Michael Crowe of Ametros: 5 Things You Should Ask Before You Purchase a Life Insurance Policy

Consumers should understand the different ways they can source and buy insurance and the pros and cons of each method so they can choose the best fit for their buying preferences.

As a part of our series about the “5 Things You Should Ask Before You Purchase a Life Insurance Policy” I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Crowe.

An entrepreneur with deep insurance and technology experience, Crowe has served as CEO of several well-known insurance and technology companies that he led from the start-up phase through acquisition. Most recently, he was CEO of Clearsurance, based in the greater Boston area.

Crowe has served on Ametros’ Board of Directors for the past two years and is excited about investing his energy full-time into the company. “Ametros has been fundamentally changing how future medical funds from insurance settlements are administered,” said Crowe. “I am pleased to join this next phase of Ametros’ growth.”

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I came to entrepreneurship in an unconventional way. After briefly exploring job opportunities on Wall Street, I went to law school in Boston straight out of college because I wanted to work for myself and own a business. Owning a law practice seemed to be the surest path to being your own boss, but during my second year in law school I clerked with a young, fast-growing company founded by two nurses that was trying to bring managed healthcare practices to the auto and workers’ compensation industries. I wound up working there after law school and got bit by the entrepreneurial bug. That company eventually had an IPO and achieved a market cap north of $1B. I co-founded my first company in 1998 as a direct result of that experience. Twenty years later, I have been involved in co-founding seven companies, and most have had successful exits.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting in the industry? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I like to think that I have a good sense of humor and don’t take myself too seriously, but I also don’t find much humor in the mistakes I have made. I tend to be hard on myself when I screw up, so my sense of humor and irony don’t usually extend to mistake making. All of my biggest mistakes have revolved around hiring the wrong person for an important position. Every time a bad hire occurs, it is largely a result of not digging deep enough to understand a candidates’ skills, strengths, attributes for cultural fit, and track record of producing results.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

My current venture Clearsurance is as exciting and challenging of a project as I’ve ever been involved with. The insurance industry lags behind every other major consumer-facing industry in providing a customer-centric shopping, buying, and servicing experience. Insurance touches every aspect of every adult’s life, whether you have it or not. There is an old adage in the industry that “insurance is sold and not bought.” The underlying meaning of that adage is that insurance consumers have limited access to objective buying information and will usually be offered limited, biased and proprietary choices and options that benefit the seller but may not be the best fit for the buyer. Since insurance is everywhere and the industry’s distribution systems are entrenched, helping consumers make an informed purchasing decision is a very worthwhile project.

Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Is there a takeaway or lessons that others can learn from that?

Yes. My prior business, Crowe Paradis, was growing like crazy and doubling in revenue and profit for three years straight. In year four, we started to experience service and systems issues. I felt stuck and overwhelmed in trying to get my hands around what was really going wrong and how to prioritize fixing things. Intuitively I knew that I must not be giving the organization what it needed, and possessed enough common sense to know that we were in unchartered territory. I was a lawyer with little business experience leading a rapidly growing company. The stress and pressure was incredible and, on the recommendation of a founder/CEO/friend, I enrolled in an Entrepreneurial Master’s Program that was a joint venture between MIT and The Entrepreneurs’ Organization. It was a four-year program and lasted five days each summer. The class was comprised of 60 founders/CEOs from around the world (it used to be called the Birthing of Giants program). I came out of the experience with much greater clarity and the tools to address the fixes that need to be made. We proceeded to resume growing the company in dramatic fashion through 2010, when it was acquired by a public company. In 2009, the year I completed the MIT/EO EMP, the company doubled its net profit.

What advice would you give to other people in the insurance field to thrive and avoid burnout?

Approach your career as a long-term growth and development journey. Be inquisitive and invest in yourself. Take any opportunity to learn new skills, read books written by other entrepreneurs and leaders and don’t be afraid to ask for feedback as to how you’re doing. Professional development and growth will result in personal development and growth that will make you a happier and more well-rounded person.

As an “insurance insider,” you know much more about insurance than most consumers. If your loved one wanted to buy a policy from another person, which 5 things would you advise them to find out about before committing to a policy? Can you give an example or story for each?

First, consumers should understand the different ways they can source and buy insurance and the pros and cons of each method so they can choose the best fit for their buying preferences. Second, when you receive insurance quotes, read reviews to ascertain how customers review and rate their experiences with those insurance companies. While most insurance consumers prioritize the best price, getting the cheapest insurance from a company that does not perform well when you file a claim can result in buyer’s remorse. Third, don’t be afraid to ask questions about how a seller gets compensated if you are buying from a third party. If the seller won’t give you a clear answer, you should go somewhere else. Fourth, attempt to get comparative quotes from at least two different companies. Independent agents usually represent multiple companies, but compensation structures could vary from one company to the next — meaning they have added financial incentive to place you with one company over another. Fifth, understand your own unique risk profile so you don’t overpay for coverage you’re unlikely to need and vice-versa.

Insurance agencies or companies are often known to be very creative and innovative marketers. Do you use any clever and innovative marketing strategies that you think large legacy companies should consider adopting?

I don’t agree that insurance agencies or companies are creative or innovative in their marketing approach. Most are spending on traditional advertising and doing what they’ve been doing for years. Most agencies and insurance companies are way behind the digital marketing curve and this is where they have the most risk to the business model. Other than Clearsurance, it’s hard to find a company that is taking a “customer-first” approach with insurance consumers that helps them make informed decisions based on unbiased data.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My friend Jason Beans, founder and CEO of Rising Medical, recommended the Entrepreneur’s Organization and the MIT/EO Entrepreneurial Master’s Program to me. It was game- and life-changing.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I’m a board member with a non-profit, Team Impact, that places chronically ill children with college sports teams. The outcomes for the children are incredible, but the real reach is in the empathy and perspective learned by college athletes. College sports teams draft children one the family has gone through a suitability screen and the kids stay with the team, really becoming part of the team, for two years before they graduated. There is an actual draft event where the child signs a National Letter of Intent just as a college athlete would do. They are many times already leaders, or at least looked up to, in their respective communities. Team Impact has a big goal to get sick children and their families matched up with athletes on every college campus across the country. There are 4,000 colleges in the U.S. and today 45o colleges have teams with a TeamImpact child. Here is a youtube promotional video about TeamImpact https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODOL6m6K28Y

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Twitter: @mcrowe211 or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkc211/

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.