Dallas Ross 

Account Manager, Personal Insurance  
PayneWest Insurance 
Beaverton, OR 

Age: 27 

Recently binged TV show: All American; Tiger King 

In your earbuds: Amazon Music’s Work-from-Home Playlist  

Most used app: Instagram 

WHY INSURANCE? 

My dad has been in insurance for my whole life. I kind of grew up in the industry—going to conventions and work functions with him. I decided that was where I was going to start a career. I started right out of college in personal lines. I just really enjoy making relationships, solving our clients’ problems and helping them come up with solutions for their issue and concerns. 

ROLE MODEL? 

I’ve watched the way my dad leads and being able to see the impact he has made on others has been inspiring and fun to watch as his daughter. That kind of set the tone for me how I work day-to-day. He gave me the confidence that I’m totally capable to do my job, do it well and be the best at what I’m doing. 

MILLENNIAL STEREOTYPES? 

Millennials have a reputation of jumping around jobs and not really having a focus on what they want to do long term. I am very different from that. I knew in college that I wanted to go into insurance and I’ve been doing that for the last seven years, all at the same agency.  

INDUSTRY CHALLENGES? 

Insurance is not seen as a sexy option compared to other industries or, here in Oregon, working at a place like Nike. Insurance doesn’t really have that reputation. I think it’s really about trying to educate young people about the reality of an insurance career and how it looks long term. In a time like right now, it’s a very stable career and it’s nice to not have to worry about that. 

FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY? 

The perception of the industry is very dated. A way that insurance can entice more young people is to get more technologically savvy, from outdated agency management systems to the carrier websites. Even in the last few years, we have made big strides but it’s still nothing like other business websites that are super user-friendly. Getting up to date with how fast technology changes will be a huge benefit to the industry. 

Will Jones is IA managing editor.

This interview is the first in a series that profiles 10 millennials in the independent insurance industry, based on Independent Agent magazine’s July cover story.