Since I first moved to Washington in the early 70's, I've had an insurance agent who was totally fabulous - Greg Lyons from State Farm.

He was a referral from one of Ralph Nader's car guys.  When I heard that he gave a lot of money to The Center for Auto Safety, he became my insurance guy for life.  I referred a ton of clients to him, and he gave me and all of them totally amazing service.  

When I went into real estate, I tried to model a lot of what I do in my own practice on Greg's insurance business.  And now, it looks a lot like his and is mostly repeat and referral clients. 

Then last week, I got a thing in the mail.  This lovely man who saw me through all of my car stuff and all of my burst pipes and bathroom renovations, was retiring.  And his clients were being "assigned" to other State Farm agents on the basis of zip code!  Zip code????

First of all, Greg, you're too young to retire!  You're not 70 yet!  Second, how could you just let them "reassign" me by zip code?  Finally, you just need to know that after decades of providing unbelievably great service, I feel abandoned! 

All of this got me to thinking that one of these days, I'll hang up my key ring.  I really don't know any agents who've actually retired, and some of them are really, really old.  But when I do, I'm going to do it differently - it's one aspect of Greg's business plan I will alter.

It still seems like it'll be a couple of decades away.  Right now, I've no idea what it will look like.  It'll involve lots of phone calls and a huge party.