EBD partners split, move agents to Barker-Phillips-Jackson

A divide among the partners of Springfield insurance firm Employee Benefit Design LLC prompted two of its co-founders and nine staff members to join forces with another Queen City-based firm, Barker-Phillips-Jackson Inc.

EBD partner Dan Ruggeri said the founding EBD partners had differing visions for the future of the company, which was the impetus for the split, specifically, an employee ownership program.

“Our vision is to, No. 1, put together best-of-class tools – whether it be for compliance or benefit platforms or benefit exchanges – provide our clients with property and casualty options, and lastly, but just as importantly, provide our employees ownership in our business,” Ruggeri said. “The only way we can do that is to incubate our business into (BPJ’s) existing (employee stock ownership plan) business.”

That transition, taking place this month, will make Barker-Phillips-Jackson the largest independent insurance agency in the Springfield area, according to Springfield Business Journal list research. In November, PJC Insurance Agency LLC was tops locally with 39 agents, compared to 38 at the time for No. 2 BPJ.

EBD reported 30 agents in November, but has shed nine employee since. Ruggeri, one of the two partners moving to BPJ – along with Dan Burns – said the move would leave EBD with 10. Calls to the remaining EBD partners, Ken Stephens and Chance Potts, were not returned by press time.

EBD, established by Stephens, Ruggeri and Burns in 1997, was ranked No. 4 among the area’s largest independent agencies last fall. With 10 employees, EBD would tie for 12th largest, based on reported 2014 employee counts.

Ruggeri declined to disclose terms of the deal or the number of clients the new employees would bring to BPJ. Ruggeri, Burns and the team are expected to move in to the BPJ office, 1637 S. Enterprise Ave., by July 1.

Tom Montileone, president and CEO of BPJ, said he and Burns were unavailable for comment by press time.

Nixon & Lindstrom Insurance CEO Trevor Crist said he was not surprised by the move.

“Industry banter was that this move almost happened a couple years ago. My understanding is that it was driven by a desire for a strong succession plan and probably expedited by health care reform,” Crist said in an email.

“This is a beneficial move for both Mr. Ruggeri, Mr. Burns and BPJ. Short of producing a commercial for a competitor, I’ll just say that a good agency has partnered with two good agents.”

Nixon & Lindstrom is the third-largest independent insurance agency in the area with 36 agents as of November.

“Health care and compliance have become so complex, the only way to be successful is to invest in our staff and reward them with ownership. BPJ is 100 percent employee-owned,” Ruggeri said in a news release.

BPJ was established in 1960 in Springfield and operates satellite offices in Rolla and West Plains. The insurance firm has a history of mergers under its belt, according to BPJ.com.

Originally Barker-Phillips Inc. – named after founders Paul Barker and Milton Phillips – the firm took on its current name in 1986 when it merged with Consolidated Jackson Corp. and Richard Jackson became president and CEO. A year later, the company became employee-owned.

In 1989, three east-central Missouri agencies merged and together were purchased by BPJ. Two years later, Naught and Naught Insurance of Rolla merged into the existing Rolla satellite office. In 2005, BPJ acquired Group Benefits Inc., a long-standing agency in Springfield.

Between 2010 and the move this year, BPJ has led four acquisitions in southern Missouri, including the purchase of a book of business from Springfield-based Jenkins & Associates in 2011, according to BPJ.com.

Web Editor Geoff Pickle contributed to this article.[[In-content Ad]]