BILL, TRENT, AND LISA – CONTINUING THE FAMILY OWNED LEGACY OF HABIG & MAGOON INSURANCE AGENCY

October 22, 2015

As we make sure to frequently emphasize in this space – because we consider it so important – is that, continuously, for the almost 80 years we have been in business, Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency has been independent and family owned.

We are a business and a legacy – and a tradition.

Fred Magoon launched Magoon Insurance Agency in 1937, on Clifton Avenue, in Brockton.

The Habig family would become part of the business when Bill Habig, married to Fred Magoon’s daughter, Betty, joined the agency.  He soon became a partner. 

Bill and Betty had three children – in order of birth, Bill, Trent, and Lisa. All the children were brought up in Easton, and all graduated from Oliver Ames High School – Bill Jr. and Trent in the early ’80s, and Lisa in 1988.

And all the children, today, work at Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency – making it a third generation family business.

The Habig kids know insurance.

When Bill Jr. graduated from what was then called Norwich Academy he went to work for three years as an underwriter for Plymouth Rock Assurance in Boston; he then worked for Travelers for three years, also as an underwriter, and also in its Boston office.

“I left Travelers to go to New York City and work for a UK based insurance group, Hogg Robinson Insurance Brokers, one of the world’s largest insurance brokers,” said Bill Jr. “It was a tremendously positive experience, and I learned a lot, and living and working in New York City is exciting – but I have a strong affection for the Boston area, and when, after two years in New York, an opportunity arose to work for the family agency, I took it.”

Bill Jr. has been with Habig & Magoon ever since.  

In 1998, Bill Jr. bought Magoon Insurance from his father, and the new entity was renamed Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency.

Trent, today Vice President of Sales for Habig & Magoon, also went right into the insurance field after graduating from college, from Curry College in 1987.

Trent first worked in sales for Gaudette Insurance in Whitinsville, MA, and then Rodman Insurance in Needham, before launching his own business, TRH Insurance Agency, which he ran for 12 years before signing on with Habig & Magoon in 2012.   

Lisa Habig Pearce started working part-time for the agency not long after she graduated from Emmanuel College in 1991.  She continues to work part-time for Habig & Magoon in accounting and bookkeeping, and has been with us now for a little more than 20 years.

“Trent, Lisa, and myself – we all respect and value highly the legacy of Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency,” said Bill Jr. “And we seek to honor that legacy in our work, in our relationships with our client, and in our involvement in the community.”

NFL PROSPECTS PROTECT THEIR FUTURE EARNING POWER; THE RISE OF THE LOSS-OF-VALUE INSURANCE POLICY

Washington Redskins Running Back Silas Redd (image credit: Mark E. Tenally, Associated Press)

October 13, 2015

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency has been serving the people of southeastern Massachusetts, and beyond, for almost 80 years.   We have always been family owned, and always independent.

Forging and practicing strong relationships and communication with our customers is fundamental to the value we provide our customers – and a primary reason we have been the choice of generations of many families.

Of course, this blog is one a way we communicate with our customers, and with the community at large.

We endeavor to make this blog a place to find helpful insurance related information.

As well, we also use this space to provide fun and entertaining information that is related to our business, and to the local community.

For example, the post about the New England Patriots and the team’s tie to Easton, which appeared on September 30^th.   Please click here to access the post.

In keeping with the NFL football theme, and tying it to insurance, today we moseyed around a bit online and found some interesting information about NFL prospects and a form of insurance called “loss-of-value” insurance.

This is a type of insurance that an NFL prospect will take out to protect himself in the event of an injury or illness that may decrease his signing and market value.

Actually, loss-of-value insurance, is taken out by athletes that are prospects to play in other pro sports leagues – but because of the injury laden nature of football, especially big-time football, loss-of-value insurance is more prevalent and popular with players that the pro football ranks has its eyes on, than it is with players that are meriting attention from other professional sports leagues.

Loss-of-value insurance, to protect potential livelihoods earned in pro sports, is a relatively new phenomenon.

