We've Got You Covered: A Guide to Common Questions and Answers

By Bobby Uppal, CLU, ChFC

From auto to home to life insurance, this book provides an easy, approachable understanding to insurance. This step-by-step guide helps you make informed decisions about your insurance needs for every stage of your live. It is an excellent reference for anyone looking to broaden their understanding of how insurance works. There is no need to be afraid of insurance, all you need is knowledge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781312795884

Book preview

We've Got You Covered: A Guide to Common Questions and Answers

We've Got You Covered: A Guide to Common Questions and Answers

By: Bobby Uppal, CLU, ChFC

B. Uppal Insurance Agency

Do You Have The Right Coverage For You?

Copyright © 2014 by Bobby Uppal

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2014

ISBN 978-1-312-79588-4

7816 Uplands Way, Suite B

Citrus Heights, CA 95610

www.uppal-insurance.com

Author's Note

To The Reader,

The reason I wrote this book is simple: I want to share the knowledge and experience I have gained after 16 years in the insurance industry. The stories and advice in this book are told with the aim of provoking, informing, and re-thinking your views on insurance.

I would like to acknowledge everyone who helped in the course of the making of this guide. To my daughter, Char Uppal, who helped compile the body of this work, shift through my many interviews and stories, and served as an amazing and crucial writing partner.

To Melissa Scharlach, who was there when I conceived the very first thought of writing a broken-down guide to insurance to help people navigate its murky waters. Thank you for your contribution in bringing this from just an idea to the paper it is printed on today.

And lastly to the entire Uppal Insurance Staff, thank-you for your hard work every day keeping this business running and upholding our mission. You are the ones that allow B. Uppal Insurance Agency do what it does so well.

Bobby Uppal

Introduction

Q: How did you first get involved with insurance?

A: Ummm… mostly by accident really…

Q: Did you just fall down the rabbit hole, and there was insurance at the bottom waiting to catch you?

A: Not quite exactly….

I moved to the United States in 1998. I didn’t have a job lined up when I came, or any idea really of what I was going to do. In a way, moving to the states was kind of like my do-over. I always knew that what I really wanted to do in life was a role that didn’t just benefit me but helped others as well, and this it would seem was my chance to pursue that. Like so many other uncertainties facing me at the time, another was not knowing how I was going to achieve this goal. All I had was this idea, an abstract thought…. But ideas don’t pay the bills.

When I arrived in March of '98 I came upon my first stepping stone towards what would end up being B. Uppal Insurance Agency. I realized that what I needed to do was start my own business, a place where I could be my own boss; a place where I could call the shots, and dictate where this company was headed. I still didn’t know what this business would be, but I did know what its mission statement would encompass: that first seed I continued to nurture, that idea of creating something to profit others. Knowing that much, the first thing I did was look for some information on businesses and how businesses are ran. Maybe you believe in luck, maybe you don’t, but it so happened that around this same period the city of Sacramento was running a community workshop on business planning and business opportunities in the greater Sacramento area. At the time I didn’t even have a car to get the event, but it was within walking distance of where I lived at the time so I walked. Back in England I used to walk everywhere, walking was normal in Britain as most people commuted either by foot or public transport. So I walked to this workshop where for two hours and they talked about exactly what the description said they would: It was all about different businesses and business planning. To be honest if it wasn’t for one particular occurrence that happened that day, the whole seminar would have proved to be nothing more than an opportunity to gather information. But there is a reason I’m telling you this story… because something did happen that day which opened a new door of opportunity for me. It was a chance encounter I had to sit next to a young lady who was married to one of the assistants of a man named Paul Clark. Paul would come to be one of the greatest influences and mentors in my life. This woman, whose name I cannot even remember today, upon hearing my story suggested that I talk to her husband about the insurance industry. I agreed and she graciously gave me a ride home that day. A week later I called up her husband and he set me up with a meeting at Paul Clark’s office. I would later come to find out that Paul had the second largest distribution force of agents in the country for Farmers Insurance.

You may or may not believe in coincidences, but sometimes in life if you look carefully enough you will see that the universe is always sending us signs. Perhaps, like the day I met the young woman at the workshop, and again that day as I headed to Paul’s office for my first interview. His office was located in a place called Coventry Square. Sometimes the universe isn’t so subtle after all; Coventry is the name of the place where I was born and raised in England.

The meeting ended up going quite well and it was decided that I had what it took to work in the world of insurance.  The next step required me to take an examination known as the Limra test. I ended up passing it. I have no idea how I passed it, but I did, and that was the beginning of my insurance career. I worked for Paul first, eventually opening my agency. You should know that I never looked at any of the competition, I never thought to. I didn’t look at other companies; I just figured this opportunity was worth giving a shot. I ended up enrolling in the Farmer's career program and fast-forward a decade and a half and that brings us to now.

I said that upon arriving in California my intention for moving was to start a career for myself that would