MULTILINE
‘Everybody Knows Him:’ Keeping P/C, Life Sales Balance Balancing the workload between P/C and life sales might not be as impossible as you think. By John Hilton
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any agency owners end up choosing between the more volatile and potentially lucrative life and annuity business or the stable and renewal-heavy property/ casualty side. But Doug Wheeler is not your typical insurance man. And First Community Insurance and Annuity Center is not a typical insurance agency. Wheeler wants it all, building a multifaceted, multiline agency that matches his outsized personality and relentless energy. That drive and work ethic built First Community into a thriving agency with dual lines of insurance that complement one another nicely. “During these times of COVID-19 and times when my wife had an illness or I needed to be with my family, the great
Wheeler credits his success to a willingness to be involved in the community as much as possible. Here, he gets ready to take to the airwaves on WYUR in Illinois.
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Wheeler is joined onstage by Tina Turner impersonator Dorothy Roberson, who entertained at the 2018 Bourbonnais Friendship Festival.
part of having the property and casualty company is the renewal business,” Wheeler explained. “The great part of the life and annuity business was that I could earn higher commissions to fund the advertising to grow my P/C business. “I don’t know if I could have one without the other.” From the day the doors opened in 1990, Wheeler pushed to grow First Community as a true community insurance agency in Bourbonnais, Ill. The agency is well known for its local event sponsorships, outreach and charitable activities. Wheeler is a social media showman, sharing photos of everything from singer-celebrities to his horses. It’s a winning strategy that has helped both sides of the business thrive. “People see me as kind of the neighborhood blue jeans guy who’s just the same as them,” Wheeler said. “I’m not living some gray pinstripe lifestyle to impress people. I’m just hanging out with the folks.”
InsuranceNewsNet Magazine » January 2022
Humble Beginnings
Wheeler grew up living a small-town life and went to work alongside family members in a Western Auto store as soon as he was old enough. “I got in the insurance and financial services business when I was 19,” Wheeler recalled. “I worked for a company called Pioneer Life of Illinois, selling Medicare supplements door to door. And that got old really fast.” But Wheeler was learning the business and meeting people, and he was ambitious. After a three-year stint at MetLife, he was recruited by Mutual of Omaha and quickly became district sales manager there. “At age 27, I walked out of corporate life with a bonus I received from them and formed what is now First Community Insurance and Annuity Center,” Wheeler said. “I started literally with a folding table and a folding chair.” As a young entrepreneur, Wheeler was eager to try new things and learn from his
