A quick Google search will tell you that your options for insurance are plenty. However, if you’re in the market for an agency who knows your name because they’ve worked with your siblings, parents, and maybe even your grandparents, you can stop looking and head straight to Hatanpa Insurance Agency Inc.
With more than 27 years of experience in the insurance field in southern Minnesota and a deep commitment to their clients, it’s easy to see why they serve thousands of families in Mankato, Lake Crystal, and Mapleton.
At the helm of the business are husband and wife duo Aaron (president and co-owner) and Jessica (co-owner) Hatanpa. Jessica is a North Mankato native, while Aaron is a transplant, having moved to Mankato for his first brick and mortar State Farm Agency in 2000.
Family, volunteerism, and a love for their career (and each other) have helped the Hatanpas build a successful brand, and they feel they’re just getting started.
Tell me about yourselves. Where did you grow up, and eventually go to college? Were you involved in activities?
Aaron: I grew up in Dayton, MN and went to Anoka High School. I went to college at the University of Minnesota, Morris. I played basketball all four years in high school and all four years in college. I was the shooting guard. Playing basketball at the college level was a full-time job. It takes a lot of scheduling and you have to cut out on some of the fun college things. But, not all of the fun things!
Jessica: I grew up here in North Mankato and went to Mankato West High School. After graduation, I went to the University of Minnesota for a couple of years before coming back down and graduating from Minnesota State University, Mankato. I wasn’t involved in many extra activities because I had to work my way through college.
How did the journey to Mankato begin for you, Aaron?
Aaron: I was a double major in college and graduated with degrees in business management and economics. When I graduated from Morris, I went right into the financial services world and I worked as a stock broker. Really, being a stock broker isn’t even a job that exists anymore. I did that for about a year-and-a-half before I had an opportunity to move over to State Farm. I worked for the State Farm Corporate office for four years in Brooklyn Center, handling claims for the company.
That’s interesting. How did you go from being in corporate to a self-employed insurance agent?
Aaron: Back then, in order to own a State Farm Agency, you had to spend at least three years working for State Farm Corporate. I did a little over four years working at Corporate before I had an opportunity to open a State Farm location in Mankato. In 2000, I moved to Mankato, and then opened the Mapleton office in January 2001. Since then, I’ve been an independent contractor with State Farm.
Did you know in college that you wanted to go into the insurance field?
Aaron: No! My dad was in the insurance and claims business for his entire career. He used to talk to me about getting into the field because it was such a great one to be in. But I was like every other human on the planet and had no interest in doing anything with insurance. He kept saying what a great career it was and how rewarding it was to help other people during times when the worst things have happened to them. My dad spent his career with a different insurance company but he told me that if I did get a job in insurance, I should work with State Farm. After an opportunity became available I said, “Well, I guess I’ll go for it.”
It’s funny how things work out, isn’t it? It’s like all of a sudden, every decision we’ve made along the way makes sense. Jessica, how did the two of you end up meeting?
Jessica: I met Aaron after I graduated from MSU. He was friends with my boyfriend at the time. When we met, I had just graduated from college and was working for Greater Mankato Growth, but it used to be known as the Chamber of Commerce. He asked me if I wanted a job, and eventually I went to work in the office. It was a year later that we started dating and then we got married.
So, Aaron, what made Jessica stand out to you in a way that made you want her part of your State Farm team?
Aaron: In the US, there are almost 20,000 independently owned State Farm agencies, and my office has been ranked in the top 50 offices for years. Since 2001, we have grown incredibly fast. A big part of my job is recruiting talented people. When I first started the offices, we had two employees; one in each office. Today, we have 17 licensed insurance agents. I met Jess through mutual friends, and she was an impressive woman all the way around. Working at the Chamber, I thought to myself, “This person is sharp and hard working. She would be a great fit in the insurance business.” I had a lot of confidence in her. I said, “I’ll hire her and that will be it.”
I take it that wasn’t “it?”
Aaron. No! She was completely surprised that I asked her to come work with me. Or, at least, I think she was surprised. She gave me the, “Maybe, but not at this time. I’m pretty happy where I am in life.” I think I dropped it for six months but again, the company continued to grow and we needed to add more people. The second time I asked, the timing with her career worked out and she came over as the office manager.
