Inspiration
How Allsup Started
After working for the Social Security Administration for several years, Jim realized that people needed more attention and support than they were able to get from the SSA.
That experience inspired him to create a new kind of company, focused on helping people with chronic health conditions access the life-changing benefits they need.
More than 35 years later, what started as a one-man company has grown into an organization of hundreds of professionals headquartered in Belleville, Illinois. Allsup and its affiliates are innovators of specialized services and technologies that help meet the financial and healthcare needs of Americans with disabilities. Allsup is a nationwide, premier provider of Social Security disability representation, veterans disability appeal, return to work, and healthcare benefits services for individuals, employers and insurance carriers. Since opening its doors in 1984, Allsup has helped more than 350,000 people receive billions in SSDI payments and Medicare benefits.
Founder
SSDI Pioneer & Company Founder Jim Allsup Still Leads Us Today It’s impossible to describe our CEO’s professional achievements without touching on the history of our business, because Jim’s personal career is so closely intertwined with the business he has built. Read on to learn more about both.
Jim landed a position as a field representative with the Social Security Administration after graduation from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. He left this position four years later, inspired to establish the first professional, non-attorney provider of SSDI representation services. That original company was named Allsup & Associates, and by the time it became Allsup, LLC, it had made a mark on the SSDI process that survives today.
Jim Allsup represented customers in groundbreaking ways, helping them win benefits with initial applications, instead of just waiting for a denial to step in and assist with appeals. He also changed the way SSDI representatives were paid, which resulted in the creation of the SSA-1696-U4 form used today. Allsup’s approach truly paved the way for a better kind of SSDI experience: True Help.
Only seven years after starting the business, Allsup broke ground for construction of a 53,000-square-foot corporate headquarters. Around this same time, Jim Allsup leveraged his status as an SSDI authority to help break legislative barriers for people with disabilities. Jim was highly influential in the legislative clarification of the 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, which mandated that Medicare become primary payer for non-working disabled employees. He also testified before the House and Senate in Washington, D.C., sharing his intimate knowledge of SSDI to shed light on this and other issues.
Allsup’s success was recognized in wider professional circles as well. In 1992, Allsup received its third consecutive Inc. 500 award, which recognizes America’s fastest-growing private companies. In 2006, the Better Business Bureau presented Allsup its prestigious Torch Award for world-class customer service.
Jim Allsup was recognized by the Invisible Disabilities Association with their Advocacy Award in 2009. The next year, Allsup was a finalist in the 2010 BBB International Torch Awards for Marketplace Excellence. Jim and his company also received the Distinguished Corporate Partner Award for Excellence in 2014, presented by the John Cook School of Business at Saint Louis University.
National recognition and responsibility for steering a company offering nationwide SSDI services has not separated Jim Allsup from his roots in Belleville, just 15 miles outside St. Louis, Missouri. Jim is a member of the Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce. He also shares his professional experiences as sponsor and presenter for the Allsup Entrepreneurship Academy, a summer academy for high school students offered through Saint Louis University (SLU).
