Risk & Business Magazine California Risk & Business Magazine Summer 2017 | Page 25

Rudy Garcia:
Man On A
Mission
REINVENTING THE
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS
AGENCY
E
arlier this year, Rudy Garcia,
founder and president
of Los Angeles–based
Qandun Insurance Agency,
was presented with the
prestigious 2017 Reinvention Award by
the Association for Insurance Leadership
“in recognition of your impressive efforts
in the reinvention of your agency as a
NextGeneration Benefits Firm that can
provide a superior and more cost-effective
benefits plan for employers and enhanced
benefits for employees.”
In 2016, Garcia and Qandun earned
the National Association of Health
Underwriter’s Soaring Eagle Award which
is that organization’s “highest honor
given . . . for demonstrating exceptional
professional knowledge and outstanding
client service.” compensation structure as brokers were
also benefitting financially from rising
premiums.
Risk & Business set out to discover
just what Garcia and his team have
accomplished that has attracted so much
attention and such accolades from the
industry. Early on in his career, as an employee
of Kaiser Permanente, Garcia saw
many opportunities to help his clients
by exploring other types of insurance
products and services, but this type of
work was beyond the scope of his position.
“Kaiser Permanente was a great company
and I was proud to work there,” Garcia
says in retrospect, “but it couldn’t give me
the latitude to interact with businesses in
ways I felt I could truly help them. I was
able to see better business solutions, but
my hands were tied.” Garcia set out to
change course and, in 2012, established >
FROM CARRIER TO AGENCY
When Rudy Garcia started in the
insurance industry over twenty years
ago, there was only one way to transact
business: companies bought insurance
policies through brokers to cover their
employees’ health needs and the brokers
were paid commissions as a percentage of
premiums. Rudy was dissatisfied with this
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