Jessica: I was a little hesitant at first. I was 23 years old. I didn’t even pay my own car insurance! I worked in retail throughout high school and college and I was used to talking to people. Since I started working in customer service roles when I was younger, claims and billing seemed easy to me. Plus, I was used to working nights and weekends, and a job that was 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. sounded like a really great job. I didn’t intend to stay there forever. I thought I would see what happened and then get a different job. But, I got my insurance license in 2006 and now it’s been 17 years.
That’s a great story about how you began working together. I’m always in awe of how someone can own their own business. I wouldn’t know the first thing!
Aaron: Being a State Farm agent, you’re an independent contractor, so it’s a self-employed career. Throughout the time I worked at State Farm Corporate, I learned an incredible amount about claims and how the coverage actually works and plays out in the real world. That was an excellent way to learn. It was during that time that I realized that I really wanted to work for myself. I wanted to have my own opportunity and I didn’t want my own success or failure to be from the opinion of a supervisor at the next rung up. I wanted to work as hard as I could and help as many people as I could and be 100 percent responsible for my success or failure.
That’s an admirable trait to have. Not many people would want that responsibility.
Aaron: Thank you. At this point, I’ve been a self-employed State Farm agent for 23 years. I have the responsibility of everything from making sure the lightbulbs are changed in each office to making sure teammates have the opportunities to do as well as they can. I’ve been working since I was 16 or 17. I only had three or four years where I was an employee of someone else. For the 60 hours a week it takes to do this, at least I can say that for 23 years of them I haven’t had to ask anyone to do something. When you’re self-employed, it’s up to you.
What are the biggest stressors when it comes to being business owners?
Jessica: There are a couple that we experience all the time. When you work for a big business, you have a human resources team; a marketing team. Here, we’re responsible for our customers. We do all the HR and marketing ourselves. We sponsor a lot of sports teams, schools, YMCAs, and that’s our own money. It doesn’t come from State Farm. We have to make those choices. When we hire employees or do raises or there’s an issue or someone has to call in sick, those are all of the things we’ve had to navigate as just the two of us. The hardest part, though, is people don’t understand that there’s more to this job than getting someone car insurance. We have, unfortunately, had a lot of customers over the years who have had terribly tragic accidents, whether death or major problems after an accident or fire, and we are able to help them when things are at their worst.
It has to be incredibly hard to take some of these insurance claims. People aren’t calling for claims when something good has happened. How do you deal with it?
Jessica: Aaron’s instilled in all of his employees how important it is to have the right conversations, even if they’re uncomfortable. Over the 17 years I’ve worked here, we’ve been invited to customer’s weddings and graduations. I know all of their kids, and I know their kid’s kids. We try to make sure that we have the conversations about how coverage works before something happens. We want to make sure the customer makes the decisions on what is important to them and how they cover the risks we all face.
Aaron: What happens in this business, because it’s such a relationship business, is you get to know people on a personal level way more than on a business level because of what you have to deal with and the questions we have to be asking. Because of my background and handling claims at State Farm and paying claims in the real world after something bad happens, my attitude is – and I tell all our agents this – is it doesn’t matter to me how someone chooses to protect themselves through insurance. What does matter is that we’ve educated and supported them on their choices. We don’t ever want to assume anything about anyone. We see our job as education more than sales. We’re sales, obviously, but insurance is a funny product. There’s no new car smell; no latest fashion or upgraded camera to it. I’m not a good sales person because if someone doesn’t understand the risk and decide they want to protect themself, I’m not going to be able to talk them into it. I can’t convince you of that. When people come into our office, we have a conversation and they walk out with a bill. It’s a strange product. We want to make sure our customers are making their own decisions.
That’s very important in your line of work – providing the right tools to your customers so they can be informed.
