Northwoods takes over management of Generations Insurance Agency

The Northwoods Corporation, which has an office at 32 Broad Ave. in Binghamton, recently entered into a management agreement with the Generations Insurance Agency in Seneca Falls.

The agreement means that Northwoods, which is headquartered near Buffalo, will manage the day-to-day operations of the Generations agency while Generations Bank retains ownership of it.

Under the new arrangement, Northwoods moved the agency offices to a remodeled location at 60 Fall St. in Seneca Falls and plans to add six new employees between that location and a second office in Geneva, according to Northwoods VP Tony Vecchiotti.

“We wanted to ensure that the interests of our customers would not only continue to be met, but by working with the Northwoods, we feel we are one of the most technologically advanced agencies in the Finger Lakes region,” Generations Bank President Menzo Case said in a release about the agreement. Now, the agency has “the resources and staff to offer more products and services with the quality and efficiency the area demands.”

This management model is one that Northwoods uses often, he says. Northwoods currently manages about 40 insurance agencies and fully owns half of them. The other 20, like Generations, maintain ownership, usually through an agency principal. Northwoods splits commissions with the agencies it manages and in return, Northwoods pays the rent, hires and trains employees, provides employee benefits, holds the necessary licenses, and manages the agreements with various insurance providers.

“Northwoods takes care of all of that,” Vecchiotti says. That frees up the agency’s principal to focus on other things like selling and interacting with clients.

Sometimes when a principal is looking to retire, an agreement like this provides an easy transition, Vecchiotti says. Northwoods can manage the agency until the principal is ready to retire, and then purchase the agency.

“One of the advantages of our business model is that we’re very decentralized,” he adds. While each member agency maintains its own offices, they all work together behind the scenes and employees are able to determine their area of strength and really focus on that.

 Another benefit the agreement brings to member agencies is the expanded number of insurance carriers that member agency can now offer to client. The average independent insurance agency typically works with about four carriers, Vecchiotti says. However, “no insurance company has a product that’s everything to everybody,” he notes. Working with more carriers increases the odds of finding the best product for clients, but it’s not as easy as just deciding to offer a carrier, he says.

“For an independent insurance agency to get the agreement to be able to sell an insurance company’s product, the insurance company has expectations,” Vecchiotti says. Those companies want assurances that a certain volume will be sold, and a small, independent agency might not be able to hit that goal.

All the agencies managed by Northwoods can sell insurance from any of the carriers with which Northwoods has agreements. Currently, that’s about 24 different carriers that includes larger national companies such as Allstate and Liberty Mutual, and also includes a number of New York companies such as Utica National Insurance Group, New York Central Mutual Insurance, and Midstate Mutual Insurance Company.

Headquartered in Williamsville, Northwoods (www.nwcins.com) currently employs about 90 people between 14 offices located in Monroe, Erie, Wayne, Ontario, Broome, and Steuben counties.

Generations Bank, which is part of the Generations Bancorp holding company, is based in Seneca Falls. It has branch offices in Auburn (2), Farmington, Geneva, Medina, Phelps, Seneca Falls, Union Springs, and Waterloo.