Florida Heritage Insurance Takes The Confusion Out Of Insurance

By CELESTE McLAUGHLIN Neighborhood News correspondent

In the mid-nineties, Linda Nelson was working as a service manager at a Tampa car dealership.

She remembers it was August 21 — her best friend’s birthday — when they went out together to celebrate.

A drunk driver ran a red light, killing her friend.

That driver didn’t have insurance, so the medical bills from Linda’s injuries began piling up. Three years of litigation resulted in a payout from her friend’s insurance company that covered just a fraction of her bills.

“Consequently,” Linda says, “I became fascinated with insurance.”

Several years later, in 2004, Linda decided to make a career change and get her insurance license. She completed extensive training through the Allstate exclusive agent training program, but the company pulled out of Florida after that historic year of hurricanes, when Charley and three other hurricanes made landfall in the state.

That’s when Linda went to MetLife, where she worked as an agent for more than five years.

In 2009, Linda opened Florida Heritage Insurance in a small office off of Collier Pkwy. and Livingston Ave., although it was called First Heritage Insurance at that time. As her business grew, she needed a larger space, and moved to Seven Oaks in 2015.

Now, Florida Heritage Insurance has moved into a permanent location — purchased by Linda and her husband Paul — on Argerian Dr. in the Canterbury Professional Park, which is located north of S.R. 54, across from Saddlebrook Resort. That move happened this past summer, after many long months of construction and Covid-related delays.

A Consultative Approach

Florida Heritage Insurance’s growing business includes three licensed insurance agents in addition to Linda. Whenever you call, email or come in for an appointment at the agency, everyone you speak with is a licensed agent.

Linda’s team includes Veronica Galante, Deedee Pisoni and Shelly Sims. Due to another agent’s recent retirement, Linda says she is looking to add one more licensed agent to the team.

The team helps people buy insurance for their home, automobile and business, as well as umbrella and personal liability policies, workers compensation insurance, general liability, professional liability, flood insurance, renters insurance and more. The agents can even help those who are on Medicare or aging into the program to select a plan. However, the office doesn’t currently focus on individual health insurance plans.

Linda says the way Florida Heritage Insurance helps its customers is completely different than what you’ll get if you call a 1-800 number to talk with someone at a big company.

“There’s a difference between a transaction and having a consultative approach to helping you buy insurance,” she explains, “If you call ‘1-800-buy-insurance,’ you get a person whose job it is to sell you a policy right then and there. They don’t know you, they aren’t going to get to know you, and if you have a problem and call back, you won’t get to talk with the same person.”

She says the transaction is typically to get you the lowest cost, no matter what — maybe by convincing you not to buy uninsured motorist coverage or to lower your limits or raise your deductible.

“That’s fine for the pocketbook,” she says, “until you actually have to use it. The time to find out what is and is not covered is not when you’re in the middle of a claim.”

Linda and her team take the time to ask a lot of questions and give people a variety of options for coverage, ranging from good to better to best. And, she says she can often find you as good or better coverage at a comparable price to the big-name companies.

“It’s one thing to make a decision to not buy coverage,” she explains. “It’s another thing to not know you don’t have it.”

While everyone has a budget, the goal at Florida Heritage Insurance is to be sure you understand what you’re buying and, if you need a lower cost, they help you find the best ways to do that. Some people may choose not to pay for insurance to replace the contents of their home, or maybe they don’t need comprehensive and collision insurance for an old car, for example.

“We’re here to help and to give you solutions to your insurance problems,” she says. “What you buy is completely up to you. The point is to understand really, truly what you’re buying.”

Giving Back

One hallmark of Florida Heritage Insurance is its commitment to giving back to the community. Linda and Paul are long-time Tampa residents who moved to Wesley Chapel in 2001. They are part of the community and pleased to help their neighbors as much as possible.

The company supports Metropolitan Ministries, Feeding Tampa Bay, Shriners Hospital, the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, Oasis Pregnancy Center, Cornerstone Campus Ministry, and just recently added Project Dynamo to its list of charities. Project Dynamo is headquartered locally and run by retired special forces personnel who rescue people out of Ukraine, Afghanistan, and other dangerous locations. Linda says the organization also sent some of the first people using boats to rescue people out of Charlotte County after Hurricane Ian hit a few months ago.

Linda also volunteers at First Baptist Church of Wesley Chapel, singing and teaching children.

“We’re a local agency,” Linda says. “We’re your neighbors here in Wesley Chapel and New Tampa, so we support charities that help people in our community.”

Florida Heritage Insurance is located at 5841 Argerian Dr., Suite 101. For more information, visit flhins.com, call (813) 803-7767, or see the ad on page 25. The office is open Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. To meet with an agent in person, Linda says to please make an appointment by calling the office or using the contact page on the website.