Scott Reese walked into his first business class at Oregon State University in 1990 and saw a problem. The huge auditorium held 300 freshmen, making him wonder how he’d stand out among thousands of future business graduates. This is when he asked his college counselor about the least popular major, he wasn’t trying to take the easy route – he was looking for an edge. That conversation led him to “Risk Management”, with just one graduate the previous year.
Today, as head of Echo Insurance and an owner of senior living facilities, Scott brings that same eye for opportunity to the senior living industry. By combining insurance expertise with hands-on facility operations, he’s developed solutions that address both the business and human sides of senior care.
Finding a Different Path
That early choice to be different shaped Scott’s whole career. After college, he worked as a safety specialist in Colorado, walking job sites and writing reports for insurance companies. He noticed something interesting: while he drove up in a Pinto, others arrived in BMWs. “They were selling it instead of servicing it,” he says. “So, I thought very quickly: I’m not the smartest tack in the drawer, but maybe I should try the selling side out instead of the servicing side.”
The move to sales brought him to Willis, one of the world’s largest insurance brokers. There, Scott spotted another pattern – most successful salespeople specialized in one industry. In Oregon, that meant wood products. “Nineteen were specialists, two were generalists,” he says. “The specialists did a lot better.”
Building Expertise in Senior Living
Rather than compete in the crowded wood products space, Scott looked for his own niche. His close relationship with his grandparents drew him to senior living care. His first major client was Holiday Retirement, which ran 240 independent living communities across the USA and Canada. Working with Holiday taught him the ins and outs of senior living operations. “They took me around the country developing insurance products that would help them control their “cost per resident per day,” he explains. That specialized knowledge led him to start Alliance Insurance Group in 2010.
At Alliance, Scott focused on building trust between sales people and their support teams. “If we didn’t train our sales people to institutionalize the business, they were going to run out of time in a day,” he says. The approach worked – Alliance grew to $20 million in sales before Scott sold it and fully exited the business.
After a brief retirement, he’s back with a new company, Echo Insurance. This time, he’s doing things differently. “We’re totally comfortable and transparent about how much we make,” he says. They’ll work for fees instead of hidden commissions and help clients explore options like self-insurance that traditional brokers often avoid. They also train their service teams in their communities to understand and have empathy with what their customers pain points and operational challenges really are.
Embracing Transparency with Echo Insurance
Scott knows senior living from both sides of the desk. He owns stakes in several care facilities and runs a memory care center in Colorado. This hands-on experience helps him understand what clients deal with – from budget issues to staff turnover.
His connection to senior living goes beyond business. Growing up with a single mom, his grandparents provided stability. “What drives me is the honoring of what I couldn’t do then, that I can do now for others as they’re walking through that with their grandparents or loved ones,” he shares. For Scott, senior care isn’t just about managing risk. “People want to have value. People want to have purpose,” he says. He sees senior communities as homes, not facilities.
That perspective shapes how Echo Insurance works with clients. They look beyond standard coverage, helping senior living operators protect their businesses while focusing on resident care. By understanding the human side of the industry, Scott and his team bring solutions that work for both the business and the people it serves.
To learn more about Scott Reese and Echo Insurance, check out his LinkedIn profile.
