Tom Wertish

A little about Tom

Tom grew up on a small family farm near Bird Island, Minnesota, about 90 miles west of the Twin Cities, where his family raised pigs in the ’80s and farmed grain until his dad retired in 2022. He was a 4-H kid who showed pigs and chickens at the Renville County Fair.

He went on to Saint John’s University in Collegeville, majoring in management with a finance emphasis and finishing the four-year degree in three. Then came more than a decade in mortgage sales and leadership, where he eventually ran a division with 66 people reporting to him — until 2014, when the company sold, the site closed, and he had to lay off his entire team, himself included.

The timing was dramatic: he and his wife Cailin had just welcomed their second child days earlier. That summer, studying for his insurance license with two little ones at home, Tom decided he was done riding someone else’s rollercoaster. In June 2014 he launched his own brokerage out of a 10x10 office with a 4G hotspot for internet — and turned down an offer to return to mortgage that first year.

In 2020 he acquired Options Insurance from founder Sarah Smith. He loved the name because it captured what he’d always believed. The deal closed in the middle of COVID, and Sarah’s team came along — they’re still here today.

That belief is simple: no single insurance company can be all things to all people. From his years reviewing policies in the mortgage world, Tom had seen too many people carrying coverage that quietly left them exposed. The only honest way to serve someone is to shop multiple carriers and find the right fit — not the only fit. It’s the principle behind Options.Health, too.

Tom especially loves working with fellow business owners, and moved the office to Chaska in 2018 — a mile from home, close to his kids’ schools and the community his team is part of.