Members of the Breezy Seguros team
This trilingual Massachusetts agency
provides insurance services to the Latino community
By Dennis H. Pillsbury
The Latino community is one of the fastest growing demographics in the United
States. While it currently accounts for approximately 19% of the U.S. population, census projections indicate that in 20 years, the Latino community will account for about 25%. Clearly, this is an attractive target for the insurance industry, since the vast majority of this population are working age and greatly in need of the protection the insurance industry can provide as they grow their families and their businesses.
Despite this, the community has not always been viewed by the insurance industry as an attractive market for a variety of reasons, stemming from a language barrier and, for many within the community, a lack of knowledge about the insurance requirements in each of the states. This lack of understanding has led to mistakes that can result in insurance claims and has resulted in some insurance companies determining that the “business written in the Latino community is not generally profitable,” says Monica Adwani, chief executive officer and partner at Breezy Seguros Insurance Agency in Framingham, Massachusetts.
leads a meeting in the agency’s conference room.
“Our job at the agency is to educate both our clientele and the insurance companies that we represent. That’s why 90% of our staff is trilingual (Portuguese, Spanish, and English), so we can explain to each of our clients in their chosen language what they need to know about … .”
—Monica Adwani
Chief Executive Officer
“Our job at the agency is to educate both our clientele and the insurance companies that we represent,” she continues. “That’s why 90% of our staff is trilingual (Portuguese, Spanish, and English), so we can explain to each of our clients in their chosen language what they need to know about the auto, home and commercial insurance requirements in Massachusetts and why it’s important to have the correct coverage so they aren’t caught short if there’s a liability situation.
“They need to understand liability, uninsured and underinsured coverage, especially right now as unemployment is starting to tick up and we may see a growth in the number of uninsured motorists,” Monica adds. “When they are renting or buying a home, they need to know how to protect their property effectively at a price they can afford.
“At the same time,” she explains, “we need to show the companies that some of the mistakes have occurred simply because people were adapting to the American society and that they will become even better risks over time.”
She admits that some of these conversations are especially difficult today because of the increasingly hard market in personal lines. However, the growing number of commercial risks available from this community is a completely different story.
“These are hard-working entrepreneurs who are committed to making their businesses successful,” Monica explains. “Since we entered the commercial lines side of the business three years ago, our commercial lines loss ratios have been no more than 30%, with the exception of a few shock losses.”
Administrative Assistant Mariana Sena
How it began
It all started at a community hub for the Brazilian-American community in Framingham. (Framingham has the second largest Brazilian community in the United States.) The gathering took place regularly to discuss issues affecting the community, and insurance emerged as one of the concerns. So, in response, two entrepreneurs decided to start an insurance agency that would provide the services needed to help members of the community understand in their own language risk management and the need for insurance.
Above: Henrique Costa, Administrative Assistant, and Emanuelle Bena, Front Desk
Left: Co-founder and CTO Eucimar Raposo
Below: The agency welcomes its clients (and team members) with its customer coffee bar located in the front.
In 2017, BRZ Insurance was founded by Rodolpho Sanz Jr. and Tiago Prado to provide personal lines coverage. Rapid growth enjoyed by the agency made it clear that there was a need. “In personal lines only, the agency was writing between
$1 million and $2 million in premium every month,” explains Monica, who didn’t join the agency until 2022.
Several of the agency’s commercial clients
are Latino-owned local businesses and
artisan contractors. Monica Adwani and Eucimar Raposo
visit with employees of Framingham’s Union Avenue Gas Station and Samay Gas Station.
“[W]e always have people to talk to. We get about 400 walk-ins every
week and get about 6,000 phone calls a month. … In essence, we’re a
community resource, with selling insurance just a consequence of what we do.”