Two NFL players making the news recently for their loss-of-value policies are Silas Redd, running back for the Washington Redskins, the first in the league to collect on a loss-of-value policy, and Ifo Ekpre Olomu, cornerback for the Cleveland Browns.

Mr. Redd received an undisclosed amount.  Mr. Ekpre-Olomu is scheduled to collect $3 million on his policy.

Both Mr. Redd and Mr. Ekpre-Olomu sustained injuries on the collegiate level that affected their NFL earning power.

To learn more about loss-of-value insurance policies, please click here.

It is almost certain that loss-of-insurance policies will become more popular among athletes that are strong prospects to play at the pro level.

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency will provide updated information on these policies here on this blog in the future.

GO PATS!! HABIG & MAGOON SHARES SOME INTERESTING NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS HISTORY

(image credit: New England Patriots)

September 30, 2015

So, here we are, about a month into the football season, and in these parts fans of the New England Patriots are about as happy with the team as can be, at this juncture in time.

Yep, the Sons of Bill Belichick are putting a whoopin’ on the competition, with a record of 3-0, and making it look easy – and, just, perhaps, fully intending making a “How you like me now?” statement, in the wake of investigations of, and accusations leveled at, the program.

Everyone at Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency is a dedicated Pats fan.

For as long as their has been a Patriots franchise, there have been people working for our firm that cheer on the team.

Indeed, our agency was founded prior to the New England Patriots franchise being established – as the Boston Patriots – on November 16, 1959. Yes, our agency was launched – on Clifton Avenue in Brockton – some 32 years prior to their being a Patriots organization.

Of course, in 1959, the Patriots were not an NFL team; they were one of the eight original teams in American Football League, a challenger, if not widely considered a serious challenger to the NFL, for which 1960 would be its inaugural season.

It would not be until 1969 that the AFL would merge with the NFL.

For the first 10 years of its existence, the Boston Patriots franchise did not have their own stadium; for its first two years, Patriots home games were played at Boston University’s Nickerson Field, then from 1963 through 1968 at Fenway Park, and for the 1969 season, at Harvard Stadium.

For the 1971 season, the Patriots finally had their own stadium, Schaefer Stadium, in Foxboro. With the move to Foxboro, the team also changed its name, to the New England Patriots.

Now,, here’s a bit more history, and this ties to Easton, where Habig & Magoon has been headquartered for more than 30 years.

There were 10 investors who pooled finances to purchase the Boston Patriots, the final AFL franchise awarded, with Billy Sullivan, the president of three Boston area coal and oil companies, heading up the investment group.

Also among the investors was an Easton guy, John Ames Jr., a lawyer, president of North Easton Savings Bank, and a member of a true family of American aristocracy.

Through the years, many New England Patriots have lived in Easton, and in the surrounding towns where reside people who, and businesses that, are valued Habig & Magoon clients.

****

Yes, for sure, it is charmed life, being a New England Patriots fan.

Next up, the Cowboys, on the road – and the team’s record to improving to 4-0.

GO PATS !!

SMART USE OF TECHNOLOGY AND DATA IS A BEDROCK OF HABIG & MAGOON INSURANCE AGENCY – BUT IT IS CARING AND IN-PERSON INTERACTION AND CUSTOMER SERVICE THAT DISTINGUISHES US AND SETS US APART

September 9, 2015

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency has been in business for close to 80 years.   And since our founding, on Clifton Street in Brockton, in 1937, we have always been family owned, and always independent.

A major component of our success, and our longevity – indeed, fundamental to both – is that we forge strong relationships with our customers.  We take the time to listen, to ask questions, and develop for individuals and families insurance policies and coverage that is fine-tuned, specific, and the most appropriate.

Here is where we deliver prime advantage over the big box and giant insurance sellers that sell policies without in-person interaction and consultation.

It says something that many of our long-time customers have been serviced by the same Habig & Magoon employees and insurance professionals for more than 25 years.

Like all industries, the insurance industry is in a state of constant change and flux and transformation.

And, as is the case with all industries, technology is the driver of transformation – and improvement.

There is a good argument to be made – especially in that a bedrock and underpinning of the insurance industry is data and actuarial science – that “big data” has as profound an impact on the business of insurance as any other.

