Page 33 - BusinessWest January 24, 2022

— like the Insurance Center of New England in 2019, a move he called a strong “cultural mesh” at the time, similar to the one HUB found when it acquired his former firm, Field Eddy, five years earlier.
Over the past year or so, the Dowd Agencies acquired two local agencies, J. Raymond Lussier Insurance and Wilcox Insurance Agency, citing a similar cultural fit.
for the sake of growing; we have to do it incre- mentally and selectively. That’s our philosophy. We see people out there acquiring agencies all over the place; they’ve got their own philosophy, and we have ours.”
Elaborating, he called Lussier and Wilcox good examples of strong cultural fits. “We’ve known these owners for years. We know how important a priority their customers were. It was very impor-
days, Marini said.
“Customers are demanding more service for
the same dollar amount,” he noted. “And then, industry experts who know the nuances of dif- ferent coverages can negotiate better premium deals with their carriers.”
It’s a win-win, in other words.
“One major driver of sellers coming to the table is evolving expectations of brokers’ clients, the buyers of insurance,” Trem wrote. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, insureds have creat- ed an expectation that their broker act as a con- sultant, not just someone who helps purchase insurance coverages. The end client is looking for someone who can help provide strategic guidance, risk management, and/or mitigation services.
“This creates a conundrum for insurance bro- kers who must keep investing in tools, resources, and talent in order to effectively compete,” he went on. “Independent brokers have to decide whether they want to use their cash flow to make these investments or partner with a firm that has already done it. The build-versus-join decision
is bringing a lot of firms to the deal table. This dynamic is not going away, and the market will likely continue to be very robust.”
Bigger and Better
Building broader and deeper expertise in
an insurance agency is one way to counter the bottom-line-focused direct writers, Marini said, especially on the personal-lines side, where they continue to grow market share in New England.
Mergers
Continued from page 49
PHIL TREM
“The build-versus-join decision is bringing a lot of firms to the deal table. This dynamic is not going away, and the market will likely continue to be very robust.”
tant to these owners that their clients, who they worked very hard to build over the years, are going to be well cared for by the new owners, treated simi- larly and respected and serviced at the level they had become accustomed to.
“The proof is in the pudding,” Dowd added. “Lussier came on a year ago, and Wilcox was six months ago, and they
“When I talk about a good fit, it’s book of busi- ness, carrier representation, geographic location, and, most important, cultural fit,” Dowd said. “By that, I mean, are the current owners sharing the same philosophy that we have in terms of how they treat clients and how they treat staff? When there’s a good match in those two areas from a cultural standpoint, we can begin to move for- ward with analyzing the proposal that’s on the table.
“Not every prospective agency is a good fit for acquisition,” he went on. “We know the met- rics we look for, and we have to check the boxes before we start to move forward. We can’t grow
have blended beautifully with our staff. We’ve had some get-togethers as a team where every- one gets to meet and know one another.
“That careful vetting is really important so there’s not any disruption to service to clients, that it’s seamless and smooth, and everyone is comfortable,” he went on, “because people get anxious when there’s change. It’s natural. To the extent we can, we want to address and dispel those concerns before, during, and after the tran- sition. And it’s worked well.”
A larger agency with a broader range of spe- cific expertise is important to customers these
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