Aaron: We’re a very large agency, so we have to make sure our team is having the correct conversations. Unfortunately, there are bad things that happen to people all of the time. I want to make sure if something happens to you, that whether you have coverage or not, I want our agents to say at least they had the conversations. When I bring my car to get an oil change, I fully expect that if the mechanic has it up in the lift and sees that the brake lines are leaking, I expect them to point that out to me. That’s our philosophy with insurance. It’s to say, we can take care of what you want to take care of, but we also wanted to point out some items and make sure you’re aware of them. People are already paying money for these products. We just try to be good community stewards in addition to doing the job our customers are paying us to do.
Jessica: Claims can be small, something like they don’t have rental insurance on their car, or massive, like something horribly catastrophic such as a death within the family. We can sleep a little easier at night knowing that we’ve done everything we could up front. If something bad does happen, we can get involved and can educate people from that point forward. It’s very important that if people are going to come into our office, we’re going to get to know them, and we want to make sure we continue to do the correct job for them.
Why should someone choose to work with a local insurance agent versus one of the “big box” online companies like Progressive or Geico?
Aaron: The number one thing, and it’s a unique aspect of State Farm, is it’s a customer-owned mutual company. It’s a different philosophy than a public stock company. We’ll return dividends to our customers. For instance, in 2020, State Farm took in way too much in auto premiums because people didn’t have as many claims because they weren’t driving as much. They returned $4.5 billion in direct dividends and rate reductions to our policyholders. State Farm operates on a different model and philosophy. If you’re the CEO or management team of a public insurance company, you have to return the profits to the shareholders, not customers. Those companies are set up for the benefit of the owners, not customers. In the 100 years that State Farm has been around, there have only been a handful of times that they’ve made an underwriting profit. We can manage things for the long-term; we don’t have to make knee jerk reactions with our rates. I saw firsthand how State Farm treats its customers when I worked in claims. It’s 100 percent the only company I would do this with. In this business, I make a lot of promises every day. I make a lot of promises to friends, neighbors, and people in my community and I want to make darn sure they’re followed through on. I don’t work for State Farm. I work for you, my customers. The good news is I know how things should go. If things don’t go right and they go off the rails, I can get it back on track to make sure things are headed in the right direction.
What is your answer when someone asks why they need insurance in the first place?
Aaron: There is government and state mandated insurance that you have to purchase, but ultimately, insurance is able to help smooth out all of the risks we face in life. I don’t like to pay for insurance just like everyone else, but ultimately, I don’t want to lose everything I’ve built. If I make a mistake and I do something and someone gets hurt or someone is negatively impacted, I’d want to make sure I can take care of that. Mistakes can happen. We’ve all made them. People’s situations are unique so they need to be aware that there are a lot of coverage levels. It’s important to understand how customizable policies and coverages are.
It can be tricky to understand the ins and outs of insurance, products, claims, deductibles, etc. What is some basic information that people should know?
Aaron: It’s important for people to understand that insurance needs to be set up specifically for their personal situation. The generic limits that are available on policies might not cover what someone would want. As an example, you can purchase liability coverage for your car with a $25,000 property damage limit. If someone has that coverage amount on their policy and they cause an accident and total out someone’s $75,000 truck, their insurance company will pay $25,000 and they will have to pay $50,000 out of their own pocket.
Jessica: For me, the biggest thing is that the majority of people have no idea how insurance really works. We hear people say all the time Minnesota is a no-fault state. We have to end up explaining what that really means, and it’s not how the catch phrase sounds. We really do end up providing a lot of education to people.
What are certain times in life that someone may need to adjust their insurance policies?
Aaron: Any time you have a life change you should talk to your agent. If you add a room to your house, you’re going to ask your agent if your homeowner coverage is right. Home and car insurance are easy. If your $300,000 house burns down, you need $300,000 to rebuild it. Some of the policies we deal with are not as easy to figure out what is right. Life insurance is more abstract. For me, I think about it as a father and a husband. I want to make sure if something happens to me, nothing has to change for my family. I would want everything with them to stay the same and that they would have the money to replace the lost income. If I was gone, the last thing I would want my family to have to worry about is paying the bills. Life events and things happen, so those are good times to do a quick check to see if everything is up to snuff if something were to happen.
What’s the most enjoyable part of your job?
