CEO John Dawson and Executive Chairman Jon Jensen of Correll Insurance Group.
With win-win M&As, this South Carolina
agency grows to more than 50 offices in six states
By Dennis H. Pillsbury
Photography by Arturo Paulino
“In 2000, we made an acquisition as a perpetuation move and a way to add to our talent pool,” says Jon A. Jensen, executive chairman of Correll Insurance Group, headquartered in Spartanburg, South Carolina. “That worked out well and we did another and then another and that process began to speed up as we learned from our early experiences. That’s how we ended up with more than 50 offices.
“What we were looking for in each of our acquisitions was great people in good locations who wanted to continue to run their own business,” Jon adds. “We didn’t want to fix things, so with each acquisition, we created a win-win situation where we offered the potential of increased contingencies and spread, as well as access to more resources, while they provided an ongoing successful business that was looking to grow.
(left) The agency, originally named First Mutual Agency, was founded by Harold Correll and S.C. Roper in 1931.
“We found that we could manage that many offices because every office continued to be run by the good people who had helped build it,” he notes. “But most important is that each of these offices joined us because we had proven over the years that we could be trusted and that, when we made an acquisition, it was because we trusted them. People honor that.”
Staying ego-free
CEO John H. Dawson picks up: “This has resulted in our having people in each office who are willing to run their own business as if they own it themselves and are given a level of accountability, freedom, and autonomy to grow.
“One of the things that we are very conscious of is the need to remain ego-free,” he adds. “We don’t change the name of the agency. We want them to lean into their own identity as important members of the community they serve.
(Right) Albert Correll (left), Harold’s son, with Partners Charles Smith and Dan Willis.
“We don’t want to become a big agency. We want to become a small agency that is big. … [E]ach one of our offices is autonomous and continues to bean important part of the community that it serves … .”
—Jon Jensen
( right) From left: Albert Correll, Harold Correll and Agency Partner Frank Crews.
“We never made a call to start an acquisition. We’ve always been approached. That’s because we have a reputation for keeping our promises. We have never in any acquisition let anybody go.”
—Jon Jensen
“Education also is a big component in our organization. … [It’s] a significant long-term investment that will help us move into the future with smart, educated people.”
—John Dawson
“We have offices that make Correll look like a youngster,” John notes. “Correll traces its roots back to 1931 when the agency was founded by Harold Correll and his partner who were owners. But some of our acquisitions were founded in the 1800s.
“The only prerequisite we have is that they are all on the same agency management system, to facilitate communication between offices and to avoid cannibalization,” he continues. “We use technology to enhance the quality of work for our clients and our people.
“To keep abreast of what is happening in the technology world, I am a member and on the board of NetVU,” John explains. “This helps us to explore and identify those new technologies that we can use to improve service to our customers and to our insurance company partners. Jon has also been heavily involved in the Big ‘I’ nationally and locally.”
Jon points out proudly: “We never made a call to start an acquisition. We’ve always been approached. That’s because we have a reputation for keeping our promises. We have never in any acquisition let anybody go.
“That’s pretty unusual,” he adds, “but it speaks to how carefully we do our homework ahead of time. That gets out there. We have a different way of doing things. The trust that we have earned has been a key part in our being able to attract almost 600 associates into our group.”
“We are very guarded about maintaining this as an exclusive group of some of the best agencies in the country,” John adds. “We’re eager to have high-quality partners join us. We’ve steered clear of being just an acquirer.”
Team members gather for a meeting in the agency’s library at its Spartanburg location.
Hitting a milestone
“We don’t want to become a big agency,” Jon continues. “We want to become a small agency that is big. That’s reflected in the fact that each one of our offices is autonomous and continues to be an important part of the community that it serves and maintains those vital connections with people and businesses it has established.
“This way, all our clients continue to experience the friendship they have with members of the local offices and the small agency feel that helps to cement long-term relationships, while at the same time enjoy the services that can be provided by a group that reached more than $100 million in commission revenue last year,” he notes.
(Far Left) Jon meets with Polly Edwards-Padgett, Executive Director of the Spartanburg Regional Foundation, where he currently serves as the board chairman.
(Left) Jon joined the board of The Children’s Museum of the Upstate’s Spartanburg location in 2022. He meets with the location’s director, Raven Logan.
In recognition of approaching that milestone, Correll transitioned leadership to bring in the next generation to lead growth to its next $100 million. That’s when John took over the CEO position from Jon, who moved to executive chairman. “It’s my job to build on the groundwork laid down by my predecessors and to live up to the high bar that’s been set,” John explains. “Over the last five years, we have grown at about 20% annually from both organic growth and acquisitions. And our retention is well over 90%.
