Risk & Business Magazine Branch Benefits Consultants Magazine Fall 2017 | Page 27

INSURANCE NEVER, NOW IT’S FOREVER
T
here’s probably no better
way to get someone to
eschew insurance as a career
than to expose that person
to the “wonderful?” world
of debit insurance. Quincy Branch,
RHU, EHBA, still remembers his father
Aubrey’s debit route in Louisiana. After
seeing what that involved, he vowed he
“would never go into insurance.”
Today, Quincy heads up Branch Benefits
Consultants in Las Vegas, Nevada,
which includes a thriving and growing
property/casualty business. After only
six years in business, his agency has
grown from a two-person operation
to one that employs 14 people and
generates some $2 million in revenue,
broken down like this: 80% benefits,
20% commercial property/casualty
insurance, and the beginnings of a
personal lines practice, because “we’re
leaving too much on the table and
we’re convinced that it’s important to
diversify our income stream,” he notes.
“We want our clients and prospects to
think Branch Benefits Consultants when
they think of insurance,” he adds. “That
means we need to be able to provide
solutions in all areas of insurance.” The
agency just moved into a new building
that Quincy says “will give us more
space to grow.”
So how did this insurance denier—
someone who today admits “I have no
‘Plan B;’ insurance is my future”—wind
up as head of his own agency?
BECOMING
Over 20 years ago, Aubrey started his
own personal lines agency in Las Vegas.
Quincy went off to the University of
Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) to get a
degree in business management, still
convinced that he would go into any
business other than insurance. But
Aubrey had other plans. He convinced
Quincy to help him out by doing some
accounting work for the personal lines
business while finishing his degree.
benefits,” he explains. “It was a baptism
by fire. I immersed myself in the field
and fell in love with it. I enjoyed working
with employers and employees, putting
together plans that would work for them.”
It was an especially difficult time to try
to build a business in Las Vegas. The
city was “ground zero” for the economic
downturn, as foreclosures hit record
levels. But that only fueled Quincy’s
desire to succeed even further. >
Because Quincy was great at taking tests,
it wasn’t hard for Aubrey to convince him
to get his property/casualty insurance
license as a fallback, just in case things
didn’t work out elsewhere. “I was used
to taking tests, so why not?” Quincy
remembers. Then dad suggested he get
his life and health license, so he would be
well-rounded. “It was just another test, so
I took it,” he adds.
It didn’t take long for Quincy to learn
that insurance was not the monolithic
entity he had vowed to never enter.
Instead, it was a business that offered
great variety. So when, in 2008, his dad
asked him to start a life/health division
at the agency from scratch, he was ready.
As Whistler expressed in the classic
finale to season two of Buffy the Vampire
Slayer: “The big moments are gonna’
come. You can’t help that. It’s what you
do afterwards that counts. That’s when
you find out who you are.”
This was Quincy’s big moment, and
what he did afterwards was dive in
head first. “I concentrated on employee
Quincy joins First Lady Dr. Mary L. House
at Mountaintop Faith Ministries, a Branch
Benefits Consultants client, that under the
leadership of Dr. House and her husband,
Bishop Clinton House Sr., has grown from 13
attendees in 1990 to 4,000 today. Dr. House
also co-founded and leads the faith-based
nonprofit community organization CHR,
Inc. (Caring, Helping & Restoring Lives)
to help families of the unemployed and
underemployed, as well as women who are
survivors of domestic violence in Southern
Nevada.
THE EMPLOYEE BENEFITS TEAM
From left: Anji Lopez, Account Executive,
Employee Benefits; Veronica Pattillo, Senior
Account Executive, Employee Benefits; Bill
Newport, LUTCF, Senior Consultant-Life
Department; Cesar Vinasco, Sales Executive,
Employee Benefits. Not pictured Tara Jacquet,
Vice President of Client Services.
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