How Texas went from “pleasant rivals” to collaborators

Higginbotham final month introduced a merger with pleasant rival Bernard Insurance coverage Company.

A significant Fort Price insurance coverage firm has partnered with a family-owned company in Wichita Falls that makes a speciality of business insurance coverage for the vitality, development, hospitality and manufacturing industries.

John Okay. Barnard (pictured), Managing Director of Barnard Insurance coverage Company, Insurance coverage Enterprise He spoke about this vital transfer and his firm’s longstanding relationship with Higginbotham.

“We have been a small insurance coverage firm pushed by the neighborhood, serving the neighborhood and caring for their households and generations,” Bernard mentioned.[But] During the last decade, there was an elevated want to offer added worth to prospects.

“first time, [Higginbotham]Trade concepts and community as teammates, not rivals.”

“We’re by no means going to promote to a giant firm.”

For Bernard, this new chapter for his company is important for a number of causes. Household-owned and operated since 1931, Bernard is the fourth technology proprietor of the 97-year-old firm.

“My great-grandfather began our company and I used to be all the time instructed from an early age that you may’t promote to a giant firm. We did not perceive that,” Bernard revealed.

Bernard mentioned Barnard Insurance coverage Company’s longevity within the business is because of its deep ties to the neighborhood and an unwavering dedication to customer support, however the insurance coverage business was altering, and with it, buyer wants and expectations.

His preliminary skepticism about merging with a extra outstanding firm started to alter after observing Wichita Falls-based Higginbotham’s operations.

“Shane Smith, the managing director there, was my neighbour. Our children have been the identical age and we acquired on rather well,” Bernard remembers. “It opened my eyes to the concept that possibly these massive firms weren’t so unhealthy in any case. They’d the identical objectives and values ​​as us.”

This private connection, mixed with business tendencies and inside elements equivalent to his uncle Invoice on the point of retire, prompted Bernard to rethink his place.

“Permanence grew to become a problem and it was one thing we wanted to contemplate,” Bernard mentioned.

Embracing change whereas respecting custom

Bernard has joined Shane Smith as co-managing director of Higginbotham’s Wichita Falls department after his uncle and former accomplice, Invoice Bernard, retired March 1 and helps the crew with the transition over the following 18 months.

Bernard mentioned the merger with Higginbotham led to massive operational and cultural modifications, with one of the vital impactful being the introduction of worker possession.

“This can be a distinctive alternative for our staff to have possession after working for an insurance coverage company for a protracted time period,” he famous.

It additionally created new avenues for proactive buyer engagement and enhanced service supply. This proactive stance represents a departure from the reactive method of the previous, enabling brokers to extra successfully anticipate and reply to buyer wants.

“For the primary time, we are able to proactively introduce this stuff. [options] “We will are available in with the Higginbotham title, shine and let folks find out about our experience and get alternatives that we by no means had earlier than,” Bernard mentioned.

Reflecting on the choice, Bernard mentioned the largest change that partnering with Higginbotham has led to is the bigger crew they will flip to for help.

“Barnard Insurance coverage Company used to really feel like a small firm, remoted and all the time combating over the whole lot – from relationships with insurance coverage firms to opening and managing accounts. Now we’re a part of a a lot larger crew the place all of us work collectively,” he mentioned. Insurance coverage Enterprise“Small issues like networking make a giant distinction.”

“Barnard Insurance coverage Group has purchasers that return 60 years and has a wall in our workplaces honoring crew members who’ve been with us for greater than 30 years,” Reed mentioned in a press launch.

“They’ve nice relationships with insurance coverage firms and invaluable experience within the vitality business. And the very best half is, we already know them and know we’ll get pleasure from working with them.”

What do you consider Barnard Insurance coverage Company partnering with Higginbotham? Go away a remark beneath.