The beginnings of Arbella Insurance weren't very auspicious. Massachusetts' Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers (CAR), the state's reinsurance pool created in the late 1970s, dominated a market in disarray. By the early 1980s, more than 60 percent of all drivers were in the pool, which carried a deficit of around $500 million. Insurance fraud was rampant, with overworked courts and police disinclined to do much about it.

Insurers were leaving the state in droves, including Kemper Group, which insured 7 percent of the Massachusetts auto market. The move would have required Kemper to pay a deficit of $40 million to CAR, cease writing all other lines of business, left more than 400 personal lines employees out of a job, and thousands of policyholders without coverage, said Frank Bellotti, former Massachusetts attorney general and current vice chairman of Arbella's board of directors.

Instead, Kemper's general counsel Lee McClain hatched a plan to create a mutual insurer—the first in the state in the last 50 years–to assume Kemper's personal lines business in Massachusetts. The plan required a special act from the state legislature.

Once the structure was in place, Kemper merged its agents and personal lines employees into Arbella and provided back-office functions for a year, said John Donohue, Arbella chairman and CEO. McClain stayed on to serve on Arbella's board of directors, and there are still two Kemper agents on the current board.

Today, still headquartered in Quincy, Mass., Arbella has more than 900 employees and provides personal and business insurance in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and business insurance in Rhode Island and New Hampshire, with $600 million in revenue and approximately $1 billion in assets.

Its agency force of about 450 is a key factor in its success, Donohue said. “We've always been focused on being a local company that understands what's involved in succeeding in this unique market,” he said.

Over the years, the Massachusetts auto market gradually underwent a transformation. Arbella helped create an insurance fraud bureau in the 1990s, which helped bring the problem under control. Finally in 2008, the state allowed rate competition, which opened the door for large national direct writers.

But in spite of the geckos and camels, independent agencies still dominate almost 70 percent of the Massachusetts personal lines auto market—primarily because of their generational relationships with policyholders, and because they have a deep understanding of Massachusetts' unique market, Donohue said. Arbella's current percentage of the the state's auto market is 9 percent.

In fact, one of the reasons Kemper left the market is because as a national company, they had difficulty operating in Massachusetts' unique environment, Bellotti said. “National companies have trouble understanding regulatory structure in Massachusetts and considered it overregulated,” he said.

Mix a high concentration of vehicles and drivers in a small state with old roads, New England weather conditions, and “assertive” drivers—“put it all together and it creates some very big challenges on how you can operate profitably,” Donohue said.

“Agents have a finger on the pulse of what's happening,” Bellotti said. “National companies do a lot on Internet, but they don't know what people are thinking.” He cited recent studies that show while most insurance buyers shop coverage on the Internet, most want to deal with a “real person” when it's time to buy.

Arbella keeps communications open with agents with regional breakfast meetings twice a year in several different locations, an agency dedicated website, and a force of marketing reps traveling all over southern New England to meet producers face to face. “If we're not getting it right–whether it's pricing, coverage or service–we hear about it real quickly from our agents,” Donohue said.

Arbella's mutual structure also keeps it competitive, Bellotti said. “The good thing about mutual companies is that you don't have dual obligations to stockholders and policyholders. Mutual companies don't have that conflict: their only obligation is to policyholders. This allows us to take a longer-term approach because don't have to satisfy stockholders every quarter.”

Read related: “Mutuals Maven: NAMIC's Charles M. Chamness”

And although Arbella wants to “dominate” the New England market in all lines of insurance—it has almost doubled its commercial business over the past 5 years–there are no plans to go national, Donohue said. Arbella stays close to its roots, with about 60 percent of its business in auto, 25 percent in commercial, and 15 percent in homeowners.

Commercial growth is especially targeted since small manufacturing is coming back in the region, Donohue said. “We're seeing some very strong growth across Massachusetts and southern New England. We can write workers' comp, general liability, auto, everything that employers need for their business,” he said. “And as the economy comes back, we're also seeing growth in restaurant area, especially in new immigrant and ethnic communities.”

Finally, Arbella is heavily engaged in giving back to the New England community with several charitable initiatives, including the Arbella Insurance Foundation (“Foundation”), established in 2004 to support the not-for-profit organizations serving New England. In seven years, the Foundation has donated more than $13 million to 960 different charities.

In recognition of Arbella's 25th anniversary, the Foundation created 50 to 25,” a program that awarded one-time grants of $50,000 to 25 regional charities, suggested by Arbella employees, independent insurance agents and longtime charitable partners. Checks were presented to the selected charities at a celebratory luncheon in September.

Not a bad run for a business born of chaos. “Like our customers, we live here and are devoted to New England,” Donohue said. “We know this territory, and understand the weather challenges and our customers' needs better than anyone.”

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