Parents’ part-time agency
blossoms under next generation
Son takes over at age 18; small accounts and
acquisitions spur growth
Phil Zinkewicz
We’re accustomed to reading insurance agency success stories, where one or both parents or even grandparents start up an insurance agency, grow it to significant proportions and then pass down the business to children or grandchildren. By the time the progeny move into the business of insurance, the agency is usually already established as a full-service multiline operation, complete with contacts, mailing lists and top-of-the-line technology.
But what follows here is a different kind of insurance agency success story. In 1960, Doug Walker, Sr., and his wife, Joanna, started up a small personal lines insurance agency in Indianapolis, Indiana, called Doug Walker Agency. At the time, Doug was a full-time Indianapolis firefighter and Joanna was a full-time Realtor™ for a local real estate firm. The insurance agency was really a part-time operation for the Walkers.
“Back then, firefighters worked 24 hours on and 24 hours off, so there was time for me to find a way to make extra money for my growing family,” says Doug, Sr. “My brother-in-law owned an insurance agency business in Bloomington, Indiana, and he suggested that I start up an agency to supplement my firefighter’s income. In the beginning years, we stuck to personal lines and sold auto insurance to firefighters and homeowners insurance to my wife’s real estate customers.”
Doug, Sr., and Joanna continued that way for a little more than a decade, bringing the agency up to a modest $250,000 in written premium by 1973. Enter Doug Walker, Jr.
Although the agency was small by insurance industry standards, Doug, Sr., and Joanna found that running the business was becoming too much for just the two of them and the two part-time workers they employed. Their regular full-time jobs plus the agency left them with very little leisure time. Doug, Jr., had just turned 18 in 1973 when his father asked him if he would join the agency. Doug, Sr., says that his son took to the insurance agency business “like a duck takes to water.”
“They had just passed a law in Indiana allowing people to obtain their insurance agency licenses at 18,” says Doug, Jr. “So, I decided to get my license and join my father, while starting and continuing night college. Sometimes people say to me that it was a shame I had to miss out on college life by going to night school, but I can say without any reservations that I have never regretted my decision. I became the first full-time employee of what came to be known as the Doug Walker & Son Agency.”
Fast forward to 2005. Thirty-two years after Doug, Jr., joined what is now called Walker & Associates, the agency has evolved into a full-service multiple line insurance firm servicing more than 8,500 clients in Central Indiana. The agency now has written premiums of $21 million, with branch offices in Greenwood and Carmel, in addition to the main office in Indianapolis. Today, Walker has 30 full-time employees, including producers. On the personal lines side, Walker & Associates has insurance markets for auto, home, fire, watercraft, recreational vehicles, farms, life insurance, health, disability insurance, IRAs and annuities. On the commercial lines side, Walker does property and liability, package policies, commercial auto, workers compensation, umbrella, professional liability, D&O, bonds, inland marine, group health and life, group disability, and pensions.
“After I received my license, I began taking insurance courses in addition to my work at night school,” says Doug, Jr. “People assumed I was in my 20s, but I was actually only 18. I also joined agents’ associations, such as the PIA and the Big ‘I’. In fact, I was PIA ‘Agent of the Year’ in 1979 and 1987 and, in 1986, I was the delegation leader of a group that visited the Soviet Union and China to learn about their insurance operations.
“In my early days with the agency, I retained the focus on personal lines business using my father’s contacts with the fire department and my mother’s with the realty operation,” he continues. “But our real growth began in 1982 when we decided to acquire some of the agencies owned by older agents who were retiring. Many of those agency owners stayed on with us as producers so that we not only acquired new business but valued talent as well. Since that time, we have completed about 12 acquisitions, usually one-man agencies. We have been fortunate to have these talented people choose us to continue their business. We thrive on small to medium-sized accounts and we respect our accounts whether they represent a premium of $250 or $100,000. We remember what it’s like to be a small business and we bring that to the table when we deal with all our accounts.”
