Meeting Information

Bobby Shomo is President of Shomo-Madsen Insurance which is headquartered in central Iowa. Shomo-Madsen Insurance is a Best Practices Agency recipient for six years running and represents approximately 16 Insurance Companies with an agency mix of roughly 45% Personal Lines, 25% Commercial Lines, 20% Municipalities and 10% Life and Health. The agency has five locations and 25 employees with their main office in Marshalltown, Iowa. They continue to pursue growth through both acquisition and organic growth and are scheduled to close their next agency purchase on October 30th, 2020. Bobby is involved in the agency on a full-time basis as a managing partner, a producer specializing in schools and municipalities and the Human Resources manager. Prior to purchasing his first agency, Bobby spent six years on the company side primarily in casualty claims with rotations in underwriting and loss control. His MBA was earned with concentrations in Finance and Accounting and he received his CIC designation in 2012.

Bobby has a passion for education as both a teacher and a student. His background brings a perspective from both the company and agency sides. In addition, his agency experience has developed from a relatively small, single owner shop with three employees and a handful of contracts to his current structure with a 50/50 partner, multiple locations and staff of twenty-five. Additionally, Shomo-Madsen Insurance has had to deal with three catastrophic weather-related events in 25 months. An EF-3 tornado in July of 2018 that hit main street; a major hail storm in May of 2019 and a Derecho (106 mph straight-line winds) in August of 2020. Bobby is currently working toward his CRM designation.

Cathy Trischan has been with the E&K Agency in Eatontown, New Jersey since 1996, currently serving as Director of Commercial Underwriting. She began her insurance career upon graduation from Rutgers University in 1987. She has worked as a claims adjuster for a major property and casualty carrier as well as in the commercial departments of several large, New Jersey agencies.

In addition to her work with E&K, Cathy provides education and consulting services to other agents, brokers and insurance companies. Sheis a National Faculty member of The National Alliance, and a regular speaker for the Professional Insurance Agents (PIA). She has taughtboth pre-licensing and continuing education courses for PIA, Brookdale Community College and other institutions. She has written courses and articles on various insurance topics and has served as an expert witness.

Cathy holds several professional designations including CPCU, CIC and CRM. She received an Award for Academic Excellence from the Insurance Institute of America and is a participant in the CPCU Society's Continuing Professional Development program.