“And while those numbers may be impressive,” he continues, “what’s really important is what that allows us to do to strengthen our relationships with clients, companies, and our communities. In the latter regard, we created an employee-led charitable organization, The Correll Foundation, which can make charitable donations itself and it also provides support to charities supported by one or more of our offices. The offices can request matching funds. We (management) are not involved. This truly is an employee-led organization.”
Among the local charities supported by the Foundation are: The Walk for Apraxia, the largest fund raiser and awareness event supporting children affected by childhood apraxia of speech; Youth Villages, which provides in-home and residential treatment for children who experience emotional, mental, and behavioral challenges or abuse; Trellis Supportive Care, which provides hospice and palliative care services to individuals with serious illnesses and the families; and Seven Homes, a North Carolina charity that trains qualified foster parents.
Other organizations supported include Mending Hearts, which helps women restore their lives from addiction by providing safe housing, long-term treatment therapy programs, and skill-building classes, as well as offering intensive family seminars for patients’ families; The Children’s Museum of the Upstate (TCMU), one of the largest children’s museums in the world, which was the first children’s museum to be recognized as a Smithsonian affiliate; and The Spartanburg Regional Foundation (SRF), which supports the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System and a wide array of projects and programs that promote community health. John serves on the TCMU board of directors and Jon is a trustee of the SRF.
Education and more
“Education also is a big component in our organization,” John notes, “and we’ve found that what we offer in this regard has been a strong attracter for those agencies looking for a partner. In fact, we have several people working full-time in education, including ‘Chappy’ Chapman, who is a full-time teacher for us.” Chappy previously worked as an instructor for the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance’s Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) professional designation training program.
Everyone deserves a break from time to time. Jon and John enjoy time outside the Little River Coffee Bar in downtown Spartanburg.
“We also have a full-time trainer,” he adds. “This has proven to be a very challenging labor market, and we are working with these people to develop our own talent. This is a significant long-term investment that will help us move into the future with smart, educated people.”
Breadth of resources
Jon adds that among the additional resources provided to the offices are international resources, including “a London brokerage that we set up years ago; we are a coverholder with Lloyd’s and have developed an exclusive coastal properties coverage with them.” The agency also owns a Third-Party Administrator and has the ability to enter the alternative marketplace, using captives or other solutions, for those clients that need and want that approach.
“This really is another attracter for agencies looking for solutions for clients that may have international exposures,” Jon explains. “I also should point out that I served as chairman of the Big ‘I’ representing the association at the World Federation of Insurance Intermediaries, and also as chairman capacity for WFII; this helps us to keep up with what is happening in the global insurance marketplace.
“In addition to offering all lines of property/casualty insurance,” Jon continues, “we also offer a number of niche programs—for high-value homes, cyber liability, nonprofit insurance, and an exclusive specialty program for emergency service organizations (ESOs), including fire departments and EMS.”
The fire department and EMS program is written though a partnership with Volunteer Firemen’s Insurance Services and offered by the agency in the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Virginia. “I’m very proud to be part of this program,” Jon notes. “It’s one of the reasons I am here. Our emergency responders deserve the best insurance coverage and we are able to provide that.”
Always improving
Jon concludes that “we don’t ever look to do things the easy way. We do it our way and that is always evolving. We have periodic management meetings where we, among other things, talk about new ideas; we get so many that we have to whittle down on them to reach a consensus on which we can implement now.”
“Our offices also serve as important resources to each other, sometimes in surprising ways,” John explains. “For example, we have more than a dozen offices on the coast and they have developed an expertise in working through hurricanes. They often support each other if one of the offices loses power or its employees can’t get to work, and our offices in other areas have also pitched in.
“But in the strange-but-true category,” he adds, “those coastal agencies were able to return the favor and provide similar help to agencies in the interior when Hurricane Helene hit in 2024 and moved through the western part of South and North Carolina and Tennessee.”
Local presence, international reach
John sums up by declaring that “we have created something unique that truly is able to provide the closeness of a local agency combined with the resources of a large agency, where our clients deal with service and salespeople who live in their community and we have national and international reach. We represent more than 300 insurance companies ensuring that we can pursue a solution for nearly everyone who comes to us.”
Rough Notes is proud to recognize Correll Insurance Group as our Agency of the Month. Their commitment to supporting the industry in which they operate, as well as the communities where they serve, is commendable and instructional.
The author
Dennis Pillsbury is a Virginia-based freelance insurance writer.
