Owner of insurance firm keeps clients covered when it counts

JESSICA JOHNSON
The Post and Courier

Kathy McKay of McKay, Stelling & Associates in Mount Pleasant took ownership in 1995.

JESSICA JOHNSON
The Post and Courier

McKay makes a habit of wearing orange on Clemson game days.

Selling insurance might not seem like an exciting job to many (or most) people.

But nothing, except maybe a Clemson football game, is more interesting to Kathy McKay, proprietor of McKay, Stelling & Associates insurance company and mother of a daughter who graduated from Clemson.

Agents at the Sea Island Shopping Center office in Mount Pleasant primarily sell property and general liability insurance. And McKay mostly sticks to larger clients such as businesses and property owners associations.

McKay's fun comes in wheeling and dealing for the best quote, but she also enjoys explaining why insurance costs what it does.

That sometimes means fielding media calls because she serves as the Independent Agents of South Carolina's consumer advocate and public relations chairwoman.

The Mount Pleasant resident started in the insurance business as a senior in high school in 1975. She served mainly as the gofer girl and pondered a career in nursing before deciding on insurance sales.

"I really do enjoy what I do," McKay said. "I like educating people."

So when Mount Pleasant Councilman Joe Bustos complained publicly that expanding the windstorm pool drove residents to more expensive coverage for wind, hail and rainstorm damage, McKay sent off a letter clarifying the issue.

Residents asked the state for the expansion. Lawmakers responded by setting U.S. Highway 17 as the cutoff line in Charleston County.

"How quickly we forget," McKay said. "We just got what we asked for."

The line was moved to make insurance more widely available, not necessarily less expensive, McKay said.

McKay is used to clearing up confusion. "We are a misunderstood industry," she said.

People think insurers are out there just to take their money, but she said the point is to keep people whole when something bad happens.

Reach Jessica Johnson at 937-5921 or jjohnson@postandcourier.com.