Behind the mic
Two voices. One mic.
A lot of opinions.
Dennis and Stephanie aren't actors hired to read an insurance script. They're the actual partners at Panatela Insurance Group — the people who'd be writing your policy if you called the agency tomorrow. This is the show that happens when those two get a microphone.
Partner · Panatela Insurance Group
Dennis Settlemoir, CIC
The veteran. The phone-answerer. The one with the designations.
Dennis has spent three decades in the insurance industry — long enough to have seen carriers come and go, watched the policy language get worse before it got slightly better, and developed a reflex for the sentence "well, it depends, and here's why." That sentence is the show's first tagline for a reason. It's not him being evasive. It's him being honest.
He earned the Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designation the hard way — by sitting through the coursework, passing the exams, and committing to ongoing education every year since. The CIC is one of the more rigorous credentials in the business, and the kind agents tend to get when they actually want to understand what they're selling rather than just selling it.
Today, Dennis handles a big chunk of Panatela's commercial and personal lines book — the home and auto policies for families across Texas, the GL and BOP policies for small businesses, the umbrella conversations that nobody else wants to have. Clients describe him in reviews as "very helpful," "customized my insurance to my needs," and "a great asset to our organization." The throughline is that he picks up the phone, gives a straight answer, and remembers your situation the next time you call.
On the show, Dennis is the one with the long memory and the carrier history. When Stephanie says something insurance does, Dennis is the one who can tell you why it does that — usually with a story from 2008 or 2015 attached.
By the books
Partner & Managing Member · Panatela Insurance Group
Stephanie Lencioni
The translator. The consumer advocate. The former claims adjuster who's seen it all from the other side.
Stephanie graduated from the University of North Texas and started her career as a claims adjuster — which means she spent five years watching, in real time, what happens when a policy meets a real-world disaster. She saw which words on a declarations page matter, which ones don't, and which ones become a problem only when someone is having the worst day of their life.
After five years of being the bearer of bad news, she got tired of it. The reactive side of insurance — telling people what they should have bought — wasn't the work she wanted to do. So in 2012, she started her own agency, with a single goal: get in front of clients before the bad day, not after.
She started captive (selling one carrier's products), quickly realized she could help more people if she had access to more options, and went independent. That's the Panatela origin story in one sentence. She's the Managing Member of the agency today, and the partner who handles a lot of the firm's employee benefits and life insurance work — the stuff small business owners typically punt because it's confusing and exhausting.
Five words to describe herself? She's said it on the record: wife, mom, sarcastic, athlete, sarcastic. She'd probably add a third "sarcastic" if there was room. Her honest question, the one that drives the show, is: "Insurance is boring enough already — why should your agent be?"
On the show, Stephanie is the one who refuses to let an insurance term go unexplained. When Dennis launches into the carrier history, Stephanie's the one going "okay but what does that mean for the person listening?" That tension is the whole format.
By the books
Why both of them, on the same show
Same question. Different answer.
This is the whole format in one example. Same question, asked the same way. Watch how each of them attacks it — that's why the show works.
"Well, it depends. What are your underlying limits? What's your net worth? Do you own rental property, have a teenage driver, host events at your home, sit on a nonprofit board? Umbrella is liability coverage that sits on top of your auto and homeowner's, kicks in once those limits are exhausted — and the premium is usually shockingly cheap relative to what you're protecting. So the honest answer is: probably yes, but how much depends on the conversation we're about to have."
"Yes. The end. Look, if you own anything worth suing for — a house, a 401k, a future paycheck — and someone gets seriously hurt because of something you did, your regular auto or home policy taps out fast. Umbrella picks up where those leave off, and it costs less than your streaming subscriptions. The only people who don't need umbrella insurance are people who have nothing to lose. And if that's you, congratulations."
Both answers are correct. That's the point.
From agency to airwaves
How the show came to be
Insurance Gone Wild didn't start as a podcast. It started as a conversation that kept happening at the Panatela office — and at some point we realized it deserved a wider audience.
Panatela came first
Stephanie founded the agency that became Panatela back in 2012. Dennis joined as a partner. They built the firm around one idea: insurance shouldn't be sold, it should be explained. Today Panatela is an independent agency with seven team members and a book covering personal, business, and employee benefits.
The show came after
Same conversations kept happening with clients — "why didn't anyone explain it that way before?" The taglines wrote themselves: "Insurance sucks" (because the buying experience usually does) and "It depends" (because that's the actual answer to most questions). We started recording. The show is what came out.
Insurance is boring enough already — why should your agent be?
— Stephanie Lencioni · Partner, Panatela
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Dennis and Stephanie are real, working insurance agents — not actors. If you want them as your actual agents, the quote form takes about a minute. If you just want to listen to the show, head to the episode archive. Either way, you're in the right place.