My co-founder and I established our lending company in 2018. As a new entrant in the industry we needed to establish some standard banking relationships, such as with warehouse lenders and investors. The requirements to do business with these types of parties revolve around having the right insurance. I needed someone to educate me on what insurance is out there and provide me with the correct coverage for the business to meet those requirements.
I had previously been in the market for Directors & Officers Insurance, and for a startup company, it’s not easy to find an insurance company that will only write a D&O policy–especially during the initial stages of operations. I talked to several insurance brokers and carriers and ended up going through an online brokerage. I wasn’t working with anyone directly, and I always thought it was expensive.
So, when I began to search for insurance to cover operations, I was already disillusioned about finding someone that would help a small company. I did some research online and was fortunate enough to find Lee’s company, Mortgage Banking Insurance Group. I contacted him by email, and he was very responsive, which, in my mind, is always a big plus.
What’s great about working with Lee is that I could actually speak to someone. He took the time to explain policies, processes and costs. You can tell that he likes to educate his clients. He likes to provide you with background information and anecdotal support. It’s much more rounded. There’s a lot more depth to the advice I was getting through him and that enabled me to trust what he was telling me.
I wasn’t getting that with the other people I talked with. I felt like I was talking to a salesperson rather than someone who was invested in the client relationship. The other people I spoke to took a very cookie cutter approach and tried to fit me into a suite of policies. These suites included coverage that I just didn’t need at that time, and so were a waste of my limited startup funds. Lee understood this and helped me pick out the few I needed to progress the business and develop a plan for acquiring the next stage of policies as operations ramped up. We purchased our Fidelity Bonds and E&O through him and will continue to purchase more coverages as we need them. To be honest, dealing with someone that people in the industry recognize and respect has been very helpful, too. The warehouse lenders and investors know they can trust our coverage because Lee is the one who set it up.
– Jamal Qaimmaqami
Co-founder
Jia Finance