Rich Bales - Independent Insurance Agent

Rich Bales - Independent Insurance Agent Helping business owners and homeowners make confident insurance decisions—by understanding risk before buying coverage.
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Rich Bales helps business owners and homeowners protect what they’ve built through a modern, process-driven approach to insurance. Insurance should not be rushed, reactive, or reduced to price alone. Too often, people don’t find out their coverage is wrong until a claim exposes the gaps. Rich works differently—starting with clarity, not quotes. For business owners and clients with layered exposure

s, Rich uses a structured risk review process to uncover hidden gaps, stress-test existing coverage, and ensure insurance actually aligns with how a business or household operates in the real world. For others, the right solution is simplicity, efficiency, and reliable protection—without unnecessary complexity. Regardless of size or scope, the goal is the same: clear understanding, intentional coverage decisions, and long-term confidence in the protection in place. Based in Iowa and serving clients across the Midwest, Rich works with individuals, families, and business owners who value clarity over convenience and strategy over transactions.

08/26/2026

I don't know how to teach my kids to work for something they don't actually need.

That one's been rattling around for a while.

We do make the girls earn things. Helping around the house, sticking with something long enough to actually get good at it. Not because we need the help. Because I want them to feel the gap between wanting something and having it.

But there's no real stakes to any of it. Nothing they want is something they need at this stage in the game.

So the line lives somewhere in the middle, and my wife and I waffle on that. Some days I think we're too soft. Other days I think I'm making a five year old fold laundry to solve a problem she doesn't have haha.

Honestly no idea if I'm getting it right.

If your kids grew up comfortable and turned out hard working anyway, what did you actually do?

July starts in the “big kid room” today.Last night she told us she was excited and nervous at the same time. We laid the...
08/24/2026

July starts in the “big kid room” today.

Last night she told us she was excited and nervous at the same time. We laid there and talked about how you can feel two things at once, and how nervous doesn’t cancel out excited. It usually just means the thing matters.

I see so much of myself and my wife in her. I feel both of those every single day.

The difference is she says it out loud at five.

Crazy how fast it’s gone. Bittersweet.

I’m so proud of who she is. Most of that is her, and the rest belongs to Jaclyn and the home she’s grown up in.

Have a great first day, July. ❤️

08/18/2026

The most useful twenty minutes of my week happen at a kitchen table with everybody's phone in another room.

We eat dinner together nearly every night. Nearly. Some weeks fall apart and we don't get all of them.

It is not a Norman Rockwell situation. Half the time it's a two year old redistributing her dinner onto the floor while a five year old tells a story about school that has no ending in sight.

But it's the only stretch of the day where I actually find out how everybody is doing instead of assuming.

I don't take it for granted.

What's the one thing your family does that you'd fight to keep if somebody tried to take it off the calendar?

07/28/2026

Nobody warns you that when your girls are little, they mostly want their mom.

That's the part a lot of dads quietly struggle with. You do the bedtime books, you're down on the floor in whatever world they've built that day, and she still reaches past you for Mom.

So you just keep showing up.

Dinner at the table nearly every night, no phones, all four of us. Books before bed, both girls, every single night.

Somewhere in the last year it flipped.

Now the five year old and the two year old are both saying things to Jaclyn like daddy is my best friend, I love daddy so much. I don't think anything else in my life is going to top that.

If you're a dad in the stage where you're clearly the backup option, don't read anything into it. Just keep showing up. Its worth it, everytime.

07/23/2026

Somewhere along the way I figured out I was becoming unemployable.

Not in a bad way. I just knew I needed to be the one calling the shots.

I wanted to be the thermostat in a company, the guy who sets the temperature, instead of a thermometer that just reacts to whatever the room is already doing.

That was one of the reasons Jaclyn and I moved back to Iowa.

The travel was another. I was on the road constantly, and I could see the whole runway of that career laid out in front of me. Nowhere on it was the version of me who gets to be super dad.

The grandparents mattered too. It genuinely does take a village to raise kids, and ours wasn't close.

Six months from that conversation to living in Des Moines.

Anybody else ever hit their unemployable moment? What was yours?

07/22/2026

I own the company, and I still can't tell my five-year-old the workday isn't over.

When you own the thing, the thing is never off.

I spent years in a career where I was always reachable and never really present. My body would be at the dinner table and my head would be three emails away. Starting my own business was supposed to fix that. At first it did the opposite.

So I made a rule. I'm not perfect at it, but I try to be. My phone goes on airplane mode when I pull in the driveway. Not on silent. All the way off. When I walk in, the workday is over, and my girls get the version of me that isn't half here.

Here's what nobody tells you about little kids. They don't feel time the way we do. An hour on the couch where I'm barely there doesn't count for much. A short stretch on the floor where I'm all in counts for everything.

And if you don't think I'm in the woods playing fairies with my daughters as much as I possibly can, you've got it twisted.

The business will still be there in the morning. It always is. My five-year-old who wants me in her imaginary world won't be five much longer.

What's your version of airplane mode?

07/21/2026

"All my guys are 1099."

I hear that from contractors constantly, and I never argue with it. It's usually said with total confidence, and plenty of the time it's true.

Here's my problem with it. Most of the 1099 setups I get to look at wouldn't survive a workers' compensation audit, and the owner has no idea.

