Business
The Insurance Coach LLC
Name: Jennifer Allain
Company Name: The Insurance Coach, LLC
Address: 11501 SW Pacific Highway, Suite 201, Portland, 97223
Website: www.insurancecoachllc.com
Phone Number: (503) 307-4811
How would you describe your company? What is your specialty?
I am an independent health insurance agent. I call my business The Insurance Coach, LLC because my clients know they need health insurance—they just need my expertise in navigating the system in order to connect with the benefits they’re looking for. I don’t sell anything; I just help folks understand what they’re paying for. Plus, using me doesn’t cost anything extra. That’s true for both Health Insurance and Medicare.
What do you offer clients that others don’t?
I’m not your typical Health Insurance Agent—literally or physically. I don’t own a briefcase, I don’t want to sit at your kitchen table until 7pm, and honestly, I’m terrible at math. What I do is educate and explain. I’m more of a translator than anything else, really.
My business is solely geared around finding the right health insurance policy for the client—not the other way around. I’m not employed by any other company, I am my own company. That means I have a working knowledge about all the plans out there. It’s my job to assist the client in finding the right plan, not selling XYZ Company’s plan to the client.
How and why did your company start up?
When we first moved here in 2010, I was looking for work as a Private Investigator, because that’s what I did while I went to college in South Florida. I was marketing myself to insurance companies, and that’s when I met some folks in the industry. Once I learned enough to develop my own vision, I stepped out and created The Insurance Coach, LLC.
With the changing landscape of MMJ and recreational cannabis, what do you see as the biggest challenges to your progress as a company? Any advantages?
I’m hoping it’ll encourage communication between patients and their Primary Care Physicians. I have several clients whose PCPs know about their cannabis use, and it seems that more and more Doctors are open to treatments that may not be strictly allopathic. I think this is a great time and a great platform to talk about health insurance and to educate people about what they might qualify for.
The advantages of legalized marijuana are too many to mention. Times are changing—we now live in a world where you can walk four blocks and legally purchase marijuana, and your Playboy Magazine is free of nude pictures. It’s very new, and I’m excited to be a part of it all.
What are the goals and vision moving forward, for your company? Where do you see your company in five years?
The reason I love this industry is that there’s always something new going on, some new study to read or some new legislation to consider. I suppose it won’t always be like that, and when that happens I’ll be looking for the next generation of Insurance Coach, maybe another Veteran like me who came home “overqualified” for some jobs and “underqualified” for others.
What words of advice would you offer anyone seeking to enter the world of cannabis business? More specifically . . . what is unique to this type of work/this industry, in your opinion?
Do you know what I would do if I weren’t an insurance agent? I’d just sit back and watch all the canna-industry in Oregon and Colorado for about 18 months. I’d keep tabs on successes and failures. Then I’d wait for other states to legalize and I’d go there to share the business lessons learned so far. That sounds fun.
What do you hope to accomplish in the MMJ industry?
I want to be the community’s health insurance agent. I want to be at the events with a table signing folks up for health insurance. I want to get phone calls and have folks come to my office with papers full of questions. Insurance isn’t just about healing the sick; it’s about prevention and education, too. They say it takes a village. I want to be the village’s health insurance agent.
Any news you’d like to share?
Yes! Open Enrollment begins November 1st and ends on January 29th. In order for a new plan to begin on January 1, 2016, enrollment must be done by December 15th. Call me to set up an appointment at (503) 307-4811.
