Biography
Bert Alanko started MBA in 1978 with a little insurance experience and two friends, who both had extensive insurance background. More than 40 years later, he has not retired because he enjoys chatting with potential customers and sharing his love for the RV industry.
“It beats selling nuts and bolts,” Alanko said. “We are selling vacations. We are selling the dream of taking your family on vacation. They call in here excited. They love to talk about those beautiful RVs.”
Alanko graduated in 1968 from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor’s in marketing. After selling insurance and sporting goods for a time, he started MBA Insurance. Alanko said the best part of his job is helping people, especially assisting smaller dealerships and individuals in expanding business by providing RV rental insurance.
“We have had numerous people start off with one or two vehicles and end up as full-line RV dealers,” Alanko said. “That is fun to see.”
The goal is not to give a customer an RV rental plan, then have them drop it five months later and get out of the business. “Instead, we give them the ‘MBA love,’ which is helping them get in, and stay in, the business,” Alanko said.
MBA Insurance is a member of the RV Dealers Association’s (RVDA) and a founding member of the RV Rental Association (RVRA). Alanko served as RVRA chairman while sitting on the board for 19 years.
“Seeing dealers’ and industry’s struggles, and what they are trying to achieve, shed a whole new light on my career,” Alanko said. “It opened my eyes to things I normally would not have seen if I was schlepping product.”
The RVDA presented Alanko the James B. Summers Award and the Chairman’s Service Award. He was inducted into the MH/RV Hall of Fame in 2015. Alanko said, “I guess if you hang around long enough, people say, ‘We should give that guy an award.’”
