The Insurance Wars

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The Insurance Wars
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About the Author

Chuck Tompkins founded Western Agency, Inc. in 1976. Before starting his own agency, Chuck served as an agent for Nodak Mutual and Farm Bureau of North Dakota. A North Dakota farm kid who understood the importance of crop and farm insurance first hand, he developed Western Agency to serve primarily the farm and small-town insurance market. A complicated niche many agents avoid, today this insurance segment represents more than 4000 insured Western Agency accounts and over 800 farms – more than any other individual agency in North Dakota. Today, his agency has grown to include eight satellite offices in surrounding rural communities throughout North Dakota.

Chuck has more than three decades of experience in the insurance business. In 1996, he was voted North Dakota Agent of the Year by the North Dakota Association of Professional Insurance Agents (NDPIA). In 1997 he was nominated for National Insurance Agent of the year. Chuck is also Past President of the ND Professional Insurance Agents Association.

Chuck lives in Minot, N.D. most of the year and winters in Fountain Hills, Ariz. He and his wife Linda have four children, eight grandchildren and three horses.

Persevering amidst the storm

...A big fat low pressure weather system had come into North Dakota that morning, and the front end of it was due to be in Minot late that afternoon. The difficulty with flying in the clouds in North Dakota that time of year is that often those clouds in the spring of the year cause severe icing conditions. As any of you pilots know, ice and small planes do not mix; this can be a fatal combination. I did a quick flight plan calculation that morning at the hotel that told me I had better be in the air and headed home by around two that afternoon in order to be safe. I headed for the airport and checked the weather. As I saw the front approaching Minot, a chill shot through me. I was too slow getting out of Rapid City and the front was moving too fast...