Editorial Staff

Ely Kaplansky Goes from Immigrant to Inc. 5000 Insurance Entrepreneur

/in , , , , , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

This week on JobMakers, host Denzil Mohammed talks with Ely Kaplansky, President & CEO of Kaplansky Insurance. Ely’s unconventional path to entrepreneurship included dropping out of high school and essentially taking the place of the insurance business where he got his start, when it was found that they were committing unethical practices. And since 1974, Ely has created hundreds of jobs in Massachusetts and beyond, with 85 employees in 15 offices across the state today. He has grown his business during the pandemic, with 37 acquisitions to date, such that Kaplansky Insurance was named to Inc. magazine’s “5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America” list. Ely’s success is more than just the pride of having made it. His success fulfilled the dreams of his parents when they moved from Israel to America in 1955, with just the clothes on their backs and an aunt to take them in. Their journey began in the concentration camps of Germany, and Ely’s story is all about the opportunity and freedom America offers, as you’ll discover in this week’s JobMakers.

Guest:

Ely Kaplansky, CIC, CPIA, LIA, is President & CEO of Kaplansky Insurance, a leading independent insurance brokerage that he founded in 1974, which now serves more than 35,000 clients across eastern and central Massachusetts following nearly 40 agency acquisitions over the years. The company serves individuals, families and businesses for all lines of insurance, and has received multiple Five Star and Best Practices awards. Mr. Kaplansky has served as Chair of the Massachusetts Association of Insurance Agents. A high school dropout, he is now a Certified Insurance Councilor (CIC), Certified Professional Insurance Agent (CPIA), and Licensed Insurance Advisor (LIA). The son of Holocaust survivors, Kaplansky moved from Israel to Massachusetts with his family when he was a child and has made greater Boston his home.

Get new episodes of JobMakers in your inbox!

Related Posts

New Study Offers Guide to Recovery in MA Retail, Accommodation and Tourism, and Restaurant Sectors

A new guide to economic recovery in the retail and hospitality industries published by Pioneer Institute calls for the federal and state governments to consider consumption-based refundable tax credits for brick and mortar businesses; the federal government to conduct a detailed study of the costs and benefits of suspending employer-side payroll taxes; businesses to pay special attention to developing and marketing their cleanliness, hygiene and contactless procedures; and third-party customer review sites to include comments about the implementation of COVID safety measures to provide options and reassurance to safety-minded consumers

PPP Loan Tracker

To advance transparency regarding public funds, Pioneer Institute developed this Paycheck Protection Plan Loan Tracker. This web tool allows you to track PPP loans by recipient, lender, location, industry, and loan range. According to this data, from the Small Business Administration, 18,177 Massachusetts small businesses received PPP loans, which the companies claim retained 738,613 jobs.

Pioneer Institute Study Calls for Streamlining State Sales Tax Revenue Collection

At a time when state tax revenues are plummeting, a plan to modernize sales tax collection could get money into state coffers more quickly, according to a new policy brief published by Pioneer Institute.

Even for the most remote part of Massachusetts (Franklin County), it’s far from business as usual

0 Comments
/
The Connecticut River valley is home to some of the most productive…

Study: Safely Reopening Office Buildings Will Require Planning, Innovation

0 Comments
/
Safely bringing employees back into workplaces presents a significant challenge for employers located in office buildings, particularly when it comes to elevator operations and building entry and exit.  To address the challenge, managers must develop plans to control the flow of workers, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute.

38.8 percent of the Massachusetts workforce and 28.3 percent of the U.S. workforce have filed unemployment claims over the past ten weeks.

0 Comments
/
Data released today by the U.S. Department of Labor shows that 38.8 percent of the Massachusetts workforce and 28.3 percent of the U.S. workforce have filed unemployment claims since the COVID-19 unemployment surge began ten weeks ago.

Once anchored by higher education, Hampshire County, MA finds itself out of work after a cancelled semester

0 Comments
/
The 38,000 college and university students at the Five College…

In Hampden County, COVID-19 exacerbates a stark employment divide between urban and rural areas

0 Comments
/
Hampden County, Massachusetts, home of Western New England’s…

As stay-at-home orders remain in place at the start of summer tourist season, COVID-19 takes a bite out of resort towns’ economies

0 Comments
/
Last month, Pioneer Institute showed that the hospitality and…

Survey Suggests Demand for Telecommuting After COVID-19 Crisis

Citing an avoidance of the commute and more flexible scheduling, nearly 63 percent of respondents to Pioneer Institute’s survey, “Will You Commute To Work When The COVID-19 Crisis Is Over?” expressed a preference to work from home one day a week, and a plurality preferred two to three days a week, even after a COVID-19 vaccine is available. Respondents cite social isolation as the biggest drawback of remote work. The survey was conducted from April 22nd to May 15th, and received responses from over 700 individuals.