—Monica Adwani
“The agency was growing fast, almost too fast,” she adds, “and while this volume attracted insurance carriers, there was a clear need to get a handle on the business, focusing on client retention and establishing processes that assured that the clients we sent to insurance company partners were good risks that they would want to keep. It only made sense if we were the agency that could establish a win-win-win situation where all parties benefited from the transaction.”
Moves into commercial
Monica was brought in as CEO to help bring order to the chaos. As one Rough Notes reader observed, “Monica is a process goddess.” Bilingual (in English and Spanish) when she joined, Monica took a deep dive into Portuguese as well as a deep dive into the workings of the agency.
Under her leadership, the agency made the strategic decision to expand into commercial lines in order to provide the diversity needed to weather the hard market in personal lines.
“Initially, the majority of our commercial lines business came from artisan contractors, reflecting the types of jobs and businesses that our community tended to be involved in,” Monica recalls. “These contractors represented about 80% of our commercial lines book, but also presented us with a problem, as the property market hardened and a slowdown in new construction had started.
“Our next move was to expand into other commercial niches, including trucking, consultants, real estate, nonprofits, and financial services,” she explains.
And change the name
“We also found out from talking to many of our clients that the name BRZ was confusing to some who felt it was short for Brazil and therefore only served members of the Brazilian-American community. That wasn’t good, since we were focused on serving the entire Latino community,” Monica points out. “So, we combined our own thoughts and some research with our customer base.
“This is especially easy here,” she notes, “because we always have people to talk to. We get about 400 walk-ins every week and get about 6,000 phone calls a month. This reflects our origin coming out of a community center. In many ways, we still are one. People call us or drop in to discuss everything. Some of our clients don’t read, so they’ll ask for our help. Some need a lawyer and we’ll point them in the right direction. In essence, we’re a community resource, with selling insurance just a consequence of what we do.
“After much discussion, we decided on the name Breezy Seguros for our agency, because it reflects our mission to simplify the world of insurance,” Monica says. “We feel that it brings to mind a sense of freshness, innovation, agility, and adaptability—core values that guide every interaction we have with our customers.
“It just struck me as perfect because it built on the BRZ of our original name that had gained some important recognition and a reputation for integrity and fair dealing,” she notes. “And it reminded me of that little breeze, the gentle wind that hits you while sitting on your grandma’s porch, in the town square of your hometown, or by the beach you went to as a kid.
“That nostalgia for what’s behind us as we chase what’s ahead is what we want people to think of when they come to our agency. We want people to feel at home.” (It should be noted that Seguros is the word for insurance in both Spanish and Portuguese.)
It’s working
A message is reaching insurance companies as results are beginning to overcome the skepticism that was the initial reaction to the agency’s clientele. This is pointed out by the fact that “we have profit sharing with seven different companies,” Monica explains. Now, she says, “Their (the carriers’) perception of the Latino community is more in tune with our own.
“They’ve seen that Latino business can be profitable and produce good returns for the company,” she adds. “A lot depends on the values of each company and whether it can comprehend how the Latino community can fit with those values.”
The agency’s move into commercial lines has proven to be a great strategic one. Commercial lines now represents some 57% of the agency’s revenues.
In addition to supporting its community by providing assistance with any problem they may have, including insurance, Breezy Seguros also supports nonprofit organizations that are focused on helping disadvantaged children. This includes the For One Child Foundation, which provides essential educational resources to underserved children such as school facilities, learning materials, technology, and scholarships; and WellStorm, Inc., which was formed to bridge resource gaps through mutual aid to help reduce homelessness, improve mental health, provide youth programming, and combat food insecurity.
As the United States heads toward an even greater ethnic diversity, the lessons shared by Breezy Seguros could prove valuable to other entrepreneurs looking for ways to serve and protect their communities.
Rough Notes is proud to recognize Breezy Seguros as our Agency of the Month. They are yet another example of how flexible the independent agency system is, allowing it to find unique ways to meet the risk management needs of many different communities.
The author
Dennis Pillsbury is a Virginia-based freelance insurance writer.
