While most insurance agencies focus on marketing and branding its identity through social media and community service, the Insurance Office of America (IOA), Longwood, Fla., also uses a different form of marketing through a partnership with professional sports teams. As the official broker for the Orlando Magic, Oakland Raiders, Jacksonville Jaguars, New Jersey Devils and Michael Waltrip Racing, IOA increases its brand awareness beyond what would be possible through normal means.

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“Partnering with sports teams helps us brand IOA in areas where we have offices,” said Heath Ritenour, CEO, IOA. “It has helped us gain notoriety in markets that we haven't been in for many years. For example, we are the official insurance provider of the Oakland Raiders. That has helped our agents in California get some notoriety that they otherwise wouldn't have since IOA has only been doing business in California for less than 5 years.” He added, The tickets aren't bad, either.”

The Orlando Magic approached Ritenour and his father about 10 years ago to be the basketball team's insurance provider. The relationship went so well, IOA decided to expand this program into other communities where the brokerage had operations. After finalizing its second sports deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars football franchise, other teams began to contact IOA for coverage.

IOA developed an in-house department that specializes in professional sports teams. This unit has created a program that uses top-rated companies and enhanced client services to create an offering that meets the needs of its professional sports team clients. The agency also negotiates a branding sponsorship with the teams if it has offices in the area. These sponsorships have accelerated the normal pace of brand awareness. What used to take years to develop is now accomplished over the course of a season.

IOA also gives back to the communities it serves and it supports various local and national non-profit organizations through the IOA Foundation. For more than 15 years, IOA has supported the Corporate 5K event that benefits Track Shack Foundation, an organization that promotes health and fitness by funding youth athletics and sports programs. More than $55,000 was donated through race proceeds last year.

“We realized a few years ago when the economy took a drastic turn that we had a lot of our own IOA family who were struggling to make ends meet, so we started the IOA Helping Hands Fund,” Ritenour said. “IOA donates to this fund, along with the agent contributions that are there when one of our family members is in need.”

The fund provides IOA's employees assistance with financial matters or basic needs like food, emergency car repairs, electric bills or diapers. An office in the headquarters is used as a pantry for employees to gather some of these essential items at no cost. These activities are coordinated by the Helping Hands committee, not management, so the employee is able to get the assistance they need confidentially.

“Mom and pop” agency

IOA handles more than $1 billion in premium with annual revenues of about $80 million. Roughly 90 percent of that volume is commercial lines and 10 percent is personal lines. IOA has 23 offices with locations from coast to coast. This size has not come overnight and for the most part it has been built the hard way, one agent at a time, one client at a time, Ritenour said.

Heath's parents, John and Valli Ritenour, founded IOA in January 1988. The family started the agency with simple principles of serving clients fairly, providing producers with equity in their books of business and paying a generous commission. The Ritenours had hopes of being a local success in Orlando, but had no idea that these principles would take their agency to the national level it has achieved today.

Heath Ritenour worked at IOA on summer breaks as a student and began his full-time insurance career straight out of college, “Insurance is in my blood, as both of my parents were in the business since their early 20s,” he said.

The agency recruits seasoned producers through a generous commission split, equity in their books of business and the opportunity to own stock in the company. “Ownership is the first tool that helps IOA provide a culture of caring and longevity amongst the IOA family,” Ritenour said. IOA's producers earn the right to purchase shares based on production.

About 5 years ago, realizing the agency was heavy with producers on the verge of retirement, IOA management made a conscious decision to bring in some of the best college-aged agents to ensure a second generation waiting to take over. This influx of new talent will ensure that IOA will continue to be in a position to provide its clients with the best possible insurance programs for generations to come.

Servicing clients

IOA's partnership mentality goes beyond its agents and sports teams. The agency provides its 645 staff members with the tools they need to better service the agency's clients. For example, IOA provides in-house claim adjusters (not representatives) who work with its carrier partners on the clients' behalf and has also developed special programs for specific industries ranging from catastrophe exposed property, architects and engineers, manufacturing, construction, aviation and transportation.

IOA also developed services that are not traditionally associated with insurance agencies, such as HR software and help lines to many of its clients. This is beneficial because many of its clients have had to trim HR departments during the recession and/or have one person juggling multiple tasks. IOA clients can ask experts HR-related questions to ensure they keep their organizations in compliance with various rules and regulations.

“We strive to offer value to clients as their trusted advisors,” Ritenour said. “We believe our value proposition is second to none in the industry, and we are always looking for ways to improve what we offer our clients.” As an independent agency, IOA offers its clients free services and tools that many competitors charge for.

To deal with the ongoing soft market, IOA works with its partner carriers to guarantee that it has the best programs for its clients. Beyond providing insurance, IOA works diligently to make sure that clients acknowledge value in services beyond the sales transaction.

IOA understands that to beat competitors, it has to sell more—and to sell more, it has to offer value to its clients. For example, healthcare clients have access to an array of services through Hewitt & Assocs. that are typically only available to companies with more than 4,000 employees. IOA offers these services to clients with more than 25 employees, providing middle-market clients with some of the same benefits that national companies can offer.

An example of IOA's ability to provide outstanding customer service occurred a few years ago when its headquarters were exposed to a chaotic hurricane season. While most other agencies had to shut down, IOA helped with claims and stayed opened due to the diesel generator it has behind the office. The storms created a large volume of calls, so they were able to reroute calls to offices that were not affected by the storms. This gave their clients the ability to talk to someone who could answer their questions and process their claims much faster than would have been possible otherwise.

“We also will continue to work with our current agent's to improve the services they can offer their clients,” Ritenour said.

Still growing

Even though IOA is the largest privately held independent agency in Florida and one of the top 10 privately held in the U.S., the agency still has aggressive growth plans. The firm has begun to target acquisitions in all areas of insurance including property- casualty, benefits and personal lines. IOA has not typically grown through acquisition, but Ritenour feels the time is right for the firm to explore these options.

Ritenour believes that other agencies can find success like IOA if they keep three things in mind: remove greed from the structure of the agency, provide ownership to employees and to offer value over and above price to customers.

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