A world of difference

Former Peace Corps Country Director Ken Heldenfels finds a home with L&W Investigations’ Texas office in Austin.

“I know I can call anybody at Corporate or one of my fellow owners and pick their brains if I have questions. That’s an invaluable resource to have at your disposal.”

Ken Heldenfels
L&W Investigations – Texas

After more than a decade overseas, from Germany with Pepsi Cola International to Mongolia with the Peace Corps, I wanted to do something else, preferably in my home state of Texas. With my background in marketing and corporate development, I wanted a business-to-business opportunity. Being a part of fraud investigations had a real intrigue for me, far more than anything else I came across. That and the fact I could open an office in Austin to oversee South, Central & West Texas made L&W a slam-dunk.

The training provided by L&W gave me a strong foundation on the basics of the business and on investigations. Still, there’s no substitute for jumping right in and getting your feet wet. Corporate made sure of that, giving us several leads upon the completion of training in June 2005.

One of those was with Service Life and Casualty, whom I soon met at the International Association of Special Investigations Unit (IASIU) conference. That’s one of the major events L&W owners attend each year and a great place to network to meet people in the business. When I received my investigations company license in September 2005, Service Life and Casualty handed us three cases on our very first day as official private investigators. It wasn’t much longer after that when we landed our first corporate account based entirely on our own leads and legwork.

The key to a fast start depends on how quickly you develop relationships with people in the industry. That depends greatly on how well you learn what insurance companies actually do—specifically the claims and special investigations units. By understanding what they do and their needs, you can start and sustain a dialogue to build a relationship with prospects that will eventually land you the account.

The local private investigations office supported by L&W’s national network of investigators is also a wonderful selling tool to potential clients. I’ve found it to be an even greater resource to growing my business and to continue learning more about the industry. There’s no better example of that than the cooperative working relationship that I have with the two other Texas owners in Dallas and Houston.

In my previous position, the world, quite literally, was my office. As an L&W owner, my office is my home town with a world of opportunity. And that’s a mighty nice place to be.

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