Board Spotlight: Bob Rollins

 

I graduated from college in 1968, and at that time, there was a full-blown war going on in Asia. My dad was a Navy veteran, and I always wanted to serve my country, so I attempted to join the Marine Corps. I passed the office candidates course, but I flunked my physical, which was a big disappointment. I had a college friend at the time who was working with Aetna Life and Casualty, and he asked me to come down and interview. So, I went to Birmingham for the interview, and instead of going to the group health department, they sent me to the underwriting department. I didn’t know the difference, so I accepted a job offer. I guess God was directing me in a different direction because I became an underwriter and went to the Home Office Underwriting School at Hartford and later transferred to Tampa.   

 

Five years later, I was promoted to underwriting supervisor. Then, I got an offer from another insurance company to apply for a commercial marketing position, even though I didn’t know anything about commercial marketing. I decided there wasn’t a big difference between property policies and personal and commercial, so I got the job, returned to Alabama, and ultimately worked my way into the marketing manager’s job there. When I first started in the insurance business, I had a 10-year plan: I wanted to do the underwriting; I wanted to do the marketing; and I wanted to do the management. So, I did all three in that order. Then, I got an offer from an agency in Boca Raton to work for them and I accepted. After about a year and a half, my current agency partner and I decided that we could do better on our own, so we left and started our own agency in 1979. 

 

 

When I was at Aetna, my boss, Ray Smith, was all about faith, family, and business and had a wonderful way of talking to you and talking you through problems. His decisions always came down to, “What’s the fair thing to do?” And so, I always ask myself that whenever I think about decisions. I even tell my employees now that if they do the right thing for the customer and the company, I will always back them up because the right thing is the most important thing. Ray has since passed away, but he was a great mentor, was fun to work with, had a great laugh, and was very personable. That’s the way he conducted his life, and if I could emulate him in some way, that’s what I want to do.  

 

Do you have any advice for young agents that you wish you had received at the very beginning of your career?  

 

If I were to give advice to a young person, I’d tell them to be a student of the business. If you really want to stay in the business, you need to have as much education as you can get so you can be well-versed in the topic. Having been to home office underwriting school, they go into depth and drill into you knowing what you’re selling and underwriting so when an insured asks you for advice, you can give them a good, solid recommendation. But you can’t do that unless you know the product. Before we put someone in front of a client at my agency, we make sure they are comfortable doing that.   

 

 

The association has done so much for us as agents. For the first five years in my agency, I didn’t have time to serve anything other than my agency. But later on, I realized the folks that we have at the association and the team there both then and now are some of the best industry advocates we have. I just felt like insurance had done so much for me and my family that I wanted to pay back that time. And I made some wonderful friends within the association that are still good friends today.   

 

I especially enjoyed getting to the nuts and bolts of the business through my time with the legislative committee. It was a little time away from the family, but it was time well spent because I could bring back to my agency ideas from other insurance agents and what they were doing and interface with association staff and legislative lobbyists. It seemed like a natural fit for me to work with FAIA as a volunteer—and I’ll be honest with you...I’m getting more out of it than I gave—and I’m proud of the relationship I’ve had with FAIA and what they’ve helped me do with my agency over the years. 

 

 

Hard. All my life I’ve been a hard worker, and I brought that same work ethic to my agency. When we first started our agency, my partner would work the late-night shift and I would do the early shift because I’m a morning person; so, there were times when I’d be here at 4:30 in the morning. If there is one saying that sums it up it’s, “You might outsmart me, but you can’t outwork me.” 

 

 

Being inducted into the Florida Youth Soccer Hall of Fame. I found out later my name was put into the nomination a year before someone told me about it. It was the furthest thing from my mind. With soccer, I did it for my kids, and I ended up loving the game eventually. Before my kids, I had one semester in college where we had track, soccer, and another sport in a gymnasium, and I thought, “Soccer will never catch on.” I said, “This will never work,” but as it turned out, I ended up loving the sport because it’s a sport that kids of all sizes can play. You don’t have to be the fastest, the tallest, the shortest, or the strongest. It’s a sport everybody can play and enjoy. My sons played soccer, and now my grandson is a goalkeeper on a travel soccer team. It just brought the family together and was a wonderful way to give back to the community. I’m still on the local soccer board here and have served now for about 30 years. 

 

 

Technology. When we first started, we had typewriters. Later on, IBM came up with a series one computer, the first computer, and it was about the size of a refrigerator. Back then, when we closed our books at the end of the month, it was a 24-hour process, and everyone had to do it over the weekend and do the backup. We didn’t have all of the downloads we have today. Now, policies come downloaded into the system and go directly into your management system. Technology has changed our lifestyle completely. It allows us to run our operation, look at our income statement, and do our balance sheet. We no longer have to outsource that and now have it readily available. All of those things just make for better management of the agency’s operation. 

 

 

Opening an insurance agency. The circumstances were just right back then when we opened the agency, and it was always my ultimate goal when I first set out on this career path. But it wasn’t easy. The first year, we operated out of pocket, and it was a year and a half before we actually turned the corner on making a profit. A friend later asked me what I would tell an agent just starting out, and I said, “Make sure you sell at least one policy a day. It doesn’t matter who or what size it is but sell something every day.” Because that’s what I did when I first started my agency; I made it a point to sell something every day, and while it didn’t always happen, the Lord blessed us with opportunities. There were good days and bad days, but we always managed to get through them. And I couldn’t have done it without my wife’s support.  

 

 

Being nominated and selected as chair of the FAIA Board. To me, that’s the pinnacle. I never, ever expected that to happen. It was a surprise to me when someone called and asked me if they could nominate me. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, especially getting to know Kyle Ulrich and Dave Newell down at the South Florida town halls for three days. Kyle knows so much about what’s going on and everyone you have there at the association is so competent in their positions that it was an easy decision to allow my name to be put into nomination. But I must tell you, I never expected to get to this point. I’m proud of that accomplishment, and that’s probably one of the greatest accomplishments that I’ll look back on when I finally head off into the sunset.