The Insurance Perspectives Podcast involves contributors outside of HawkSoft. The participants' views are entirely their own and may not reflect the views of HawkSoft.
This recap of the Insurance Perspectives Podcast gives highlights of the two episodes about HawkSoft Partner RPost. HawkSoft host Kenny interviews Jake Finnell of RPost and Brenda James of Mathews Insurance, who uses the RPost platform.
Jake and Brenda discuss how email and document security help tools can bring peace of mind and efficiency to agency operations.
In this article:
- Part 1: RPost (Jake Finnell)
- Part 2: Mathews Insurance (Brenda James)
Part 1: RPost (Jake Finnell)
Watch the video podcast - Part 1
Question 1: Why does RPost exist? What is your reason for participating in the independent agency channel?
- Jake Finnell explains that RPost began nearly 25 years ago with its flagship registered email service, offering legal proof of email delivery—like a registered letter for email.
- The company has evolved to meet the needs of the insurance industry, especially around HIPAA compliance and secure communication.
- RPost innovated beyond traditional store-and-forward encryption, creating a more elegant and secure email solution.
- Their goal is to give insurance professionals peace of mind by providing email security and proof of delivery.
“Our product was created to give insurance agents and brokers that peace of mind that what you send, you have proof that it was delivered. It's about filling a gap in electronic communication, but also innovating at the speed that the insurance market innovates.”
Question 2: If you had to pick one aspect of RPost that draws in and keeps agencies working with you, what would that be and why?
- Jake shares that RPost learned from the insurance industry that great customer service and strong CSR support are key to long-term success. They feel their service is a differentiator, with every customer assigned a dedicated account manager.
- RPost also prides itself on being highly reachable and responsive, unlike larger competitors that may lack personal support.
- Brenda James adds that she consistently works with the same support person at RPost, making troubleshooting smooth and efficient.
- Kenny agrees that everyone he’s worked with at RPost has been very responsive, helpful, and focused on solutions.
“What we saw in the independent insurance market was that there is a ton of competition, and customer success and great CSRs are what sets the leaders apart from the rest. I heard this time and time again, so we learned from this. Customer service remains one of the most important aspects of our business.”
Question 3: How does RPost approach data ownership with regard to your customers?
- Jake explains that unlike other vendors that use the store-forward method (where the email provider stores the message and recipient retrieves it via a link), RPost does not store the email data and believes strongly that agencies should own their data.
- This philosophy is reflected across RPost’s services, including RMail (registered email), RSign (e-signatures), and RDocs (document security).
- The sender receives registered receipts with proof of delivery, keeping control and documentation in the agency’s hands.
- Brenda confirms that data ownership is critical when selecting partners, especially when handling sensitive customer information.
“We've always felt it was critical that the agency owns the data, and RPost doesn't store anything. That was part of our value proposition from the very beginning. We were one of the first ones in the secure messaging space that were saying that.”
Question 4: What is the hardest part of working with insurance agencies?
- Jake notes that communication and attention span are the biggest challenges, especially in today’s fast-paced, digital world.
- Insurance professionals consume information in different ways—some prefer email, others phone calls or texts—so vendors must adapt to communicate through the right channels.
- RPost has found social media, podcasts, and live events are key engagement channels, but timing and relevance are crucial.
- Kenny agrees that vendors have to find the right moment to communicate with clients and prospects, when their interest and engagement is highest.
- Jake emphasizes the importance of delivering value and relevance to customers.
“It's sometimes difficult to find the most ideal way to get in front of a busy insurance professional with the ever-changing landscape of communication. The software vendor needs to communicate the right way at the speed, with the most relevant and useful content.”
Question 5: What is the best part of working with insurance agencies?
- Jake is impressed that insurance carriers and organizations are among the fastest adopters of new technology, even ahead of legal firms.
- He recounts how the insurance industry embraced e-signature years before the legal sector, showing a willingness to innovate.
- Brenda appreciates being part of an industry that leads in innovation and values organization, legal compliance, and customer service.
