A Conversation With ... Julie Tope

You specialize in life insurance polices. What should business owners be doing to prepare their business?
As an employer, the best thing I can tell you is you need key employee insurance. It’s a life insurance policy you take out on employees. For example, if anything happened to my key employee in this office, it would cost a fortune to replace an employee. I would have to train someone new, including the ways of our office and the software. A key employee policy does that. It sets aside cash in the bank, for example $100,000. If anything happens to them, say they get killed in a car accident, while you are hiring someone, you can use that money to pay for that training and salary. I have key employee insurance on two of my (employees).

Tope Insurance handles workers’ compensation insurance. What’s the biggest misconception for employers?
A lot of the problems we find have to do with payroll. Premiums are based on payroll and you have to list how much you have in payroll. A lot of people underestimate their payroll. Then they have a gap and have to make it up in the premium. We say always try to overestimate your payroll so you are prepared when audited. That’s a big surprise for a lot of these companies. They say, “Oh, it’s $100,000,” and it ends up being $175,000.

Since the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act, the health insurance industry has been in a constant state of flux. How has that affected your business?
We have had a lot more people coming in. They don’t understand it and they need explanations. They need prices, they need clarification on who’s covered – there are a lot of new rules now – new rules that people don’t understand.

It puts a lot of pressure on the staff. We all have to take tests and pass them. Even though I’m not the person writing the insurance, I have to take it. That’s something you have to study for. It takes hours of preparation. That’s time my staff could be doing something else.

We have to keep up with all the new rules. We read every day. New rules are emailed every day: This is OK today, but it’s not going to be OK tomorrow. That continuously affects the staff. I also hired an individual to go out in the field. He’s going out and educating people on the process. That’s a whole new salary I have to pay. I had to have help.

Many companies chose early enrollment last year, enabling them to primarily maintain their current policy. A year later, how are things going to change?
Honestly, I don’t know. There is no good way to answer that. I’m really afraid to, and I think that’s the best answer you could get out of any agent.

I can tell people something totally wrong because what they tell me today is going to happen, then they test it or run the numbers and find out it could be disastrous, so they change it. Nothing would surprise me when it comes to ACA.

What is the biggest ACA issue facing Missouri insurance agents right now?
To me, the biggest challenge or scare is, “How is it going to pay?” Everybody is concerned. They have this health insurance now, but how is it going to work for me when I go to the hospital? That’s a fear a lot of customers have. We don’t know. I’m assuming it’s going to work like any other health insurance policy.

Another thing that scares me is this is all brand new. Have we worked out the problems that may arise? These are untested waters. If something doesn’t work, they are coming to me for answers.

What I worry about more than anything is the possibility of the federal government wanting everyone to go direct. I really worry they don’t want insurance agents involved. That’s one of the fears of people, especially if they rely heavily on selling health insurance. It’s just a portion of my agency and if it got wiped out tomorrow, it wouldn’t devastate the company. But someone who just does that only, can you imagine? That concerns me. They don’t want the middleman. They don’t want to pay us.

The amount of commission I got through companies like Anthem, Coventry and Cox was a lot more than the ACA allows. That also affects my bottom line. I get paid a flat fee for every policy, no matter what they spend.