Our Roots
Imagine if we decided travel by horse was good enough, or that it was suitable to just compute our math problems with an abacus. Imagine if we still had to stop on the way to a client appointment at the local gas station for a map and a payphone. Now ask yourself, how dependent am I on my car, my cell phone, and my computer? Brokers Alliance® decided a long time ago that status quo wasn't good enough. Complacency wasn't good enough. Doing things “the way they have always been done” wasn’t good enough. We are inventors, innovators, and thinkers for an industry that has historically settled for "good enough”.
The foundation of our story isn’t about how long we’ve been in brokerage, or how long we have serviced Financial Advisors that have a business built around Life Insurance, Annuity, Long Term Care, Disability Insurance, or Asset Management. To us, good service and industry experience should be as involuntary as breathing. The foundation of our story is about our continued approach to challenge the status quo so we can invent, create, and think about ways to improve the industry for our Financial Advisors and their clients.
Our CEO, David Racich
Typically when you think about the “BIO” of a CEO, you would expect to see where they went to school, their early accomplishments, and of course their recent victories for the company. For David Racich, we could spend all kinds of time talking about this stuff … how he graduated with a business and engineering degree only after starting his 3rd successful company. We can talk about his incredible reputation, serial entrepreneurship, and philanthropic approach to the community. Yet, that’s not what makes a good CEO in our opinion. While these accomplishments are important, they don’t make us want to work for him. What makes us wake up and come to work every day is that fact that we know he truly cares about the success of every individual that makes up our family of companies. Each morning David awakes, greets his amazing family, and then immediately starts thinking about what we can do as a company to better the lives of everyone involved. You see, accolades are nice, but knowing someone is looking out for you carries true weight. David Racich is a CEO whose BIO is about what he created around him for others, not himself. A leader we can count on.
A True Marketing Company from Inception!
Our Founder, Joseph Racich
What is a 6’6” tall, Elementary School teacher in Illinois doing selling Life Insurance at night and on the weekends? For Joe Racich, it was about taking care of his growing family beyond what his teacher’s salary allowed for. What he didn’t realize, like most of us, is that the Life Insurance industry would become his new career and playground for invention. Soon after discovering his talent for sales and marketing insurance, Joe discovered that the path to real success required him to look at things differently. And so begins the story of true industry innovation!
To tell the story of Joe’s innovation would take forever, and frankly, we don’t have enough space on this page. What we can do, however, is tell the story of the first of many game changing ideas he has had for our industry.
The Story that defines our approach to Innovation
Soon after getting his Agency established, Joe started a newspaper called The Illinois Broker. At the time, the typical General Agent spent time sending out mailers and recruiting local insurance agents. Joe, however, saw a different path. He started Illinois Broker as a way of bringing legitimate news to the insurance community while also providing a means of low-cost or free advertising to his brokerage company. Competitors of Brokers Alliance® actually paid to advertise in the publication to reach the 50,000 plus agents/brokers in the state.
In a short few years, the publication was thriving as the largest and most widely read in the state for insurance professionals. Joe refused to stop there. He soon expanded it along with his brokerage company to Arizona, and then Nevada. The success was so good that counterparts in other states approached Joe about how they might do the same in their states. In a stroke of new genius, Joe developed a licensing system whereby other brokerage companies could finance their own version of Illinois Broker in their home state, while Joe's team managed the production, articles, and advertising. At this time the name was changed to Broker News, and then regionally branded by the licensees of the Broker News name. Within 10 years, Broker News was being circulated to more than 600,000 agents in 20 regions/states.
Changing the face of the industry is Joe’s passion and our family of employees, clients, and colleagues will forever benefit from his visionary style!