Directly, and indirectly, Habig & Magoon relies on technology and data to best serve and respond to our clients, and to run our enterprise most efficiently.

Yet, still, caring and in-person interaction and customer service – which is what Habig & Magoon has always provided all our customers … from 1937 onward – are out-front and priority factors in the decisions of people and families to stay with us year after year, decade after decade.

Caring and in-person interaction and customer service is how we operate and how we work.

This has always been the case, and it will always be so.

OF HURRICANE KATRINA, INSURANCE LOSSES, AND CHANGES IN PROPERTY & CASUALTY INSURANCE THAT THE HURRICANE BROUGHT ABOUT

New Orleans, LA, August 30, 2005 (photo credit
Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA)

August 30, 2015

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency – in business for close to 80 years, and always family owned and always an independent  agency – serves the people and businesses of southeastern Massachusetts, and beyond.

We protect people, property, and legacies.

As we are now in late summer, we are in the season that provides its own particular threat to life and property in the form of the atmospheric event called the hurricane.

Ten years ago, yesterday, the primary thrust of a hurricane – Hurricane Katrina – hit New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf Coast. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

Following is an excerpt from the Wikipedia page on Hurricane Katrina that provides information and background on the storm:

Hurricane Katrina was the eleventh named storm and fifth hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. The storm is currently ranked as the third most intense United States landfalling tropical cyclone, behind only the 1935 Labor Day hurricane and Hurricane Camille in 1969, Overall, at least 1,245 people died in the hurricane and subsequent floods, making it the deadliest United States hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane.”

If you click here you will be taken to the full Hurricane Katrina Wikipedia entry.

Almost impossible it is to get close to getting one’s arms around, and understanding, the human loss and pain of this event.

Loss in terms of dollars and cents, that worth and value is far more accessible. As reported in the Wikipedia page referenced above, “Total property damage was estimated at $108 billion.”

With such extraordinary material and financial loss, Hurricane Katrina necessarily became an immense insurance phenomenon. In fact, no event has resulted in more insured losses – $41 billion in insured losses – than Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina caused a tremendous amount of rethinking about hurricane preparedness – which has been smartly and productively acted upon.

Property and casualty (P&C) insurance has changed because of Hurricane Katrina.

To read about some of these changes, please click here to be taken to a story, titled, “5 Major Changes in P&C Insurance since Hurricane Katrina,” published August 11 in PropertyCasualty360 magazine. The story was written by Jayleen R. Heft.

Habig & Magoon is expert at helping people and businesses secure just the right P&C insurance – including that which protects and insures against potential loss caused by hurricanes – at an affordable price.

If you are looking for home or property insurance, or have questions regarding a policy, or would like us to review and evaluate a policy you have, we are here and are most appreciative of the opportunity to help and serve you.

INSTANT INSURANCE QUOTES THROUGH THE HABIG & MAGOON INSURANCE AGENCY WEBSITE. A SMART USE OF TECHNOLOGY TO BETTER SERVE CONSUMERS

August 13, 2015

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency has been around for a long, long time – for almost 80 years, in fact – and over that period we have seen a lot of history, including a lot developments in technology.

And, always, for as long as Habig & Magoon has been in business, we have been independent and family owned, serving people and businesses in southeastern Massachusetts, and beyond.

On the technology front, and as we mentioned in the inaugural post on this blog – with this blog launching on September 8^th of last year – when, in 1937, on Clifton Avenue in Brockton, Fred Magoon founded our agency, “a telephone was the most modern bit of technology in our office – and the ‘new thing’ that year was the photocopier, developed by Chester Carlson.”

We also commented in that first post that social media is one manifestation of our commitment to smartly, and efficiently, putting to use technology to better serve and respond to our customers, and to better the way we help and give to the community.

In fact, it doesn’t matter what business you are in, if you aren’t always looking for improved ways to employ technology in your enterprise then you aren’t going to be successful.

One of the ways that Habig & Magoon harnesses technology – specifically online technology – to deliver value for our customers, and potential customers, is a utility built into our website through which one can receive an instant homeowner or insurance quote.

