About

Insurance executive. Property manager. Banker. Business owner.

I'm Dennis Hendrickson. I own Hendrickson Insurance and DJH & Co. Before that I managed my family's Florida real estate, a portfolio worth roughly $200 million, and bought mortgages as a wholesale account executive for SunTrust. Everything I write here about jobs, money and politics comes from that seat: the person who signs the checks.

Oil portrait of Dennis Hendrickson in a gilded frame

$200Mfamily property portfolio managed
100,000 sq ftlargest centers, anchored and non-anchored
SunTrustwholesale mortgage account executive
2companies I own and run today

The property years

Before I sold a single policy, I managed my family's properties. The portfolio was worth about $200 million and ran all the way up to 100,000 square foot shopping centers across Florida, some with a grocery or big box anchor and some without.

Managing centers teaches you where money actually goes. Tenants, leases, roofs, parking lots, vacancies, and an insurance bill that is one of the biggest lines on the budget. I read the leases, chased the certificates, and dealt with the tenants. That is why strip center and plaza owners talk to me as someone who has done their job, not someone trying to sell them something.

Painted illustration of Dennis walking a Florida shopping center — Illustration: the shopping center years.

Banking: buying mortgages for SunTrust

I worked in banking and finance at SunTrust as a wholesale mortgage account executive. In wholesale, the bank does not sit across from the homeowner. It buys the loans that mortgage brokers originate, so my job was purchasing mortgages and working the brokers who brought them in.

That seat shows you how lenders really look at money: what gets approved, what gets priced up, and how fast the rules change when the market turns. I still read every jobs report and rate move through that lens.

Painted illustration of Dennis at a wholesale mortgage desk — Illustration: the wholesale mortgage desk.

Hendrickson Insurance

Today I run Hendrickson Insurance, an independent agency writing commercial and personal lines. Strip centers and retail plazas are a specialty, because I managed them first.

I started my first company for a simple reason. I was working hard to bring in business, and an enormous share of what I brought in went to the company I brought it to. So I built my own. There is no call center. Clients get me, and I handle every account personally.

Painted illustration of Dennis reviewing a commercial insurance policy — Illustration: reviewing a commercial property policy.

DJH & Co

DJH & Co is my marketing company. We market for other businesses so they get more business.

Running two companies at once is why I write about starting a business the way I do. Not theory. Payroll, clients, cash flow, and what it takes to keep the doors open.

Painted illustration of Dennis showing a business owner a marketing plan — Illustration: a marketing plan with a shop owner.

Before business, a competitor

In 1991, New Jersey changed its high school state tennis tournament rules because of my record. I played third singles for East Brunswick, went 43 and 1 over two seasons, and was nationally ranked, but third singles players were not allowed into the state singles tournament. The Star-Ledger reported people were already calling the change the Dennis Hendrickson rule. The next year I clinched our first state Tournament of Champions title at third singles, 6-1, 7-5.

Columbia, Rutgers and the Naval Academy recruited me. I picked UNC Charlotte so I could play Division I from day one, earned four varsity letters and a degree in Business Administration, and before all of it trained at Nick Bollettieri's academy in Bradenton. Same habit then as now: look past the letterhead and go where you actually get to compete.

The Star-Ledger, March 14, 1991: Third Can Be First — The Star-Ledger, March 14, 1991.

The Star-Ledger, June 19, 1992: East Brunswick wins its first Tournament of Champions — State champions, June 1992.

1996 UNC Charlotte Men's Tennis Media Guide cover — UNC Charlotte media guide, 1996.

UNC Charlotte letterman plaque, 1992 to 1996 — Four letters, 42 career singles wins.

New Jersey Legislature letter, May 24, 1993 — New Jersey Legislature, 1993.

Dennis with Nick Bollettieri, early 1980s — With Nick Bollettieri, early 1980s.

Harvard, cancer, and the rest of it

After Charlotte I studied journalism at Harvard University. Years later I was diagnosed with cancer and went through a full course of radiation to beat it. Tennis got me through that more than anything: show up for a match you might lose, play it one point at a time, and don't quit in the middle.

A few other things worth knowing. President Reagan wrote me a letter as a kid because we share a birthday. The day after Hurricane Milton I was at my neighborhood gas station when Governor DeSantis walked in on his damage tour, and I took the picture. And I once crossed three lanes of moving traffic on foot to pull a kitten off the highway. She lived.

Letter from President Reagan, February 26, 1982 — The White House, 1982.

Governor DeSantis at a Sarasota gas station the day after Hurricane Milton, October 10, 2024 — The day after Milton, October 2024. Photo by Dennis.

The kitten Dennis carried off a three-lane highway, September 2023 — The kitten, September 2023.

Why this site

Most people covering the news have never made payroll. I have, in two companies, after years in property and banking. This site covers what is happening in jobs, money, politics, housing and AI, and what it means for your income and for anyone thinking about starting a business. I also go live to walk through the big hearings and stories in full.