Leadership at an early age

Rough Notes, Jul 2001 by Hanavan, Brett

Rick Dinger plunges into civic and political responsibilities while running an agency and the Young Agents of California To say that Rick Dinger is busy these days is an understatement. He undertakes supervision chores for his 14-monthold twin boys, serves as chairman of IBA West's Young Brokers and Agents Committee and as president of his agency, Crescenta Valley Insurance in Glendale, California.

The 34-year-old multiline producer has been on IBA West's Young Brokers and Agents Association Committee for three years and took over last fall as chairman for 2001. Dinger has been a member of the IBA West's young agents group, traditionally one of the strongest chapters in the United States, for 15 years.

He reflects proudly on the recent work the Young Agents group has done. "Our main accomplishments have been associated with our conference in June. We raised a record amount of sponsorships to help underwrite the cost and allow more young producers to attend," Dinger said. "Under the direction of Lou Partee, we started a statewide blood drive in association with the American Red Cross. For the first time we have a Web page that is updated monthly and we have turned our newsletter into an e-newsletter which allows us to get the information out faster, easier and basically for free."

In addition, under Dinger's direction, the Young Agent Committee has built up an impressive e-mail list that grows every month. It allows the committee to target its audience and get messages out more easily.

"We have a large annual conference and it continues to grow each year. I have really enjoyed the experience," Dinger said. "It has been a challenge to communicate with our committee, which is spread out all over California; but thanks to the Internet, we have been very successful."

The main goal of the Young Agent's committee is to raise money to offset the cost of its conference which is about $225 per person. Dinger says it is important to make the event affordable in order to attract young producers. This year it has surpassed its goal by over 20%. Most companies are eager to participate in the event because IBA West's Young Agent group has young, energetic, and hungry producers that are looking for direction and company-general agent contacts that they will use for their entire career. It is the benefit of networking early in their career that can pay dividends down the road.

Dinger's agency, Crescenta Valley Insurance, is located in Glendale, California, a sprawling suburb 15 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Established in 1969, the agency has grown into a full-service independent insurance agency. It serves the insurance needs of about 4,000 individuals and families and over 250 business concerns in the Crescenta Valley and throughout Los Angeles County. It boasts state-of-theart methods for obtaining immediate quotes over the Internet from its computer system.

"We realize that more and more of our customers are looking for the additional convenience of conducting their business online, yet they still require our traditional expertise as their broker in dealing with the insurance process," Dinger said. "Rest assured that we are here to give our clients and potential clients the quality professional representation and service as a client of our agency."

Crescenta Valley Insurance currently has nine employees and produces a volume of approximately $6.2 million in written premium per year. "The agency writes a majority of its business with Mercury Insurance Group that specializes in personal auto insurance coverage. My personal book is spread out with personal, commercial, life and health accounts," Dinger says. "I work on referrals, using a computerized direct mail program that I developed that allows me to write small commercial business throughout California."

Ultimately he writes most of his business within a 10-mile radius of his office. In a metropolitan area of about 3 million people, Dinger maintains this refreshing focus because he has lived in the area all of his life and that is where his referral base is the strongest. The Glendale-Foothill area of Los Angeles County has what Dinger calls a "good mix of young working families and the very wealthy."

The agency just signed on with Arrowhead's increasingly popular YouZoom to help it meet part of its Internet needs and to provide a presence on the Web. "We are developing a program to attract auto dealers, escrow agents and real estate agents in our community to our Web page," Dinger adds. "We are only a couple of months into our YouZoom project. We chose them because of the professional looking pages they provide and an opportunity to create another income stream."

As part of his immersion in the happenings of the industry, in 1999, Dinger testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C., on small business liability reform. He did so at the request of former Congressman Jim Rogan. Dinger was asked to testify on behalf of the Small Business Liability Reform Act of 1999 because of his insurance expertise and the contacts he made during his tenure as the Montrose-Verdugo City Chamber of Commerce president.