Brightway Insurance The Sterner Agency owner George Sterner is our St. Cloud FL Business Spotlight this month. Jeanine Corcoran broker for Corcoran Connect interviews George in this month’s episode. Welcome to the 28th episode of Discover St. Cloud Florida.
Brightway Insurance The Stern Agency is located at 1451 E. Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway. Jeanine sat down with George in her office and had a great time interviewing him. Jeanine’s first question to George was how long has he owned his business, Brightway Insurance? George replied that he has been in business for 14 years in St. Cloud. He continued that he has seen some definite market changes, but he is happy to be where he is at.
Jeanine then asked George how he got started in the insurance business and why did he choose it? George answered that never in a million years did he think insurance would be his career, but it has definitely become his career. Prior to getting involved in the insurance industry, he was in the construction business.
Back in 2008 when the market started to crash, George’s stepdad said he said look at insurance as it is a recession-proof industry. George’s stepdad found an insurance agency called Brightway that had just started up. When George took it over, Brightway Insurance was #25 and now they are the largest private brokerage firm in the US.
Jeanine then asked George to tell the audience a little bit about himself. He said that he is a family man first, he is a businessperson and is involved heavily in the community of St. Cloud. He loves the outdoors and enjoys hunting and fishing. George stated he spends a lot of time with his family and friends.
Jeanine then asked George if there was a top product at Brightway Insurance? He said that was a good question because insurance is a very broad spectrum. George said his bread and butter was home insurance. He said he can compete with anyone in the market in home insurance. His claim to fame is he has every home insurance company that is writing business in the state.
Jeanine followed up and asked how many home insurance companies are there? George said there have been as many as 57-60 at any given time but now there are fewer companies as the market has changed. Jeanine asked why these companies go out of business. He answered that people find loopholes in the policy and find ways to make claims where they can get money.
George gave an example using “stucco cracks” when he first started. Private adjusters would travel around and tell homeowners, hey I see stucco cracks in your house and there is money in them. These adjusters would tell homeowners if they make a sinkhole claim, they can receive money from their insurance policy. There were so many people making these claims that the state had to step in and make a statute to prevent this, so it didn’t kill the insurance industry.
George then said fast forward to today with the roofing situation. He said the roofing loophole has put them in this horrible situation they are in now. Jeanine commented and said she saw this coming with the roofers going door to door, she knew insurance rates were going to go up.
We hope you enjoyed Jeanine interviewing George Sterner of Brightway Insurance as our featured St. Cloud FL business spotlight. This will continue to be a monthly focus for the Discover St. Cloud Florida podcast.