All one has to do is plug in information, with the process including a few clicks, into the secure online form on our website, and you will receive a quote.

Please click here to be taken to the instant Habig & Magoon home quote page, and here to be taken to our instant auto quote page.

Instant insurance quotes – one of the many ways Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency uses technology to deliver premium value to consumers.

THESE FAMOUS PEOPLE SOLD INSURANCE

image credit: Don Rickles

July 30, 2015

For Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency – for the people who work for us – insurance is not just about making a living … but also about making a life.

Habig & Magoon is a business, sure – and one that seeks day in and day out to provide its customers – people and businesses in southeastern Massachusetts, and beyond – with just the right coverage and protection at an affordable and valued price.

This has been the way it has been ever since we were founded, in 1937, in the depths of the Great Depression. And, for all the time since then, for close to 80 years now, we have been independent and family owned.

We enjoy what we do – and derive great satisfaction and fulfillment from it.

For today’s post, we thought it would be of interest to feature some people who, at one time, did what we do – work in the insurance business. But the people we feature in this post are far better known … far, far better known … for their other vocations.

We were inspired to do such a post when we ran across a story in the real estate section of last Friday’s Wall Street Journal, titled, “Don Rickles: The Insult King From Queens” – with the story focusing on the early life, and early residence, of the legendary comedian, now 89, and still vibrant and busy performing.

As for the insurance angle, here is an excerpt from the story:

My father, Max, was an insurance salesman and a good one, which is saying something since it was the Depression. He eventually made me take the test to become an agent after I graduated high school. But I had a problem. While I could get people to listen to my pitch, I couldn’t close. I was too nice a guy. As soon as a prospective client said the policy looked good, instead of saying, ‘Great, sign here,’ I’d say, ‘OK, I’ll come back Thursday.’”

Here is a link to the complete story.

Yes, it did get our attention that Max Rickles was a successful insurance salesman during the Depression, a period in which Habig & Magoon launched.

Other celebrities who sold insurance, prior to achieving high level fame in other fields – are actor and director George Clooney, comedian and talk show host Steve Harvey, composer Charles Ives, Olympic gold medal decathlete and realty show star Caitlyn Jenner, civil rights pioneer Homer Plessy, fried chicken and restaurant magnate Colonel Harland David Sanders, and musician realty show star Gene Simmons.

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency would like to think that skills, talents, work ethic, and drive that enabled the people described above to accomplish great things were honed and developed in no small way in the business of insurance.

AN ATTACK ON THE U.S. POWER GRID COULD BE DISASTROUS. AS FOR INSURANCE-RELATED CONSEQUENCES? HOW ABOUT $70 BILLION IN INSURANCE LOSSES

Image credit: ssguy/Shutterstock

July 8, 2015

For close to 80 years, Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency has been family-owned independent insurance agency that serves people and businesses throughout southeastern Massachusetts and beyond.

We are well known and relied on for our personalized, customized, and forthright service that provides our valued customers with just the right coverage at the best and most affordable price.

Here on our blog we post about specifics relating to our products and services, as well as on developments in the insurance industry – with a targeted focus on how these developments affect our customers, and potential customers.

We also occasionally, here, post about broader insurance stories – those of human and societal interest.

We post about stories that are particularly compelling … and important.

To wit – a sobering headline attached to a sobering story, published today, in Insurance Journal  about the possible consequences of a cyber attack on the United States electrical grid.

Security experts are highly concerned about the threats to our national safety and economy that an attack on the electrical grid poses.

And, yes, the title of the story – “U.S. Power Grid Attack Could Cause $1 Trillion Economic, $70 Billion insurance Losses:  Lloyd’s Report” – is sobering.

Please click here to be taken to the story, which features information from, and cites, a joint research study, titled, Business Blackout, conducted by the insurance market Lloyd’s of London and the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Risk Studies.

(Just a note – and related here – this coming November 9 marks the 50^th anniversary of the Great Northeast Blackout of 1965, during which electrical power failed along a stretch of the northeast part of North America – that took in parts of Canada, New York,  Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey – and in which, in some areas, the power was not reconnected and working for up to 13 hours.)