Because that call was never yours to make. It isn't mine either. It gets made later by an auditor or a claims adjuster, and by then nobody is asking your opinion.

So I don't debate the label. I ask about the paperwork.

Do you have a subcontractor agreement your attorney has actually read? Are you collecting a certificate of insurance from every sub, with additional insured status and a waiver of subrogation on it? Would these guys survive scrutiny if somebody looked at how they really work, or are you setting their hours and handing them your equipment and your truck and then calling it a 1099 relationship? And when your subs hire their own subs, is anyone running that same check?

Four questions. Most owners can answer one.

The premium audit is the soft version of finding out. Payroll you never counted gets counted, you write a check nobody budgeted for, and it stings but you survive it.

The claim is the hard version.

A guy in a restaurant kitchen cuts his hand open on a knife. A framer slips on a job site. If that person isn't listed on a workers' compensation policy, nothing is getting paid out. Not the surgery. Not the lost wages. And the one left holding it is the guy whose name is on the building.

I don't think anybody is cutting corners on purpose. The market has quietly encouraged all of us to roll the dice here, because the questions are uncomfortable and the quote is easy.

Calling someone a 1099 is a decision you make on a Monday morning. Whether it holds is a decision somebody else makes after the injury.

Contractors, be honest with me. Would your crew hold up?

07/17/2026

You think your commercial property deductible is $5,000.

Your policy might say $100,000. You just haven't done the math yet.

Here's where it hides.

Most commercial property policies in Iowa carry a separate deductible for wind and hail. It isn't a flat dollar amount. It's a percentage of what your building is insured for.

Five percent is common.

On a building insured for two million dollars, five percent isn't five grand. It's a hundred thousand. Your money, out first, before the carrier pays anything.

Now picture the storm. Hail comes through on a Tuesday in June. Roof's shot. A couple of units taking on water.

You call it in figuring you're out five thousand and the carrier covers the rest.

Then you learn the first hundred grand is yours.

Nobody set out to trick you. That number sat on the policy the whole time. It just never got explained, because explaining it takes a real conversation and running a quote takes five minutes.

I'm not against a high wind and hail deductible. Sometimes it's the right move and it saves you serious premium. Insurance is really just risk tolerance. The only rule is that you know which risk you're keeping and which one you're handing the carrier.

A 5% deductible you picked on purpose is a strategy.

A 5% deductible you find out about after the storm is just self-insuring the outside of your building without knowing it.

So before hail season really gets going, pull your commercial property policy. Find the wind and hail line. Run the percentage against your Coverage A.

If that number catches you off guard, it was never really explained to you.

What does yours come out to?

07/15/2026

Your commercial insurance broker isn't the only one keeping a file on you.

There's an underwriter you'll never meet who has one too, and he takes notes in it.

Most business owners don't know that file exists. So here's what goes in it.

Every time a broker calls that carrier asking to quote your account, someone writes it down. Call seven brokers and the note says you're an unsophisticated buyer. Send the same request out year after year and the note says something worse. Tire kicker. Cares about price, not the relationship.

And these insurance carriers want relationship.

I'm not really sure why, but this part gets left out of the conversation for many business owners.

You've probably been told to shop your commercial insurance every year. Your CPA said it. Your banker probably said it too. On your home and auto, that advice is fine. Call ten agents, nothing happens. You get a bunch of quotes back and pick which is the best fit for you.

Commercial doesn't work that way. A carrier releases one quote to one agent, and every other agent is blocked. So when three brokers hit the same market with your account, the underwriter doesn't see a competitive buyer. He sees a file nobody owns, and he either quotes it defensively or passes.

I explain it to contractors like this.

Say you ask a sub to bid your concrete work every year. He sharpens his pencil and shows up, 5 years in a row. You stick with your current guy anyway. Then one day your guy gets out of the business. You think that sub who you had give you bids year after year gives you his best number now that you really need him?

No chance.

Underwriters function the same way.

I don't think anybody gives this advice out of ill will. They just don't know how the commercial game gets played.

Kicking the tires isn't leverage. It's a red flag on your file.

When's the last time anyone explained that to you?

A few weeks ago my oldest daughter danced in her first big dance recital.It was such a special day watching her navigate...
07/06/2026

A few weeks ago my oldest daughter danced in her first big dance recital.

It was such a special day watching her navigate a feeling that was brand new to her — but one that will be a staple of life ahead.

Pressure.

A few hours before the recital we FaceTimed and she was in tears. Scared and nervous to have the eyes of an entire crowd on her while she danced. We talked through how you can feel many things at once — scared, excited, and nervous. And how that’s a good thing. It means you care.

By the time her performance came she ran on stage, her emotions teetering on the edge of a big smile and tears. But when the music started, she locked in and started having a blast. She’s raved about it ever since.

It’s funny — she’s 5, and this is hardly a blip on her radar. But those feelings are ones I pray never go away for her. Life is filled with pressure, especially for those who have high expectations of themselves.

My entire life I’ve craved that butterflies-in-your-stomach, mind-racing excitement for the thrill of competing. From board games as a kid, to the sound of the first kickoff, and now to the walk into a big presentation.

Pressure is a privilege. Proud of my baby for embracing it.

Address

5700 Merle Hay Road
Johnston, IA
50131

Telephone

+15159789143

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