Nadine Corman, Account Executive for Western Financial Group, retired after 34 years and eight months in December 2019. “I enjoyed my job. I enjoyed the people I worked with and my customers.” She smiled. “But it’s nice to have freedom.”
Corman was born and raised in Assiniboia. Corman lives with her husband on a farm along Highway 717 about 16 kilometres east of town in the Lake of the Rivers area. After graduating from the Assiniboia Composite High School, Corman spent a year and a half in university. She decided the University of Saskatchewan wasn’t right for her. “I was in Saskatoon for a few years, but ended up back here when I was 22.” She left her education degree and work behind in Saskatoon. Corman returned to Assiniboia in the early 1980s to enter the insurance world in the south central hometown.
The company Corman worked with since 1984 relocated to 104 Fourth Street West then became a branch of the Western Financial Group. The legacy of the WFG branch in Assiniboian represented the town’s business heritage since the times when Irvin Bender purchased the Fred Jones Agency on 311 Centre Street in November, 1981. Soon after, Bender bought the Porter Insurance Agency in April, 1982. Bender moved the agency to old Bank of Montreal building on 329 Centre Street.
Corman joined what later became Assiniboia Agencies in 1984, where her friend Cathy Willis worked. “I ended up doing what I really wanted to do,” Corman summarized, explaining why she abandoned an education degree for an insurance career. Corman’s strengths are her people skills, but she wanted to exercise her interactive abilities through insurance rather than teaching. “Dealing with people is interesting,” Corman said, describing why she wanted to help people solve their insurance requirements. “I find a joy in being a problem solver and a trouble shooter.”
Plus, Corman appreciated the independence an insurance career offered in comparison to teaching. “I could work at my own pace and in my own way,” she said, listing two additional draws an insurance office had over a classroom.
Corman discussed a variety of challenges she faced in insurance, such as dealing with more storm-related clients because of climate change. Also, Corman said insurance is becoming less attractive since the value of items such as vehicles kept increasing. She mentioned the costs of disasters such as the 2016 wildfire at Fort McMurray, saying this event affected regional claims in the latter 2010s. “It’s a hard job to sell insurance when people don’t have a lot of money,” Corman responded, when asked about the mounting expenses insurance purchasers are encountering in today’s market.
