NAILBA Perspectives - Spring 2018 - 20

member profiles

Pilot Insurance Center

Bill Fanning, President
Based in Addison, Texas,
Pilot Insurance Center has
been a NAILBA member since
2003. Bill Fanning, President,
provided input for this article.

About the Organization
Founded by William J. Fanning
and Randy Williams in 1997, Pilot
Insurance Center (PIC) serves
the unique life insurance needs
of pilots. Bill and Randy, both
licensed and active pilots since
they were in their teens, have
more than 80 years of combined
aviation experience. Armed with a
rare combination of insurance and
aviation expertise, they specialize
in navigating the complex issues
pilots face when applying for a life
insurance policy.
PIC offers an unparalleled
degree of expertise in the aviation risk assessment and underwriting process. The organization
puts each applicant through a rigorous phone interview, screening
them for aviation risks, to determine which pilots are deserving of
favorable underwriting.
Over the past two decades, PIC
has grown by leaps and bounds.
Today, the organization has 12 fulltime employees, including in-house
agents and administrative professionals. Most of PIC's agents are
pilots themselves and all are spe-

cially trained in aviation underwriting. Their agents are required
to complete a challenging aviation
underwriting course, in which they
learn how to handle risk assessment for each prospective client.
Although PIC also includes a
network of outside brokers who
specialize in traditional brokerage, pilots represent close to 70
percent of the organization's business. PIC is located in an office
building at the Addison Airport, in
a suburb of Dallas.
What makes your agency
unique? How is it different
from others offering the
same services?
In today's competitive market, you
have to be unique in some way. If
you can tap into a passion in your
life to feed that uniqueness, that
is even better. This is basically
what I did with PIC. When I saw
that pilots were not being treated
fairly by life insurance providers, I
saw a gap and a need in our industry. We came in and filled that gap
and created a business around that
unique niche.

Additionally, we're not just
insurance agents selling to pilots.
We are pilots selling to people with
whom we share a common bond. We
speak their language. I've looked at
other agencies that try to market
to pilots, and they just don't know
the lingo. So, we are a very specialized marketing organization.
Lastly, we are uniquely qualified to screen for aviation risk and
make the assessment to only afford
exceptions to pilots deserving of
those exceptions. Our agents take
each client through an exhaustive vetting procedure, above and
beyond what most insurance companies do. Then, we try to get them
favorable underwriting through
understanding carriers.
Where do you see your agency
in the next 5 to 10 years?
A lot of what we do is dependent
on the economy. Right now, the
economy seems to be headed in the
right direction. So, I am optimistic
about the next few years. However,
we are facing challenges-primarily that the pilot population is getting younger, which is taking us a
little bit outside of the life insurance buying demographic. That is
problematic for us, but we're looking for ways to meet that challenge.
How does being a NAILBA
member benefit you and
your business?
NAILBA brings all of the key decision makers in the insurance industry together in one place at one
time. That is critical. It gives you
an opportunity to network and

20 perspectives SPRING 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NAILBA Perspectives - Spring 2018