Crist, Fritschi & Paterson underscores value of relationships

July 24, 2006

Best Practices is an Insurance Journal column that highlights how some of the nation’s top-performing agencies run their operations. Insurance Journal Publisher Mark Wells recently interviewed Jack Fritschi, CEO of Crist, Fritschi and Paterson in Oakland, Calif.

To listen to the entire interview or subscribe to Well’s regular “On the Street” podcasts through Apple iTunes, visit www.insurancejournal.com/podcasts.

Insurance Journal hopes that these Best Practices snapshots bring retail agencies a new perspective on how to run an agency better.

Insurance Journal: Tell us a little bit about Crist, Fritschi & Paterson.

Jack Fritschi: Crist, Fritschi and Paterson is a family owned and managed business that started in 1937, by my father, John Fritschi, and one of his closest friends, George Crist. The two of them started as Crist and Fritschi, and have been located in Oakland, Calif., ever since. We just have our one office, no branch offices. As the years have gone on, there have been some mergers and acquisitions, and a couple of name changes, but for the most part, Crist and Fritschi has remained the two main people.

Our firm is in the range of about $16 million in premiums, and that comprises about 50-50 personal and commercial. Total office staff, including all of the principals, amounts to about 20 people. There are about 14 staff employees.

IJ: I understand that your son is active in the business, that you’re in your third generation.

Fritschi: That’s correct. Jeffrey, my son, is active in the business. But it’s actually fourth generation in insurance. My grandfather, John Fritschi, worked for St. Paul and was a company man in San Francisco for years. We’ve kind of had it in the blood for quite a while.

IJ: Where do you write?

Fritschi: Primarily northern California, although we do have a few [accounts] down in southern California, and then some out of state locations, things of that nature. But it’s primarily in the Bay Area.

IJ: What do you attribute your success to?

Fritschi: There are probably numerous things when you look at it. I can’t think of one thing. For me, it starts with the fact that I’ve been lucky enough to have some great partners. I don’t think you can go too far usually if you don’t have good working relationships with your partners.

Then there are the employees. Of our fourteen some odd employees, more than four have been with us 20-plus years. So we have some very long-term relationships with employees, which helps.

Then there are the carriers. How long you’ve been representing your carriers — in our case those have all been long-term mainly because the firm has been around so long.

And then you go to your insureds. Our insureds have just been great — they’re loyal. We have numerous insureds that have been here for a long time. I’ve been with the agency for 38 years now, and I still have a couple of accounts that started with me back when I first started. Part of that relates to the fact that they are always dealing with the principals. It’s not like a big firm where maybe your salesperson goes out, sells it, then vanishes and turns it over to the customer service representative. We stay in good contact with our insureds.

The relationships have been key.

IJ: We all make mistakes in business. What mistakes have you made and learned from?

Fritschi: There are probably too numerous to detail, but like you said, they were all learning processes that we went through. In some cases, I remember difficult relationships with underwriters, difficult relationships with insureds, things of that nature where we maybe held on too long. In other places, we were maybe slow to adapt — as an independent small agency, we’re a little slower to adapt to everything, and that sometimes has hurt us. But overall, we have adapted, we have made some changes. A lot of that has to do with having two young producers. They have new ideas, I’ve been listening to them and implementing what they want. It’s helped us quite a bit.

IJ: How many standard carriers and brokerage firms do you normally use?

Fritschi: Carrier-wise, we use about a dozen, plus or minus, standard carriers, and probably five or six surplus lines carriers.

IJ: Do you specialize in a particular type of business?

Fritschi: No, we’re pretty much across the board. We just look for accounts where we can form long-term relationships. Part of our success is due to the fact that the accounts we have put on the books have been with us for many years. I don’t think there’s any one niche.

IJ: What advice would give to your fellow brokers that want to grow their business?

Fritschi: I would say don’t get caught in old ideas. Be adaptable. Be flexible. Listen to the young producers that you have because they have good ideas. Don’t get mired down in old habits.

IJ: In your career you’ve seen a lot of changes in the industry.

Fritschi: That I have, but the one thing that has been consistent is good relationships — the relationships you form with your carriers and your clients. As long as those are really stable, it seems to me you can always work around the problems that you may have in the market.

Crist, Fritschi & Paterson

Agency Principals: Bob Crist, Jack Fritschi, Tom Paterson

Founded: 1937

Headquarters: Oakland, Calif.

No. of Employees: 20

Insurers Represented: 16-plus
standard carriers, 6 surplus lines carriers

Contact: 510-451-6000

Topics Carriers

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