Over the last half-century as an insurance agency owner in south Florida, Tom Lynch has seen the ups and downs of the state’s property-casualty insurance market, from the rise of direct-to-consumer policies, to spiking premiums for homeowners and a statewide insurance crisis, to the flood of artificial intelligence in the industry. He’s also seen things from other perspectives—as a homeowner, mayor of Florida communities, and school board chairman.
This summer, Lynch was recognized by the Florida Association of Insurance Agents with the group’s Mitchell Stallings Lifetime Achievement Award. The semi-retired chairman emeritus of Plastridge Insurance agency spoke with Insurance Journal about the award, his career in insurance, the changes at agencies, and his advice for others in the business. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
IJ: How did you get started in the insurance business?
TL: I graduated from Loyola College in Chicago in 1969. I majored in philosophy with a minor in psychology. My last year, I took education classes because I thought I would teach for a couple of years. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. So, I moved to Florida in 1971 and started teaching school. I did that for two years.
I couldn’t make enough money to be comfortable, so I started working part-time in insurance: Taking pictures of houses, measuring, working for an agency. It was a small agency, Plastridge Insurance, that was about 80% personal lines. Four people worked there at the time. I did that and liked it. Then the owner’s son came in.
So, I applied to a program at Northwestern University in Chicago and got accepted. It was for pre-med, advanced chemistry. It was pretty strenuous. I got accepted into medical school, for classes in August 1973. While waiting for that, I went to Florida Atlantic University and did chemistry to keep going until med school started, and I worked part-time in insurance. I had to make the money. All of a sudden, though, the son left the agency; he didn’t like it. And I had the chance to buy the company.
I knew I had no money to go medical school. And I actually liked the insurance business. So, I made a tough decision and decided I would buy the Plastridge agency. The owner took a note for a couple of years. Then I started on my CPCU (chartered property casualty underwriter certification). I figured I really needed to learn this stuff. And I just really did like it. It’s a rewarding business.
As grew to learn it, I tried to figure out why so many people hated insurance.
Most people in insurance don’t think, at age 15 or 18, that insurance is something they aspire to. Many people just buy insurance because they have to. So, I thought: ‘Why do they buy it from you?’ My philosophy was, they come to you because they trust you or feel you are knowledgeable, or both. So, two of the most important aspects are trust and knowledge. So that’s what I tried to spend my time building.
IJ: Tell me about Plastridge.
That was the name of the man who started the agency in 1919. It turned out to be a good move because it’s an innocuous name. After I bought the agency, I spent a lot of time developing personnel. We’ve had a lot of people who stayed with us for 25 or 30 years. Today, we have about 100 employees. It has worked out very well. In many cases, a mom will come to work for us and, a few years later, her daughter or son comes to work. It’s kind of a family thing.