Although Rosenfeld Einstein (RE) has ascended into its third-generation of family ownership, the company's philosophies still reflect the traditional values of its founding father, William Rosenfeld. RE is a full-service, independent insurance agency and consulting firm specializing in business and personal coverage, employee benefits, financial planning, wellness programs and workplace safety consultation.
Rosenfeld established William Rosenfeld Insurance Inc. in 1933 in North Carolina. After five years, Rosenfeld moved his family and business to Greenville, S.C., where the company still resides today. Concluding his military services after World War II, Rosenfeld continued to grow his business by providing his clients with life insurance and employee benefit programs, and brokered to other agencies until Aetna became the primary carrier.
In 1958 Rosenfeld's son-in-law, Nathan A. Einstein, joined the firm, and was soon followed by Albert Voss, who both led the company and formed Rosenfeld Einstein & Assocs. The name was then shortened to Rosenfeld Einstein. Today, RE is led by president Dan Einstein and principals Howard Einstein, Nathan Einstein and Albert Voss.
As a privately held firm and one of Southeast's fastest-growing insurance groups, RE's business split is 70 percent commercial and 30 percent personal lines. RE has a historical relationship with the textile industry, and within the past 15 years, has developed an expertise in manufacturing sectors such as advanced materials, automotive, biopharma, packaging and metalworking.
"We do an excellent job across a very broad spectrum of large and small manufacturing, including many entrepreneurial firms in the early stages of their growth," said Charles Ratterree, director of marketing for RE. "Additionally, we have a high percentage of clients that would be described as professional or executive. This includes firms that would provide accounting, architectural/engineering, legal and medical services."
RE represents various insurers including Accident Fund, Chubb, Hartford, MedPro, Travelers and Zurich within their commercial lines in property-casualty division. It also represents Auto Owners and Central for personal lines. "We are fortunate to have many long and valued partnerships," Ratterree said.
Having 67 dedicated employees representing expansive sources of professional background, along with individuals outside the insurance industry, provides RE with various unique perspectives to its management team. "Our focus is to continue increasing the diversity of our workforce to assist with our understanding of the real day-to-day challenges that our own clients face," Ratterree said. RE also provides its associates with continuing education courses for industry designations and any business-related and personal development training. The agency devises annual individual plans to encourage growth in employee's knowledge of the insurance industry.
As director of marketing and one of the senior executives of the agency, Ratterree is challenged with the responsibilities or processing management and marketing of RE products and services for both its property-casualty and employee benefits divisions.
Like many other full-service agencies looking to thrive in a competitive industry, RE provides programs with the goal of prospecting and retaining clients. However, RE has successful services that are simple and reinforce the care for personal relationships with its clients. For example, RE offers a service for clients who have children becoming first-time drivers. For many years, RE principals invested their own time to schedule appointments with the new driver to discuss their privileges in their new role.
RE also has more formal programs, such as its extensive workplace safety model that concentrates on helping clients manage risk through training, inspections and cultural development. It also can design insurance programs to include business and personal coverage in addition to those already offered.
By providing these services, RE associates build trust and relationships with clients. "We want our clients to be inspired, and sometimes that comes from the creativity and passion that happens when a single associate is empowered to offer extraordinary service or unusual insight," Ratterree said.
RE also excels in customer service because of its practice of hiring employees from outside the industry who have proven successful in their business experience and bring creative ideas to the agency. The company has been awarded third ranking in 2007 as one of South Carolina's 20 Best Places to Work list, and landed on the list again in 2008. "We've been very successful attracting, educating and retaining our associates by committing to their happiness and success as individuals," Ratterree said.
Associates work in a paperless environment. RE has become committed to having paperless record keeping via the company's browser-based management system. The property-casualty division uses AMS 360 and the benefits division uses a variety of Zywave products. Associates have dual monitors, and the scanning department continues to upload historical documents into the system, with a goal of completion by 2011.
To help counter the soft market, RE engages clients by asking them how the agency can consult and advocate its customers. RE has continued to grow its staff and invest in its community while building relationships with existing clients to enhance business production. "Good planning and communication within your organization keeps everyone focused on the long-term goals of success and profitability," Ratterree said.
For an agency to succeed, it should develop a purpose or vision statement that offers guidelines of professionalism that associates, clients and partners can trust, Ratterree said. This statement should become the foundation of the organization, and the agency should construct relationships on those values. The agency must commit to integrity, honesty and work ethic and follow its principles with all of its relationships, Ratterree said.
RE plans to continue on its path of constant growth. "We have a commitment to both our client and the carrier, and our future depends on our ability as an organization to manage those two relationships with equal skill," Ratterree said. RE often describes itself as a family with a common ideal. Ratterree said the company is uniquely built on a culture with a clear identity of understanding and stewardship that "sees our past as a narrative to employ change."
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