Alan Pouyat was recently named president of Mansfield, Mass.-based Resources Management Group. He succeeds RMG founder Greg Hoffman, who now sits on Portfolio’s executive board. Founded in 1984, the Portfolio agency works with hundreds of dealers in the Northeast and across the nation.
Alan has worked with Portfolio for over 12 years and has seen the automotive reinsurance industry ebb and flow. The primary challenge he sees for dealers at the moment is the lingering microchip shortage.
“Dealers are still facing inventory challenges but they’re very profitable in spite of that,” Alan says, noting that dealers have prevailed through a very stressful three years since the onset of the COVID pandemic — partly by raising their expectations for F&I profitability. “The bar keeps getting raised. They look to their F&I partners, like us, to help them.”
Working under these conditions presents issues for Alan and his team as well. One of their biggest challenges is increased competition. “Our competition is constantly chipping away at our competitive advantages. But I believe nobody is going to give you all of the benefits that we do. That’s why we have the best structure out there. … There are some low-priced alternatives that are quite shocking. Other providers are modifying their programs to be much more competitive.”
However, Alan adds, those providers’ offerings are not truly on par with Portfolio’s.
“When you go into a deal and you show them Portfolio and everything we can do, sometimes that is an absolute no-brainer for a dealer,” Alan says. “He sees it. He gets it.” The RMG team also stresses the value of training and support in building relationships and trust over time. “It’s the cement, the glue on that deal. That dealer is not going to leave.”
Some Portfolio products that Alan feels are doing well with his dealers include VSC as well as paint and interior protection products, the latter of which are noncancelable (in most states) and typically generate relatively low loss ratios. The RMG team has also been very successful with preloads, finding them to be great opportunities that are “huge” for both the dealer and the agents.
“Many of the preloads separate the dealer from the competition,” Alan says. “They give the dealer an advantage in the marketplace by offering something that the competition may not.”
Lastly, Alan sees certified pre-owned programs as a big opportunity for his dealers. CPO is a major focus for RMG this year. “Certification is underutilized, so it presents the greatest upside. It’s a great product that performs very well on the reinsurance side and provides a huge retail advantage. Everybody wins when a dealer installs their own custom CPO program.”
Before Alan started facing off against competitors in the auto industry, he was fighting opponents in the ring as a college boxer. His main passions today are golf and tennis, in which he competes in various leagues via the United States Tennis Association. “I continue to work out daily and hit my bags that I have in my gym downstairs. It serves as a good way to get a little stress out.”
Alan lives in Connecticut and loves spending quality family time with his two adult stepsons and his high school-aged daughter. He also enjoys traveling and is very much looking forward to a fall trip to Italy with his wife in celebration of their 20th wedding anniversary. Both have Italian ancestry and have been to Italy twice before. “We love the culture, the people and the food,” he says.
Alan is excited about his future personally as well as professionally. At RMG, “business is growing ahead of forecast this year and we are expanding. We’ve hired new account executives and we are thrilled about the potential we have as we continue our longstanding partnership with Portfolio.”
