Private Ownership, Assurex Provide Notable Advantages

As a privately held brokerage with 185 employees, Parker Smith & Feek (PS&F) does not have the quarterly profit pressures faced by its publicly traded competitors—giving it, says Gregory Collins, president and CEO of the firm, flexibility and the ability to think in the long-term interests of its clients.

For example, even though the economy "has given us a real challenge," Collins says, PS&F has been "unwilling to reduce our staff of talented, experienced professionals who generate the very advice and counsel we see as our number-one client-valued advantage."

PS&F also benefits from membership in Assurex Global, the Columbus, Ohio-based brokerage network of international brokers that he says gave the firm avenues to contacts and advisors that have been instrumental to its continued growth.

"We could not do it without them," Collins says.