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 have been so beneficiant to us throughout our footprint, which at present spans 15 states and 87 workplaces,” stated Higginbotham CEO Rusty Reid (pictured).
At present, Higginbotham is one largest impartial insurance coverage brokerages within the US, in addition to the most important in Texas by income. It was nominated to Insurance coverage Enterprise America’s Prime Insurance coverage Employers checklist 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 response to Reid.
“We started an worker possession journey again in 1989, and it is nonetheless very a lot who we’re at present,” 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 individuals but additionally entice unimaginable expertise to serve our purchasers.”
Reid joined Higginbotham in 1986 from American Common Hearth and Casualty Firm and has since been steering the brokerage by means of a long time of change and development. Underneath his helm, the brokerage established a monetary providers division to supply worker advantages.
However in response to the CEO, what really units Higginbotham aside in at present’s market is its “Day Two” providers, that are geared at supporting purchasers by means of danger administration, claims, profit plan providers, and administration.
“The thought is that on day one, our job is to get a shopper the very best protection, value, and money circulate choices,” Reid stated.
“Then we leverage danger administration, compliance, communications, contract evaluation, know-how… all of the issues above and past delivering a coverage. We’ve got discovered that this resolution has improved our buyer retention price and considerably enhanced our capacity to land clients.”
Celebrating 75 years of development and past
In 2007, Higginbotham launched an aggressive merger and acquisition technique, branching out in Texas and finally throughout the USA.
Final yr, the corporate continued that growth because it entered new states and broadened its footprint in others.
In accordance with Reid, development gained’t decelerate any time quickly, and it’ll proceed to be powered by Higginbotham’s values.
“We launched what we known as our ‘Greatest in Texas’ technique to be aligned with our mission and imaginative and prescient, which is to be one of the best place for workers to work, one of the best shopper advocate, one of the best service accomplice, and one of the 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 search out nice companions. Ninety-eight p.c of our companions are a lot bigger at present than once they joined us. To me, that is form of test that field that it is working.”
On the identical time, Higginbotham is deeply targeted on “old style natural development,” the CEO stated, which entails retaining and discovering new purchasers by bringing them worth.
“We have all the time been nice at natural development as a company. However leveraging our ‘Day Two’ platform has actually been vital for us,” Reid continued.
Giving again to its communities
Amidst great success within the insurance coverage trade, Higginbotham stays grounded in its communities by means of its Higginbotham Neighborhood Fund.
“We have been very blessed as a company that our development hasn’t stopped since 1989. The by-product of that success is with the ability to give again to our communities,” stated Reid.
The Higginbotham Neighborhood Fund was established in 2011 to offer monetary assist to non-profits in places the place the brokage does enterprise. Staff contribute the funds and may request grants for the organizations they need to assist 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 development.
“Shifting ahead, we’ll simply proceed to assume innovatively about how we could be the completely finest place for our workers to work, the very best advocate for our purchasers, the very best accomplice of our carriers,” he stated.
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