Meet Brandy and Leo Nunes of Nunes Partners in Colorado Springs

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandy and Leo Nunes.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Brandy and Leo. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Our story starts with a personal learning experience from what we call the “major medical myth.” Like most people, we went to work each day, we paid our bills on time and we lived a normal life. We had major medical insurance and believed we were “all good”… then we had to use it.

In the fall of 2016, Leo (my husband) came down with a random illness where he was admitted to the ER and placed in quarantine for five days. The doctor that treated him was out-of-network in our in-network hospital and our medical insurance left us with over $10,000 in out of pocket costs.

At the time, we had no idea what supplemental insurance did. The employer we worked for offered it but never educated us on what it was. It was the same thing each year. Open enrollment was held and after “nothing’s changing but premiums are going up,” we would sign away another few hundred a months for medical coverage then leave the room before ever hearing the other insurance options available. We thought we were protected. We even upgraded our HMO to a PPO for better coverage and lower deductibles. We learned the hard way. Always in hindsight, right? We are still paying off that debt today.

When we relocated to Colorado Springs in 2017 and started looking for job opportunities, Leo interviewed with Aflac. Insurance was never something either of us thought about for a career choice. We had both managed restaurants for several years then transitioned to advertising. However, we were ready for a change. The corporate grind wasn’t fulfilling. We knew we had a bigger purpose. After learning more about what Aflac does, we realized how it would have helped us if we had just been educated. We knew we had to share with others how to keep a medical crisis from becoming a financial crisis. Our calling was clear.

Fast forward two years. We recently launched our insurance agency, Nunes Partners, with a solid foundation through Aflac. We are building on that foundation with additional carriers and coverage options to better serve our customer base of small business owners and individuals.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being an insurance entrepreneur is no easy task. Overall, things have gone really well for us. In general, the insurance industry is difficult. We are easily dismissed as salespeople and not everyone finds value in what we do. We get it. We don’t like weird salespeople. We never saw the value in what we do either, until after we needed it. We get it. Plus, you even say the word insurance and people think you’re talking about hundreds of dollars for coverage when in reality, most of our policies are $30-50 a month. The hardest part is just getting people to hear us out and that just comes with the territory.

Launching our agency has been tough. Just knowing who to talk to, what services to use, how it all needs to work. Thankfully we have learned we can’t do it alone and have some made amazing connections through our circles to help guild us along the way. It’s important to find people to support your business as it grows.

Please tell us about Nunes Partners.
Nunes Partners is a family-owned agency specializing in supplemental insurance and small business employee benefits solutions. We protect the households and income of those with and without insurance, so they are in financial power when life happens. We help protect what matters the most – you, your family and your paycheck.

We provide alternative solutions for individual coverage and employee benefit packages tailored to fit within your budget. Our purpose is to educate and guide you to the best solution for your needs, whether that be with us or a referral partner. We offer a variety of options for injury, illness, income loss (including maternity), dental, vision and life insurance.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Leo lived in Alaska for several years during his youth and spent lots of time camping and fishing with his family. My family also camped and fished during the summer months although there’s a huge difference between Texas and Alaska summer camping! My family came to Colorado when I was 6 or 7 years old and we camped at Rocky Mountain National Park. I remember visiting the top of Pikes Peak in June, there was still snow on the ground and we were in shorts and sandals.

Contact Info:

• Address: 2960 N. Academy Blvd. Suite 101
  Colorado Springs, Colorado 80917
• Website: https://nunespartners.com/
• Phone: (719) 964-6690
• Email: brandy@nunespartners.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thataflaccouple/
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandynunes/

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