The Insurica Pampa office, previously located at 117 E. Kingsmill, has now moved around the block to 106 E. Francis, keeping their home along the red bricks of downtown.
But other than a new location, the expansion of capabilities Insurica can provide to potential clients has grown over recent years, and with more than 35 locations throughout the United States, each branch is tailored to serve certain demographic needs, including our little slice of Texas.
“We are the old Duncan, Fraser & Bridges which sold in 2017 to Insurica, and what that did was it allowed us to access more markets because Insurica is a national market,” said Branch Ambassador Mike Mitchell. “Duncan, Fraser & Bridges had been around for a long time, and we were able to reorganize and restructure the company to Insurica’s model so that it would work for everybody. Now instead of having just local markets, we have national markets we can go to, and we’re one of the top 50 brokers in the country right now. We can go to multiple commercial markets that most agencies can’t reach.”
The market expansion made a positive difference for the Pampa area, considering this region is notorious for elemental disasters that tend to strike with little to no warning. With more options to choose from, Insurica has the ability to not only find rates that a client can afford, but a plan that gives them the most coverage and protection.
“With the expansion, we were able to include personal lines for home and auto because the markets are getting pretty tough out there with all the fires, the wind and the hail. Insurance is just getting expensive around here because the claims are so high with what we call ‘perils’, such as fire, wind and hail. The exposure to those is just really high in this area. A few years ago, companies had $500 roof deductibles for wind and hail, but now it’s a percentage of the home. If your home is worth $100,000 and the deductible is 10%-it just gets higher and higher the more your house is. There’s more cost-sharing with the client versus what there was back in the day.”
“Our goal here is that we want to keep your cost down as much as we can and do the best we can to get you the best benefits, but we want to make sure you’re covered properly. There’s a lot of holes in a commercial policy that you might not be aware of and you have to be careful. We want to get the cost as low as we can, but we want to make sure you’re covered. That’s our first priority.”
For commercial properties, Insurica has a specific process to help keep both the business and employees protected, forming a strategic plan based on thorough risk assessments by experts in the field.
“We specialize in commercial insurance for businesses, which includes general liability, commercial auto for businesses, insurance for inland equipment, worker’s compensation, and we also do what we call excess liability which goes above general liability in case you’re involved in a major lawsuit.”
“Back in the day you could go to your household names like Traveler’s and Liberty Mutual, and they would sell anything you needed, but now it’s very streamlined on what they will do. Those major carriers won’t even do property and you have to find someone else who does. If you have a business that uses blasting materials, like if you’re out there working on the land and you’re clearing out to put in a road and you’re using explosives, not many carriers will write that and you have to go somewhere else. Even farm and ranch has gotten really specialized. Depending on what you’re doing, you have to go to specialized carriers, and in order to access those markets, you have to be with a bigger company now.”
“The right insurance is crucial to have. If you have an employee who drops his cell phone, reaches down to pick it up, and hits someone from behind and they’re sent to the hospital, now there’s a lawsuit. If you have your business name on the side of your vehicle, the attorney is not only going to come after you, they’re going to come after your business. You have to be very careful when you put that business name on the side of your car because they will come after your business and you have to have a really specific business insurance to cover it. There’s a lot of people who don’t realize that. A person’s individual policy won’t cover something like that because they’re also involved in a business and that’s what they’ll go after. You just have to be really careful.”
It’s also worth mentioning that while having your insurance rates go up is frustrating and feels unfair, especially if you haven’t ever needed to utilize what your insurance is meant to do, Mike says it’s not necessarily on the company nor the client.
“Those companies don’t take it based on what you do, they take it as a general area, and if those claims for the Tri-State area go up by a certain percentage, you’re going to get an increase. Now there are things called hard markets and soft markets-if rates go up, it’s a hard market, and if they go down, it’s a soft market, and we’re in a bit of a soft market right now for commercial property insurance rates. I haven’t seen any increases in the last year and they’ve been going down, making the market a little more competitive. It’s all based on premiums coming in versus claims paid on those premiums, that’s what it all depends on. It’s all adjusted to the area you’re in.”
Mike has worked for Insurica Pampa for three years, but his experience goes beyond 30 years, having owned and operated his own insurance agency in Colorado for several years. So what brought him to Pampa?
“I was planning to retire, but I met Shawn Boyd who is the General Manager in Amarillo, and at the time as he was making the move to Amarillo, he said, ‘we need somebody here (Pampa) with some experience to keep this place running.’ It really kind of just fell into my lap and I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m from Clovis, and I used to come play Pampa in football, so I’m really familiar with the town. These towns are like a mirror where everybody knows everybody, and Pampa is a really great community to live in.”
Mike and his team, John East and Shonda Rucker, encourage anyone who has questions about their current policy or are in the market for a new one to stop by their office Monday through Friday from 8:15 AM to 4:45 PM and they’ll be happy to help. For more information about the services Insurica Pampa provides, you can visit www.insurica.com, call 806-669-3333, or stop by the office.
“Regardless of who you’re insured with, it’s very important to sit down with your agent, read what the policy has, read over the declaration pages, and read the exclusion pages. If it’s something you’re confused about, come by here and we’ll look at it for you, and if there’s a better policy, we’ll help you with one.”
