FORT WORTH, Texas — Higginbotham, the largest independent insurance, financial and HR services firm headquartered in Texas and one of the top firms in the country, has brought on board Barnard Insurance Group of Wichita Falls, Texas. This move turns a friendly rivalry between neighbors into a sturdy collaboration with benefits for teams and clients on both sides.
Higginbotham Chairman and CEO Rusty Reid looks to the future with a platform of strategic growth, building relationships with respected agencies that share the firm’s culture of client service, team support, and community investment. With Barnard Insurance Group of Wichita Falls, Reid didn’t have to look far. Higginbotham already has an office in the Texas city, which lies only two hours northwest of Fort Worth.
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“Barnard Insurance Group has been family owned and operated since 1931,” said Reid. “They have accounts that are 60 years old, and a wall in their office that celebrates team members who’ve been on board for 30 years or more. They have terrific relationships with insurance carriers and irreplaceable expertise in the energy industry. Best of all, we already know them and know we’re going to enjoy working with them.”
Barnard Insurance Managing Director John Barnard agreed, noting that the familiarity between his office and the Wichita Falls Higginbotham office has made the collaboration uniquely friendly and comfortable.
“Rusty likes to say about future partners, ‘Would you have Thanksgiving dinner with them?'” said Barnard. “Well, we’re past that point with the Higginbotham folks. I used to be next door neighbors with the managing director here, and our kids go to school together. We’re committed members of the same community, so in a way, we’re already a team. Now we get to take that teamwork to the office as well.”
Barnard Insurance Office Manager Sharon Hubbard shared her positive experiences of the transition, noting that the easy exchange of ideas between the two teams has already led to improvements for both — and to one significant addition to her firm’s menu of offerings.
“We had a group from Higginbotham over last week and everybody was talking to everybody about new systems and new ways of doing things,” said Hubbard. “We have a lot of specialized information to share about services we’ve offered for decades, and now we get to tap into the Higginbotham resources for things like employee benefits services that we’ve never offered before. This is going to be such a winning combination.”
Barnard concluded by noting the importance of economies of scale in the modern insurance industry, wisdom born from his firm’s many successful decades of serving the niche oil and gas industry with specialized offerings allowed by wide market penetration.
“The industry has changed a lot,” Barnard said. “You’ve got to have a strong team behind you and a lot of insurance carriers to choose from — which means you’ve got to have the buying power of a company like Higginbotham. We’re excited for the future with this partnership because it’s going to make us more competitive and allow us to offer more value to our clients than ever before.”
SOURCEÂ Higginbotham
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