Jessica: The best part of insurance for me is that no two days are ever the same. There are a million different things that could go wrong, like is a bat being in the house covered under insurance, or what about a particular way a fire started, is that covered? It seems like at least once per day, someone is in the office gathering the team trying to figure out what each other thinks and how a claim might be covered.
On the flip side, what are some of the challenges that you experience?
Aaron: One of the things that impacts our business, and something we have to be mindful of, are regulatory changes and employment law changes. Those are things we have to figure out ourselves. It’s the nature of being a small business owner. How do you do payroll? It just becomes who you are. I haven’t had to ask anyone for time off in years, but on the other side, the work needs to be done. It doesn’t matter if it’s eight in the morning or seven at night. The cows need to be milked. My dad grew up on a dairy farm and twice a day, the cows need to be milked. It’s the same for small business owners. We have to make sure things happen and many times the day does not end at five.
As business owners, have you been experiencing the workforce challenges that many others in the region and state are facing?
Aaron: You can’t be in any business locally or regionally without feeling that, that’s for sure. We have been very lucky as an office with being able to have some incredibly talented people on our team. You can’t get to being one of the top 50 State Farm agencies in the country without having exceptional and very caring people.
Jessica: The biggest challenge, and I hear this all the time when I’m on committees, is we lose 22-25-year-olds because they want to live in the cities. I can’t compete with that. It’s not for more money, or that they don’t like the office, it’s that they’re from there or it’s for a relationship. I can’t recreate Minneapolis or another suburb. We have a great downtown here in Mankato, but it’s not for everybody. That’s the biggest struggle; retaining younger staff.
Aaron: A good chunk of mine and Jess’ role is looking for talented people. Insurance isn’t a career most people think of. The majority of our agents have joined our team because we recruited them directly. We identify someone we met in town and go talk to them about potentially working with us. One of the best parts of working for yourself is you get to choose who you work with.
When you’re recruiting new staff, how do you appeal to them so they want to work with you? What makes you stand out in terms of employment?
Aaron: We are a family business. Our staff is like family. That’s how I want the business to run. Jess and I have five kids. I have two from a previous marriage and we have three kids together. The insurance job is demanding. I know the importance of family and kids and we really try to support that with our staff so they can attend sporting events or other family things that they need to attend. We give a lot of flexibility and that’s important to us. Having the right work-life balance is a priority and people and their kids are a priority. You can still have that in America today, but in the corporate world, I think it’s getting less and less.
I’d love to hear about the dynamic of working with your spouse. What are the joys that come from that and what are the challenges?
Aaron: From my perspective, I think it’s wonderful. It’s been great. Our offices are big enough where we have different areas of responsibility. My partner is 100 percent bought into the company. Being able to spend almost every day with the woman I’m in love with is a great thing. When you have a small business and you have a job that you need to put a lot of hours into it’s nice that Jess understands why I might be working at 11 p.m. or on a Sunday afternoon. She gets it.
Jessica: I would say there was definitely a learning curve in the beginning with lots of bumps in the road. It was a transition to go from employee to the boss’s wife. Not just for the other employees, but for me, too. But, you can’t hire a more loyal employee or one who cares more than your spouse. It works well to have a trusted person to talk through all of the decisions you need to make.
It’s obvious that you’ve had some success over the course of your tenure with State Farm given the numbers of customers you serve. What do you attribute that to?
Aaron: The way things work in life, generally, is the more people you help, the better you’ll do in whatever the business is. The success is due to the talented people we have working in our office. That’s it. It’s the success we’ve had in State Farm and the industry. It’s driven by our dedicated and caring team. Everyone’s situation is different. We try to have good conversations with our customers. We share what we’re seeing as far as risks and exposures. None of us like to pay for insurance, but there are a lot of strategies we can do to keep the rates as affordable as possible while at the same time, making sure if something catastrophic happens, they don’t have to start over in life.
In addition to being business owners, I know that you both do some volunteering. I would love to hear what you enjoy being involved with outside of work.
