Kristi Kalberer is the owner of Absolute Insurance Agency, providing the proper insurance coverage for your personal autos and home. As an independent agent Kristi educates her clients on all options to create the perfect policy to best protect your most valuable assets.
In 1999 Kristi originally started with the insurance industry in Arizona where she was working with life insurance agents as an auditor. During that time she met someone who sold auto and home insurance who told her he was being promoted. Kristi remembered, “I asked him if he thought I’d be any good at what he did, and he encouraged me to give it a shot. At the time I had no idea what I was getting myself into.”
Kristi quickly became a trusted liaison in the home and auto insurance industry. Her first year she worked through cohesive relationships and developed a team of 50 life insurance agents that referred her business on a regular basis. She was the Rookie of the Year her second year in business with Prudential Insurance. She won many awards over the years for her dedication to excellent customer service.
Prudential decided to go in a different direction after a few years and released all their home and auto insurance agents. This put Kristi back to square one. She went back to her well-established business relationships that knew and trusted her and encouraged them to reach out to her if they had any business leads. The timing couldn’t have been worse as she was due to close on a new house in two weeks.
“I was encouraged to begin my own agency under a master agency,” Kristi said. “At this time Prudential came back and said if you were an agent in good standing, had a great client base and excellent client retention with low loss ratios that you could get back all your clients. I would simply have to rewrite them with other companies. I was one of those agents who qualified. It was a huge blessing.”
Now pregnant with twins, Kristi started her business again. She rewrote policies for almost 1200 clients, typing in all their information five times for auto and seven times for homes, all while caring for newborn babies. After a year she finished with the process of updating all her clients and began her very first agency.
She moved to South Carolina in 2008 and started from scratch once more. She worked for great companies like State Farm and Nationwide along with other independent agencies and made a lot of friends. Her last position was with AAA before she launched out on her own to start another agency. She set a date, and two days before her deadline she put in her resignation to AAA.
Kristi’s business philosophy is to, “Empower people with information for them to make the best decision for their family.” Her biggest inspiration is to help people think critically about their insurance needs. Kristi explained, “It’s so important for you to understand what you’re buying for the cost of the insurance you’re purchasing. I don’t strong-arm anyone into purchasing insurance. That’s not my job. My job is to educate my clients and provide them options to fully protect their most valuable assets. You really need to focus on coverage and your renewals. Everything can change, and you won’t know if you don’t look. Read your statements. Whether it’s a policy that I’ve sold, or a policy provided by another insurance agency, educate yourself on what you currently have. Insurance is not something that everyone loves to pay for, but the bottom line is things can change within your own life that you’re not covered for. Have your agent review your policy with you on a yearly basis. Make sure you have the coverage you need. Whether it benefits me or not, I always give advice that’s in the best interest of the client.”
Kristi enjoys the variety of people she gets to work with throughout the week. Diversity for her brings a large knowledge base and she treats every encounter with a new or potential client as an opportunity to learn more about their experiences, backgrounds and careers.
Kristi’s team at Absolute Insurance includes Doug Cargill, Vern Lacey, Glennan Padgett and Glen Kalberer. Together there is over 60 years of insurance experience!
The last agent to join Absolute Insurance was Kristi’s husband, Glen Kalberer. Glen has lived in SC for 16 years. His background is in management with automotive repair shops. Glen has served many of the tri county residents over the years and has built up many relationships by taking care of them in another trust-based business. Glen enjoys informing and educating clients to allow them to make the best coverage decisions for their protection. This made him an excellent fit for Absolute Insurance Agency, LLC.
Kristi said, “We all help each other grow on a professional level and each one of us has a funny personality. We razz each other often, and the client’s feel that light-hearted energy we have between us. It’s really a great environment to work in.”
Kristi and Glen have six children between them. Married previously, she had two incredible children from her first marriage who are now in their early 30’s- Coleman and Cassie. Kristi came into their lives when they were six and seven years old. She then had her twins, Dani and Alex, who will be 15 years old soon. When Kristi was younger, she met Glen and they dated from the time she was 15-19 years old. They lost touch with each other for 15 years, married and had children before their first marriages dissolved. They reconnected again after his parents suffered a horrible car accident and reignited their relationship once more. As fate seemed to have thrown them together for a second time, they didn’t want to miss an opportunity to share their lives together. Kristi and Glen married in 2008, recently celebrating their 10-year anniversary. Glen’s two children from his previous marriage, Paige (16) and Kyle (14), complete the Fabulous 4. All the kids love each other. They’re an active family who participate in soccer, football, wrestling and ROTC.
Kristi is currently involved with Toastmasters and the Goose Creek Chapter of BNI (Business Network International). She is dedicated to balance and quality of life. Not to be confused with “material possessions.”
Kristi Kalberer and each person on the Absolute Insurance team are committed to honesty and integrity, while providing excellent customer service and insurance coverage you can depend on.