That does not mean to say that Walker & Associates will not consider large accounts. “Let’s put it this way,” says Doug, Jr., “we don’t go out hunting for elephants, but if one comes barreling down our path, we won’t let it get by. Nevertheless, the small to medium accounts represent our livelihood.”
Exhibiting a “we never met a risk we didn’t like” attitude, Doug, Jr., says that many agents shy away from smaller accounts because they believe they are too costly to put on the books and to service over a long period of time. “We do those accounts and we do them well,” he says.
Doug, Jr., says also that Walker & Associates has learned to play market cycles and play them well. “In the 1970s, when the market was hard, many people advised us to become involved in commercial lines, but we remained focused on the personal lines side. When the market softened in the early 1980s, that’s when we moved into commercial lines. Our timing was right.”
But what happened in the mid-’80s when the market hardened severely? “Well, that’s when you depend on your book of business and the companies you’re associated with,” says Doug, Jr. “We have an array of top-notch companies we have been associated with, including Safeco, Indiana, Grange Mutual, Auto Owners, State Auto and several more. Also, that was the period during which we began building our surplus lines business,” he says.
Both Walkers insist in the strongest terms that the success of Walker & Associates over the years has been in great part due to the firm’s employees. They point particularly to Dayna McGinley, vice president of personal lines, and Pam Hecklinski, vice president of commercial lines.
“I joined the Walkers in 1975, just two years after Doug, Jr., came here,” says Dayna. “I was working for a law firm at the time and the agency was handling my personal insurance protection, particularly my health insurance. They asked me to make a switch and I did. Working for Walker & Associates has been and is still a rewarding experience. The Walkers treat people well and they have a high standard of ethics.”
Pam joined the firm in 1992, just as the agency was entering into the commercial lines arena. “I came here from another agency,” says Pam. “I’ve been in the insurance business for 24 years and 12 of those years have been with Walker. I like working with Doug, Sr., and Doug, Jr., because their word is their bond.”
Doug’s sister, Leeann Walker Cook, has been with the agency for 25 years. “She’s an outstanding sales person,” Doug says. Doug’s brother-in-law, Bill Reynolds, has been with the agency for 13 years, handling inside sales and service. “Our employees have always put the customer first,” says Doug. We believe it is not only important to do things right, but to do the right thing.”
The agency’s longest-term employee is Doug, Sr., who, at age 80, still comes into the office every day. His wife, Joanna, continues as a Realtor.
Doug, Jr., remembers one difficult period in 1975. “We were essentially out of business. We had lost our contracts with two of the companies that we represented. If it had not been for one of those companies reinstating us and a couple of others that took a leap of faith by giving us a contract, we would not be here today.
“Growing up in the insurance business and family business had its challenges,” Doug remembers. “When I was at the PIA school at Oberlin College they paired me up with eight or nine other ‘sons’ of the owner. Although I have lost track of these guys, I do not believe any of these are still with the family business. Most of the time the ‘sons’ just don’t work out; often I think because the fathers don’t let it work. I was fortunate to have a father who allowed me to make my own mistakes and to have my own successes. We truly have been able to build the agency together with a lot of help from others.”
Those who helped in the early years included company marketing representatives and older agents who befriended Doug and taught him the business. His uncle and cousin in the insurance agency business also shared ideas. “They have a pretty good-sized operation,” Doug says, “and my cousin and I still exchange strategies on a regular basis.”
Doug, Jr., says that the business of insurance has changed a good deal over the last 30 years. “Not all the changes have been bad,” he says. “When I first started here, we had one electric typewriter, a telephone and copying machine. With the new technologies today, the way insurance products are distributed from the company to the agent and from the agent to the company is unbelievable. We had an advantage in that our growth mirrored technological developments, so we grew with the technology. I don’t know if young people would be able to start up today from scratch without experiencing tremendous costs. We were just there at the right time.” *