PIA Montana Awards the Annual Agent and Company Person of the Year

The 2022 PIA of Montana agent of the year is Julie Zipperian of Centennial Insurance in Townsend, Montana.

The Agent of the Year Award is the PIA’s way of saying thank you and recognizing that special individual whose accomplishments exemplify the best qualities an independent insurance agent can possess: integrity, dedication and commitment to the members and goals of the PIA. As an organization, we offer no greater recognition than the PIA Agent of the Year. 

Julie fits the criteria perfectly and started by telling us she’s deeply involved in her community. But not in ways we consider common. Her community involvement is in her office. Julie told us that her office is in the middle of town so people will walk into the office, grab a piece of candy, say hello and leave.

Or they walk by, wave, or they stop, knock on the window, wave, and walk on by.

While Julie runs an insurance agency, her clients regularly bring her their cell phones. What? Cell phones? At an insurance agency? It appears that some people find they aren’t smart enough to set up their smartphones so Julie does it for them. She also does training on how to send and receive texts and shows them how to do other things they can’t figure out how to do.

That leads you to wonder if she’s an insurance agent running an agency or a technology repair shop.

When it comes to insurance, and like many of you, Julie told Weekly Industry News that she learns something different from every policy she writes. And while she writes both commercial and personal lines policies she prefers personal lines.

“My business is my family. All my clients are my family. I know as much about them as my own family. Most of the clients I have I’ve had my whole career,” she said about her love for personal lines and said, best of all, “I’m Always getting new family members.”

Malissa Langford of Main Street America is the 2022 PIA Montana Company Person of the Year.

Each year PIA members benefit from the contributions of time, money and expertise that come from our insurance company partners. In recognition of those contributions, the PIA honors one individual whose active involvement with PIA helps drive their company to support our efforts with our members.

One of the people we talked with about Malissa said, “I hear nothing but good things from everyone who knows her which is probably why she’s getting this award.”

Malissa is a Montana native and started her insurance career in 1999. Since then she has been on a quest to learn as much about the business as possible.

That knowledge — in turn — is shared with others.

In her various positions in the industry, Malissa has often been in the position to use her exceptional knowledge of the business to help others overcome their own challenges. Like most people who get this award, she is a one of a kind person that has never met a challenge that couldn’t be overcome.

People on the carrier side of the business love working with her. Agents think she walks on water.

At that point a new co-worker started listing glowing adjectives: caring, compassionate, loving, responsive, organized, detail oriented, positive, upbeat.…and the list goes on.

The PIA Montana members have benefitted from her involvement on the Montana board. Her participation and knowledge has help grow and improve the association.