To rejoice its milestone yr, Higginbotham is placing the highlight again on the keys to its success: tradition and neighborhood.
“Our seventy fifth is geared round celebrating with our workers and giving again to the communities which were so beneficiant to us throughout our footprint, which at the moment spans 15 states and 87 places of work,” stated Higginbotham CEO Rusty Reid (pictured).
Immediately, Higginbotham is one largest impartial insurance coverage brokerages within the US, in addition to the biggest in Texas by income. It was nominated to Insurance Business America’s Top Insurance Employers listing in 2022.
The “Day Two” distinction
As soon as a family-owned enterprise, the group is now proudly owned by its greater than 2,400 workers, a majority of whom are direct shareholders. The worker possession mannequin goals to reward and incentivize Higginbotham’s workforce, in line with Reid.
“We started an worker possession journey again in 1989, and it is nonetheless very a lot who we’re at the moment,” stated Reid. “We constructed this group for the advantage of our shareholders, which coincidentally occurred to be our workers.
“It is allowed us to not solely retain fantastic folks but additionally entice unbelievable expertise to serve our purchasers.”
Reid joined Higginbotham in 1986 from American Basic Hearth and Casualty Firm and has since been steering the brokerage via many years of change and progress. Beneath his helm, the brokerage established a monetary providers division to supply worker advantages.
However in line with the CEO, what actually units Higginbotham aside in at the moment’s market is its “Day Two” providers, that are geared at supporting purchasers via danger administration, claims, profit plan providers, and administration.
“The thought is that on day one, our job is to get a shopper the best possible protection, price, and money move choices,” Reid stated.
“Then we leverage danger administration, compliance, communications, contract overview, know-how… all of the issues above and past delivering a coverage. We have now discovered that this answer has improved our buyer retention price and considerably enhanced our capability to land clients.”
Celebrating 75 years of progress and past
In 2007, Higginbotham launched an aggressive merger and acquisition technique, branching out in Texas and ultimately throughout the US.
Final yr, the corporate continued that enlargement because it entered new states and broadened its footprint in others.
In accordance with Reid, progress gained’t decelerate any time quickly, and it’ll proceed to be powered by Higginbotham’s values.
“We launched what we referred to as our ‘Finest in Texas’ technique to be aligned with our mission and imaginative and prescient, which is to be the very best place for workers to work, the very best shopper advocate, the very best service accomplice, and the very best neighborhood accomplice, and we have stayed true to that,” Reid informed Insurance coverage Enterprise.
“We’re not out simply to purchase income for the sake of shopping for income, we actually look to seek out nice companions. Ninety-eight p.c of our companions are a lot bigger at the moment than after they joined us. To me, that is form of test that field that it is working.”
On the similar time, Higginbotham is deeply centered on “old school natural progress,” the CEO stated, which includes retaining and discovering new purchasers by bringing them worth.
“We have all the time been nice at natural progress as a company. However leveraging our ‘Day Two’ platform has actually been vital for us,” Reid continued.
Giving again to its communities
Amidst super success within the insurance coverage business, Higginbotham stays grounded in its communities via its Higginbotham Neighborhood Fund.
“We have been very blessed as a company that our progress hasn’t stopped since 1989. The by-product of that success is having the ability to give again to our communities,” stated Reid.
The Higginbotham Neighborhood Fund was established in 2011 to supply monetary help to non-profits in areas the place the brokage does enterprise. Workers contribute the funds and might request grants for the organizations they wish to help of their native communities.
The fund has raised greater than $5.2 million in contributions and pledges, and distributed grants to over 1,600 non-profits.
For Reid, Higginbotham’s core values of being household to its workers and beneficiant to its communities is the key to its longevity and continued progress.
“Shifting ahead, we’ll simply proceed to suppose innovatively about how we may be the completely finest place for our workers to work, the best possible advocate for our purchasers, the best possible accomplice of our carriers,” he stated.
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