The power of connection at Brown & Brown

If you ask Hollie Gorman, Agency Leader and Private Client Advisor at Brown & Brown of Delaware, what she loves most about her work, she instantly starts talking about the honor of helping people. “Insurance is a puzzle,” she explains. “No two days are alike, and you have to enjoy solving problems. It’s rewarding to work with people to help them find the right solutions.”

With 20+ years of experience serving private clients and small business owners, Hollie has seen – and solved – every arrangement of the insurance puzzle. And to piece together an insurance program, she believes in the power of connection: connecting with clients to understand what they need, activating an expert team to serve them, and creating bonds within the community and industry to grow.

At Brown & Brown, one of the nation’s largest and best-known insurance brokerages, Hollie has watched this philosophy guide the Private Client Group team to success. Brown & Brown was started in 1939, and in nearly 80 years of growth, they have kept a principled focus on their clients. Today, they stand nearly 300 locations and over 9,500 team members strong, offering insurance for individuals and businesses as well as national programs for specialized markets. And for more than a decade, their Delaware office has been uniquely focused on serving successful individuals, driven by that same commitment to put people first.

Dedicated to solutions

The Delaware office began its story as Brown & Brown’s Private Client Group headquarters back in 2007. “At that time, the office was a boutique agency offering insurance services for JP Morgan bank clients,” explains Hollie. “When Brown & Brown came into the picture, the emphasis extended to a broader clientele.” The team today is still dedicated to serving solely personal insurance clients, but now works with a wide range of individuals and families all over the country.

Nowadays in their Newark, Delaware office, a team of skilled advisors brings decades of collective experience in personal insurance. “Our entire team is focused around the same client base,” explains Hollie. “We are all committed to learning and really understanding the needs of these clients. It’s a powerful thing.”

The team’s alignment allows B&B to bring customers a wide range of options, and advise them from a place of knowledge and experience. Brown & Brown Private Client Group agents are licensed in all 50 states, and their clients hail from all over, including a strong base in the tristate area, along with Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania and California, to name just a few. And while insurance can be a highly nuanced business, the team has found there are needs their clients often have in common when it comes to insurance, no matter where they call home.

For one, it’s important to know their program’s limitations and exclusions. There can be a big difference between policies and providers, and B&B’s advisors can help clients access insurance carriers who specialize in insuring successful families like theirs. Another key is understanding the home’s replacement value. Up to 70% of Americans are underinsured, Brown & Brown Private Client Group estimates, which is why advisors work diligently with clients to offer them options that can help cover the true cost to repair or rebuild their home after a covered loss.¹  They can also help clients ensure that they have adequate coverage for unique exposures, like private collections, flood exposures, properties in the name of a trust or LLC and more.

It’s this process of finding solutions that Hollie and her team enjoy deeply. “I love our clients,” she says. “They are loyal, and genuinely appreciate advice and recommendations. I enjoy connecting with them to solve insurance challenges.”

A team that backs you up

Once clients are on board with B&B, the agency’s focus shifts to building connections so clients can count a full team behind them. Every client is given a team of 2-3 knowledgeable advisors, beginning with a dedicated Private Client Advisor and including one or more experienced account managers. That way, any time a client needs B&B – whether they’re making a large purchase, reporting a claim or looking for advice – there is always someone who knows exactly what is going on with their account. “It’s important to us that our clients are supported at all times,” explains Hollie. “We want to make it so they never have to fill in someone new or close the loop.”

A client’s B&B team is also extremely valuable in helping make sure their coverage stays in step as their lives evolve. “We do a thorough annual review for clients each year, and find that changes and corrections are needed in almost every program,” Hollie says. “With two set of eyes on the client’s insurance renewal, their insurance program is tailored to meet their changing needs. New coverages are discussed as they are rolled out, and ideas for lowering insurance costs are strategically illustrated to help clients hedge against any potential increases to premiums.”

Clients also find comfort in knowing they are plugged in to the full power of the Brown & Brown network. With employees in nearly 40 states and expertise in commercial insurance and employee benefits, Brown & Brown advisors are able to handle nearly all insurance needs within the company, and work closely with other offices across the country to take care of clients who have needs beyond personal insurance.

Giving back

At the heart of it all, the focus of Brown & Brown Private Client Group is on putting people first, so it’s no surprise that the team is deeply involved in bettering not just their clients’ experience, but that of their team and larger community.

“Our culture is unique and strong,” Hollie says proudly. “We work at a fast pace, in an engaging environment. We feel fortunate to be here, and we feel a certain responsibility to share our knowledge and to work to improve the community in which we all live. After all, to whom much is given, much is required.”

To pay it forward, the office works closely with organizations like Junior Achievement® of Delaware—which focuses on financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship for students—and regularly sponsors local area and industry events. Team members are also leaders in the community – Hollie, for instance, serves as Treasurer and a board member at the Christian C. Sanderson Museum in Chadds Ford, PA, where she helps preserve pieces of 19^th and 20^th century American history, including important Civil War artifacts. By following their drive to connect, the Delaware team extends their values throughout the organization, and outward into the world.

Where Brown & Brown meets Berkley One

It follows, then that these same values play an important role in Brown & Brown Private Client group’s carrier relationships. “As the market changes, we are always looking to give our clients additional options when it comes to their insurance,” Hollie explains. So as Berkley One, a new insurance provider for modern, sophisticated individuals, expanded in the Mid-Atlantic and beyond, Brown & Brown of Delaware became their first agent in the state. Like B&B of Delaware, Berkley One is always in pursuit of ways to make the client experience more positive – like using technology to simplify insurance touchpoints. And like B&B of Delaware, Berkley One is an entrepreneurial organization that stands within a strong, connected network as a member company of Berkley, one of America’s largest property and casualty insurance providers. By connecting with Berkley One, Brown & Brown can offer clients a new option for customizable, forward-thinking coverage, and Berkley One can work together with an agency with a deep dedication to using the power of connection for good. Now that’s a relationship that moves us all forward.

Brown & Brown Private Client Group offers home insurance, auto insurance, excess liability insurance, valuables & collections insurance; aviation insurance, kidnap, ransom & extortion insurance; domestic employee insurance; personal watercraft & yacht insurance; collector car insurance; media appearance insurance; equine insurance; and group insurance offerings. They are based in Newark, Delaware.