- Kenny discusses how RPost integrates with HawkSoft via Outlook and RPost’s plug-in, and explains that RPost can send log notes back to HawkSoft.
“It is refreshing to see how the insurance space adopts new tech and moves quickly. I was at conferences where law firms would say, we want to wait and see. We're not ready yet. And the next conference would be with insurance professional, and half of them would say, we're already doing it. I continue to be impressed by how insurance leads the way.”
Part 2: Mathews Insurance (Brenda James)
Watch the video podcast - Part 2
In this episode:
Question 1: Tell us about your agency. How long have you been in the business, and how did you get into the business? Do you have any specializations? What gets you excited about insurance?
- Brenda James joined Mathews Insurance in 2006 after running her own agency for 17 years.
- The agency has two offices in Ohio, where Brenda is heavily involved at First National Bank and Habitat for Humanity.
- The agency is approaching its 80th anniversary and operates with a unique partnership model to support succession .
- Mathews Insurance is a generalist agency with a 55/45 split between personal and commercial lines. They specialize in hospitality and nonprofits.
- Brenda loves the constant learning and challenges of insurance, as she gets to dig into different problems with different types of customers.
“The thing I love most is that there's always something to learn, always something new. You never know what's coming around the corner, as far as a new type of risk or exposure. The people that work here, we all share that love for the industry because it is always a challenge, always something new to learn.”
Question 2: What was your agency looking for when you first encountered RPost?
- Brenda was initially looking for a secure, easy-to-use e-signature solution that would be simple for both staff and clients. RPost’s RSign met those needs, and Brenda later adopted RMail for encrypted email communication.
- The email tracking and delivery confirmation features provide peace of mind for Brenda and help prevent data breaches.
- Jake shares that RPost is constantly talking to agencies to determine their evolving needs and add new features. He mentions a new Eavesdropping Alert feature that lets the sender know if the recipient’s emails are being opened or tracked by other parties.
- Brenda confirms she uses this feature and she has it set to alert her if emails are opened from outside the country, which can be an indicator of suspicious activity.
“The knowledge that we gain from working with RPost on ways to prevent or monitor suspicious activity is really invaluable to us. We protect people however we can, and insurance is a part of that, but providing secure communications is part of it too.”
Question 3: What is your agency able to do now with RPost that you couldn't do before?
- Brenda highlights the ability to set expiration dates and parameters for e-signature requests, giving agency owners more control.
- Because Mathews Insurance had adopted RPost’s tools early on, when the pandemic hit they were already prepared to work efficiently on a remote basis.
- The agency uses eavesdropping alerts to detect suspicious email activity, such as messages opened in unexpected locations.
- Brenda shared that these features have made her agency more secure, efficient, and resilient.
“As agency owners, we can control a lot of things that happen within the agency with email and things that go out for electronic signatures. We can say once it's sent out for signature, it expires within seven days, or we can let the user set how many days the person has to sign.”
Question 4: What is one thing that you would change about RPost if you could?
- Brenda would love to receive more education about security in non-written formats, such as videos, podcasts, or webinars, which she finds easier to consume while multi-tasking.
- Brenda expresses interest in deeper integration between RSign and HawkSoft to streamline workflows and documentation.
- Jake agrees that integration and automation are key areas of future development for RPost and its partners.
“We probably spend more of our time documenting than we do doing, which is frustrating sometimes. Anything that makes the documentation easier is always helpful to us and helpful to our customers”
Question 5: How would you describe the value that RPost brings to your agency?
- Brenda says RPost provides peace of mind through secure communication, tracking, and data protection.
- RPost's tools help her agency document interactions, prevent breaches, and maintain compliance with ease.
- Brenda values the education and awareness RPost brings to her team, helping them think more critically about security.
- The partnership with RPost has made Mathews Insurance more confident and capable in handling sensitive information.
“RPost provides an extra level of security and tracking and things that our regular spam filters don’t always pick up. When we send an email, we know where it’s been and where it’s going and when it gets there.”
Level up your email and document security with RPost
RPost offers feature-rich, elegantly easy tracking and security solutions for email, documents, forms, and signatures.
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