Bob's Books
Our founder wrote three books and one of them became a textbook the insurance industry studies. Here is why that matters to you.
The Agent Who Wrote the Textbook
Bob Hopper, Ph.D. founded Hopper Insurance Services in 1996. He is an author, a speaker, and an educator as well as a broker, and he is the author of three books.
One of them, published by AD Banker, became a continuing education textbook for the insurance industry. That is a specific and unusual credential. It means that when licensed agents around the country had to learn a difficult corner of health coverage in order to keep their licenses, the material they studied was written here in Santa Barbara.
Almost anyone can call themselves an insurance expert. Very few have been asked by the industry to teach it.
The Three Books
One written for insurance agents, one written for business owners, and one that has nothing to do with insurance at all.
The HSA Strategy: The Future of Health Insurance in America
Continuing education textbook, published by AD Banker
The continuing education textbook for the insurance industry. Continuing education is not optional reading; it is the coursework licensed agents complete to stay licensed. A book earns that role only after the people who train agents decide it explains the subject better than what they were using before.
Health Care Happily Ever After: A Friendly Little Tale of the Health Savings Account and How it Won the Heart of a Nation
An easy to read novel for business owners and HR professionals
The same subject as the textbook, told as a story rather than as coursework, for the business owners and human resources professionals who have to make the decision instead of teach it. Writing the same material two ways, one for the specialists and one for everyone else, is the habit that shows up in every conversation in our office.
Stick With Exercise For A Lifetime: How to Enjoy Every Minute of It!
For anyone who wants to keep moving
Before the insurance business, Bob was a professor of exercise physiology and a collegiate coach. This book comes from that career, and it is about the habit rather than the workout: how to keep exercising for decades and enjoy it while you do.
Trusted by the Industry to Teach It
Writing the book was one part of it. The professional associations that set the standard for agents in California also asked Bob to lead, to teach, and to speak. Those are roles your peers hand you, and they are the closest thing this business has to a review from the people who would know.
Teaching and leadership
A working agent who also teaches has to be able to answer the hard follow up question in front of a room, not just recite a brochure. That is a different standard, and it is the one Bob has worked to for decades.
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Statewide instructor for the California CPA Educational Foundation, presenting "The HSA Workshop" to certified public accountants across California.
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Past president of the Santa Barbara chapter of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.
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Former board member and Community Education Chair of the Santa Barbara chapter of the National Association of Health Underwriters.
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A working broker the whole time, running this agency and serving Central Coast clients since 1996.
Writing Beyond the Books
The books are the long form. The shorter writing went to two very different audiences: his own neighbors, and his own profession.
The Santa Barbara News Press
A frequent contributor on healthcare reform. When the rules changed and people locally wanted to know what it meant for their own coverage, Bob wrote for the local paper rather than for a trade audience.
The National Association of Health Underwriters
Publisher of his article "The Case for HSAs: Why nearly everyone can benefit from owning a Health Savings Account." The national association for health insurance professionals put his argument in front of its own members.
What a Published Agent Changes
A shelf of books is only worth something to you if it shows up in the conversation. Here is where it does.
Plain answers, not brochure language
Someone who has had to explain a subject to accountants, to agents, and to a general reader has already found the words that work. You should leave our office able to explain your own plan to your spouse.
Work that gets checked
Published work goes through editors, reviewers, and readers who will write back when it is wrong. That is a useful habit to bring to a client file, where the fine print is the whole point.
A view of the whole system
Studying how coverage is designed and paid for, rather than only how one product is sold, is what makes an agent able to tell you when the popular answer is the wrong answer for your situation.
A standard the office is held to
This is a small local agency on State Street, not a call center. The founder's name is on the books and on the door, and every client conversation is answered to that standard.
A note on the subject matter: the books were written when health savings accounts were the new idea in health coverage. The work our agency does today is centered on Medicare and on individual and family coverage. We share the books here as a record of the founder's credentials, not as advice. If you want to know what the right coverage is for you now, the answer comes from a conversation about your doctors, your medications, and your budget.
Talk to the People Who Wrote It Down
You do not have to read a word of it. You just get the benefit of an office that has spent thirty years learning this well enough to teach it.