Dana has been a licensed insurance broker for over 30 years. From 1975 to 1990, he was a member of Ingham, Coates & Payne; a premier insurance brokerage in the Western Region, whose managing partner, Gleason L. "Tige" Payne was former California Insurance Commissioner for then Governor Ronald Reagan. In 1990 Coates was among the founding members of Arroyo Insurance Services in South Pasadena CA. 

In 1995 he incorporated under the name ISP Insurance Services, Inc. Also, in 1995, Coates formed The Small Business Insurance Center® on the Internet. This entity is recognized as having been the third insurance related e-commerce site on the net. In addition, he registered the names ISPInsurance.com, epli.com, tsbic.com, DrMedMal.com and several other key web addresses. These sites have focused on providing insurance related resources and risk management information to financial institutions, technology companies, medical professionals, PEO's and other related industries. 

Today, Coates' agency represents many importers, exporters, manufacturers and retail businesses as well as hundreds of software and related companies, dozens of ISP's and several large "on line" membership organizations.

Mr. Coates is one of the founding members and past president of The Association of Young Insurance Professionals. He is also a past President of the Pasadena-Glendale-Burbank chapter of IBA-WEST, The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers Association of the West and serves on several non-profit boards within the Pasadena community.