Who Are Frank and Glenda Stroobant?
Frank and Glenda Stroobant are like sugar and spice. Married and working together for more than 10 years, blending perfectly, the two have found their professional niche in  the bail bond business.
Frank retired from the Anaheim, California Police Department in 1993 and began working for a bail bond company learning the business. After two years Glenda and Frank started their own business in one of their bedrooms at their home. After about one year after the business was going Frank went to work as a troubleshooter and auditor for a surety company. There, Frank learned the bail bond business and the mechanisms from the surety’s prospective. Glenda worked in the banking industry for over 20 years, mostly as vice president of commercial/retail lending.
Glenda became intrigued by the bail bond business and found bail transactions paralleled to lending. In 1995, Glenda earned her bail bond license. Glenda already had her Insurance Broker License, and Real Estate License, so what was one more she thought.
How did they get started in the bail business?
When this husband and wife team started their retail bail bond business, it was out of an extra bedroom in their house with a computer, phone, copier and fax machine. Putting their first ad in the yellow pages that cost them $359.00 monthly and they did not know how they were going to pay this costly expense. They just prayed that they would right enough bail to cover their cost and make a living.
Glenda worked by day as a V.P. Banker and undertook bail by night. Frank worked at a part time job doing computer entry for the first year and wrote bail by day and night. Glenda often checked their phones by calling themselves to see if their phones were working when the phones did not ring. They had sleepless nights hoping that the next day they would write a bond to pay their bills.
Frank and Glenda worked their business out of their home until 1996 and rented a very small room from a friend of Glenda’s who owned a Mortgage and Escrow business.
At the end of 1999 Glenda started looking for an office that was more visible to the public and found a perfect place on a main thoroughfare in Orange County, around the corner from the courthouse. Glenda and Frank opened their very own retail bail bond office in the first quarter of 2000.
Describe your affiliation with Lexington National.
Frank and Glenda met the Frank family in 1997 as our business was gaining momentum. In 2002, we reconnected and the timing seemed right to pursue a partnership.
Both Frank and Glenda traveled up the coast to spend some time with the Franks and see the whole operation in Baltimore.
When they met with employees who had been with Fred Frank bail bonds for over 30 years and other employees that had been with Lexington National Insurance Corporation since inception and that this company was a ground root family grown company, Frank and Glenda knew they had found the right surety company to establish themselves.
Here was a family company who truly understood bail bonds, this national surety developed from a small family business. Frank and Glenda wanted someone who new what it was really like being a bail bondman.
Most Corporate Sureties know the mechanics, but they don’t know the feelings. This company new exactly what the word feelings meant. Frank and Glenda were extremely impressed! So, they spent the next 6-8 months getting their general agency up and running in California. It was wonderful, for Glenda and Frank to open the office for STROOBANT INSURANCE SERVICES INC., they had reserved the office next door to the retail shop. Very close to the same setup as Lexington National Insurance Corporation’s setup in Baltimore. It was truly meant to be.
What makes STROOBANT INSURANCE SERVICES INC. unique?
Frank and Glenda Stroobant are accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to our agents. Glenda does not believe in answering services, she especially believes it’s critical and important to stay well connected with their agents. Time is a crucial issue when getting bonds approved. Who wants to wait for someone to call you back when another unethical bail bond company is trying to steal your clients by cutting rates. STROOBANT INSURANCE SERVICES INC., owned and operated by Frank and Glenda Stroobant are striving to be the premier general agency for bail agents in California and now, in Nevada and Arizona.
What makes your business partnerships successful?
Glenda and Frank have excellent backgrounds in law enforcement and financial services. That experience helped prepare them for the bail bond business. Glenda feels that sharing ideas with their agents will help them be more successful. Frank wrote legislation that was helped passed by CBAA legislative committee, putting PC160 in the penal code book to assist in helping to put a stop to bail bonds soliciting inside the jails for money. Glenda is very active in the fight against crime in the bail bond industry. Both are active in their communities, and pride themselves of bringing on quality people into their organization. |
