwhelming at times. We are always happy to answer questions and offer further assistance when needed. 

What do you like about working with the trucking industry? 

The KTA, like the other associations we work with, share many of the same qualities: There is longevity and loyalty to the association. The people who actively participate in trade associations tend to come to all the meetings, and as a result, there is a lot of camaraderie. Everybody gets to know each other. They’re all competitors but good friends at the same time. Year after year, when we go to the annual meetings, we see many of the same faces. It’s nice to get to know people and build long-term relationships. 

Our target market for the KTA Health Plan is small employers, those with less than 100 employees on their health plan. But certainly, we’ve had larger employers that have joined and taken advantage of the many benefits.

Do you have a favorite client success story? 

We have a lot of client success stories, but I like to focus on what the association programs have done for the people who have been in the program for 10, 15 and 20+ years. From the employee standpoint, change is not typically welcomed. So, having a stable program for a long period of time is appreciated by employees. And in many cases even when we check the market, the association plan still remains the best price, so it’s not like they’re paying more for that stability.

How do you handle the changes in the industry? 

Continuing education is required in this industry, for me and for our employees. Even without that, it’s important to stay on top of developments because there is a lot of change, especially every time there’s a new administration in Washington, D.C. 

When we had massive healthcare reform a little over 10 years ago, it actually ended up being a differentiator for us. We had an attorney on retainer who was really immersed in healthcare reform. He gave us a lot of help and guidance through that transition period, which in turn allowed us to become a good resource for our clients. Many of them were overwhelmed with how to deal with what was happening. 

We still have that same attorney on retainer today. He writes legislative alerts for us on a regular basis, and we distribute them to our clients when it is appropriate to do so. Those alerts are valuable and help keep us educated on what’s going on and things we need to do differently. 

However, perhaps one of the biggest benefits of being in an association health plan is the built-in compliance. There is a third-party administrator who really takes the burden off of the employers, which is kind of unique, a lot of times, that’s not included.  

Have you had any mentors throughout your career? What did you learn from them?

My father was and still is a mentor. When I started in the business in 1999, I was very green. I had a business marketing background but no actual insurance knowledge. My father taught me everything I know about the insurance programs. He was always big on doing the right thing for the client, regardless of whether you know it benefits us or not. He would often say, “If you put the client first, in the end, you’ll be successful.”

When you mentor others, what advice do you pass on to them? 

All of the employees that are with us now are people that I personally hired. None of them came from the insurance industry. I don’t know that I’d call it mentorship so much, but certainly, I helped teach them about the business and pass on my philosophy of trying to go above and beyond for the client. 

It’s pretty simple: If the client asks you for something, give them what they asked for. But then, take it a step further and ask yourself, “Is there something else I can give them that they haven’t asked for but would be helpful?” I try to emphasize that we should not stop with the bare minimum and always go the extra mile.