An attack on our nation’s power grid could create a widespread catastrophe – one with widespread insurance consequences.

Habig & Magoon Insurance is heartened and encouraged that the threat to our electrical grid is a front and center concern of national security – and is being addressed across and up and down the national defense and public safety apparatus that connects federal, state, and municipal jurisdictions.

HABIG & MAGOON INSURANCE AGENY HONORS AND BUILDS ON LEGACIES THAT WE HOLD WITH OUR CLIENTS. WE FORGE STRONG RELATIONSHIPS WITH CUSTOMERS EARLY IN THEIR INSURANCE BUYING EXPERIENCE – AND MAINTAIN RELATIONSHIPS WITH THESE CUSTOMERS THROUGHOUT THEIR LIVES

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency has been in the insurance business for a long time. That’s right – as we frequently recount here – we opened our doors in 1937.

Perhaps … 1937 …. not the most economically favorable time to launch an enterprise – in that the Great Depression was going on. But we weathered that difficult period.

And almost 80 years later we are still in business – and still, as always, family owned and independent.

We are also thriving … growing.

It is tremendously heartening and rewarding for Habig & Magoon Insurance that the coverage and personalized, valuable, and attentive service we provide is a legacy for many families.

As testament, consider that customers we have now are the grandchildren of Habig & Magoon Insurance customers. Families stay with us.

Within families … from generation to generation … Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency is a constant.

From generation to generation, Habig & Magoon establishes … immediately in a relationship with a customer … trust and accountability.

Habig & Magoon feels it is immensely important to guide and educate those in early adulthood – a demographic heavy in those purchasing insurance for the first time – on the various types of insurance, and to deliver to them access to the right insurance coverage at an affordable and valued price.

If you are in your late teens, or in your 20s, and you have questions about insurance – Habig & Magoon is the right agency with which to work. There is no question you can ask us that is not a valid and important question. There is no concern you have that is not a valid and important concern.

Again, we are family owned and independent. We are not an impersonal big box insurance behemoth.

Insurance coverage is important. Very important.

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency seeks to be the the insurance partner and provider that people initially go to for their insurance – and with which they stay throughout their lives.

Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency seeks to be the agency, the relationship with which families transmit to the next generation.

Habig & Magoon will always honor and remain faithful to the legacy we hold and build with our customers.

IT IS IMPORTANT IF YOU ARE A SINGLE PARENT WITH CHILDREN LIVING AT HOME TO HAVE LIFE INSURANCE

January 7, 2015

Life insurance is a major consideration for married couples with children.  This type of insurance is, in many ways, a convention of married life coexistent with parenthood.

It is almost a given that one or both spouses in a marriage, who have children, have life insurance coverage.  In fact, most married couples don’t begin to start a family without a life insurance policy in place.

But it is also important for single parents with children who are minors to have life insurance.

Yet most single parents don’t have life insurance – even though there are many valuable and affordable options.

Yesterday, at its site, Motley Fool published a story, titled, “A Huge Single Parent Mistake: No Life Insurance.”

Included in the story, which was written by Selena Maranjian, were the following statistics that were pulled from a study conducted by the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and Genworth Financial.

• 69% of single parents with children living at home carry no life insurance.
• 79% of unmarried men who don’t own homes, earn less than $250,000, and have children in the household are not insured.
• Single moms are more likely to be insured than single dads but are still more likely to not have insurance than to have it.
• The low rates of coverage were found in most income levels, not just among those on tighter budgets.
• The more children there were in the household, the less likely it was for the parent to be insured. 

Please click here to be taken to the full story.

If you are a single parent who needs life insurance, Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency can customize and tailor for you an affordable policy that will provide you with highly valuable coverage at a valued price.

In that Habig & Magoon is an independent insurance agency, representing several highly reputable and long established insurance companies, we are better able to deliver affordable policies with exceptional coverage than are the big box insurance corporations that sell only their own policies.

Protecting individuals, families, businesses, and property is what Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency does – and what we have been doing very well … since 1937.