The Future of Insurance – Joshua Morey, President, The J. Morey Company & Chair, Ori-gen Insurance

Joshua Morey is the Chairperson of Ori-gen and President of The J Morey Company Inc. Ori-gen amplifies the voice of diverse communities throughout America by providing resources, services, and perpetuation planning for indepedent agents and brokers from diverse backgrounds. With offices in Hawaii, Los Angeles, Orange County, Torrance, and San Jose, California, Ori-gen represents a wide variety of personal, business, and specialty insurance from 40+ national and international carriers. He is a founding Board Member of the Asian American Insurance Network and Asian's in Insurance Podcast, and advisory council member of the Equity in Infrastructure Project. In addition Mr. Morey serves on the Board of Director’s for the US Japan Council (Executive Committee), Japanese American National Museum, Little Tokyo Community Council, and was featured on the cover of Rough Notes, and IIABA’s national magazine. He is co-founder of KODO Insurance Services (Insurtech) and Chairman of the Board of Arrowood Insurance Services. He has a B.A. in Business Economics, from Wheaton College and a M.A. in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary. In his free time he loves playing baseball and spending time with his wife and three kids.

Highlights from the Show

• Josh is a fourth generation Japanese American, with his great grandfather having immigrated in the late 1800s, and setting up an import-export business in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles
• The family lost everything when Japanese Americans were sent to incarceration camps during WWII
• Finding insurance the Japanese American community was next to impossible, so they started their own, and Josh's family started an agency, The J Morey Company, to serve the community, which he runs today
• Josh's story in taking over is similar to a lot of multi-generational insurance agencies, where the next generation may not be interested in taking over, can't afford to buy the business, or the business is no longer viable, which threatens the legacy of so many family businesses
  • Rather than selling to another agency, Josh worked with a consultant to find a path to keep the business in the family despite not having the financing in place to buy the business
  • That's what sparked the founding of Ori-gen, as a platform to continue the legacy of these companies
  • It's not just about keeping the agencies going, but to support the communities that rely on these agencies in the way his ancestors and their communities needed each other after WWII
• Josh has also tried to drive more minority involvement in the insurance industry overall, which stems from his sense that this is the best industry and best country in the world
  • That includes engaging the Asian and Pacific Islander community through AAIN (Asian American Insurance Network, where he's a board member), as well as partnering with other groups, like joining NAAIA and Ngozi Nnajiand her Black Friday efforts
  • Josh advocates for DEI efforts because, without them, the industry will miss out on great talent and different approaches that only come from diversity within that talent

This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk.

Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes.

Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.