John Ritenour knew from a young age that he was destined for success. Growing up outside of Pittsburgh, the kind of success which John Ritenour wanted to achieve early on wasn’t common. He began selling insurance early in his career, and was soon inspired to work for himself and become his own boss.
In 1988, John Ritenour co-founded Insurance Office of Florida with his wife, Valli. Today, IOA has grown to become Insurance Office of America (IOA). One of the founding principles of IOA is that it empowers insurance salespeople to work for themselves, and retain autonomy.
John Ritenour holds the Florida General Lines (2-20), Life and Health (2-18) insurance licenses in Florida, in addition to having many out-of-state non-resident licenses. He and IOA excel at creating custom-tailored packages that translate complex insurance needs into seamless and simple coverage. This special skill has made IOA the chosen partner for a wide range of top sports teams, including the Charlotte Hornets, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Orlando Magic, and the Washington Wizards amongst many others.
John Ritenour is particularly proud of the partnership with the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), in which IOA presents The Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions™ and is the first company to have titled three Symetra Tour events. Another exciting athletic partnership was announced in October 2020, when Southland Conference revealed that they would be working with IOA to tailor custom insurance solutions for the 19 Division I Sports which the Conference sponsors.
John Ritenour has been awarded Success Magazine’s Business Achievement Award and was nominated for the Dynetech/Crummer Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Now as he prepares to enter into retirement where his goal is to become the world’s #1 grandfather, he is proud of the company he has built as well as where it is headed under the leadership of his son, Heath Ritenour.
The 2019 rankings shows that IOA’s growth continues to be strong following the leadership transition, maintaining it’s 13th position in Business Insurance’s Top 100 Brokers of U.S. Business list. It is with great pride that IOA continues with its tradition of being a privately held independent agency in a world where mergers and acquisitions are the norm. This means that IOA will continue the mission with which Valli and John Ritenour founded the company, based on a commission structure that gives the insurance producer equal commissions on new business and renewals. It was this innovative idea and much hard work that led to IOA expanding beyond Florida and becoming a nationwide agency that now also is a registered broker with Lloyd’s of London.
