In our continuing series on Agency Insights, we look at Woodruff-Sawyer, a brokerage specializing in a variety of
services. A member of Assurex, the company is led by CEO, Stan Loar, Chairman of the Board, Doug Morton, and P
resident, Susan Hunt, and operational in all 50 states. Recently, Lisa Brinkmann, Chief Operating Officer of the San Fra
ncisco-based company, sat down with Insurance Journal to discuss the company’s growth, its plans for the future, etc.
Dave Thomas: Tell us a little bit about the company?
Lisa Brinkmann: Woodruff-Sawyer is a privately held brokerage firm that was founded in 1918. We became an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) comp
any in 1994, upon Bob Sawyer’s retirement, and are currently owned by the ESOP and 18 individual shareholders
. We are organized into Practice groups, by both industry sectors and coverage lines – Technology, Technology Risk Management, Construction & Real Estate, Commercial
Risk Management, Employee Benefits, and D&O. Our directors & officers’ unit has been ranked number one in the nation by the Tillinghast Survey for the last two years.
We employ approximately 210 employees and have grown over 155 percent in revenue in the past five years. This growth has been all internal, as we have made no acquisitions.
Dave Thomas: How do you differentiate yourself from the competition?
Lisa Brinkmann: What makes us stand out is that we are still an independent broker. We don’t have to answer to
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a bank or a large corporate office and I think that helps us be fairly nimble. We believe that as a firm, we are only as good as the people we employ. Consequentl
y, we’ve hired from a variety of industries, not just insurance, and rely on our internal intellectual power to come up with creative approaches to client issues. We
are extreely client-focused and I think we do a lot of things that maybe other agencies wouldn’t do. Client service is key for us. This may sound like a cliché, but it really is
n’t. We try to get ahead of the renewal curve and really understand our clients’ operations, so we can
better represent them. We approach many of our client’s issue as a team, tapping on the diversity and experiences of our staff. We’ve put a lot of resources int
o our claims group. We have property/casualty and workers’ comp claims people on board who align themselve
s with our Practices and make sure we’re managing, not just
monitoring, our clients’ claims. We put more effort into loss con
trol and managing the claims so that they get resolved quickly. Right now competition is tough… everybody is trying
to look at what the other broker has and find a way to get it. There aren’t all the IPO and the new businesses starting up, so the market is what it is. We’re also facing a different market climate than what we’ve seen
in the past 8-10 years. Our employees that have been in insurance for a long time understand these cycles. Howev
er, I think we’re in a different environment in that the “speed of change” is happening faster. The instability we’re se
eing on the carrier side is making things difficult as well. Having a flexible, nimble organization is critical in our envi
ronment. Being independent with a diverse employee population helps us approach issues creatively, quickly and with the client’s best interest in mind.
Dave Thomas: How has California’s workers’ comp situation impacted your company?
Lisa Brinkmann: It is tough. We have fewer markets to go to. Our clients are having to pay higher premiums. Carriers are trying to reduce service and the commissions they are paying. We have a very difficult message to deliver to our clients. What we are trying to do is get out in front of the renewal curve and make sure our clients understand what is happening in the market so they can factor this into their planning. We keep on top of the market changes and communicate to our clients why their premiums have increased, what to expect going forward and how to factor mid-term adjustments into their their budgets. We don’t want them to take surprise financial hits because we haven’t given them the information to plan. Obviously, this requires that we spend more time talking with our clients to understand what’s important to them and determine their priorities. Are they able to absorb additional self-insurance limits? Are there loss control procedures that can be put in place to minimize claims over the long term? What is their appetite for risk?