Jessica: Yes, I’ve done lots of volunteering and am on a number of committees and boards. I enjoy getting involved with ones that are supporting children in Mankato. I also coach my daughter’s volleyball team. I like to be busy. I think that if you can volunteer, you should. Those are the types of things that make our community better. We all have a responsibility in the community to support it by volunteering or donating funds to projects if we can. I’m a member of the PTO at school, helped raise money for the new MY Place, and I’ve been the chair of the Educare Foundation helping raise funds for District 77. I’ve also worked with the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota to support all of the great things they do. I really believe that if you have the ability that you should give your time and energy to some organizations. For me, it’s anything involving kids.
Aaron: At least where I grew up, it was a larger suburb and didn’t really have a sense of community like Mankato has. At Morris, it was a chance for me to experience a smaller community and get a flavor for that. I was able to get a better understanding of what it means to grow up in a community. We have a great town here, and we can do things to help make our community a great place to live, raise kids and have a business. I’m very bought into the community and we absolutely have a good incentive to make sure Mankato does well.
I think it’s fantastic that you’re involved in so many different aspects of the community.
Aaron: When the previous Ward Five council member announced five years ago she wasn’t seeking re-election, we were sitting around and I looked at Jess. She’s involved in so many nonprofits in Mankato that, off the cuff, I said, “You know what? If you want to be impactful, why don’t you do this?” At the time she said, “Absolutely not,” but two weeks later, she said, “I was thinking about it, and I think I’m going to do it.” She’s a point person for so many of these organizations and it can take away time from other parts of life, but to be a good citizen, you have to be involved if you can. I suggested she quit doing everything else and just be on the city council. She did the city council piece but didn’t quit the other stuff.
Jessica, what made you decide that you wanted to try your hand at local government?
Jessica: After Aaron mentioned it to me, I was out with some friends and we were chatting about it and everyone said, “Oh, you’d be so great at it!” I got some other phone calls from people who heard it through the grapevine and everyone was so encouraging that I thought, “If I want to do it, I might as well do it now.” I’ve never been one to be on a board just to say I did it.
That’s amazing. How do you manage to do it all?
Jessica: I have Google calendar all color coordinated. It also helps that, after the pandemic, I moved my desk home. I can give myself more free time during the day to work on my committee meetings.
You must be enjoying being on the city council because now you’re in your second term.
Jessica: It’s great! Most of the time, if people have questions, it’s because they don’t understand the process. If someone is upset about something that happened in the community, it’s because they don’t understand the process that was made or that it wasn’t the city council’s decision to make, but another circumstance out of our control.
We have five kids ages six to 24. I think that being on city council has been one of the best lessons for them. Whether it’s going around and door knocking and understanding how local government works or they’re sad on Monday nights because I’m not home before they’re sleeping because I’m at a meeting. If something comes up when we’re in town, I can say “Mom helped do that,” or “Do you know of a kiddo that needs help? That’s why I’m gone tonight. I’m helping raise money for these facilities to help other kids.”
What’s the best advice you have for someone, whether it’s volunteering or looking to branch out into their own business.
Jessica: On the volunteer side, find whatever your passion is. There’s an organization out there that has that. Most places need help putting on an event or fundraising or doing mailers, and they could use your help. On the business side, it’s cliché, but don’t take your foot off the gas. Aaron will say, “We’ve grown and we’re in a great office, should we stop growing and not do more?” But, we keep growing and keep helping more people and it doesn’t end. Once you’re having success and doing well, just keep going.
Aaron: Don’t be afraid to work hard and take chances. If you fail, you can always start over, especially when you’re younger. Just don’t be afraid to try things. Nothing happens without a lot of hard work. For our business, it’s always about doing the right thing for the customer. It’s about doing what’s in their best interest and that’s led to a lot of our growth.
What’s next on the horizon for Hatanpa Insurance Agency?
Aaron: We’re going to keep trying to take care of as many people as we can and we’ll see what happens.
Jessica: Having kids at the age they are, there’s no end in sight. We’re not moving onto the next stage, the train’s going to keep on going.
The Essentials:
Hatanpa Insurance Agency Inc.
1613 N. Riverfront Drive
Mankato, MN 56007
Phone: (507) 345-3606
Web: aaronhatanpa.com
242 W. Hwy 60 #1
Lake Crystal, MN 56055
507-726-2264
217 Main St
Mapleton, MN 56065
507-524-4145