Waldman Bros.: Strong Family Ties Fuel a Passion for Service

Waldman Bros. may not be the oldest independent insurance agency in Texas, but with strong family ties and a desire for organic growth it may very well outlast some agencies with a longer history. Not that the firm is the new kid on the block by any means.

The company was founded in Dallas in 1939 by Bill Waldman, who was joined a decade later by his younger brother Erwin (see article below). Today, five family members work with the firm, which has expanded to include non-familial partners as well.

Howard S. Cohen, Erwin Waldman’s son-in-law, is the longest serving family member on the company rolls. Cohen, an expert in financial services and wealth management and a partner in the firm, has been with Waldman Bros. for 35 years.

Managing partner Stephen A. Waldman, Erwin’s son, has been with the firm for nearly 33 years and specializes in commercial property and casualty business.

Scott R. Cohen, Howard’s son and also a partner, has served the company for 12 years and is its chief sales officer. Like Howard Cohen, Scott also focuses on financial services and wealth management.

Steve Waldman’s daughter, Melissa Plaskoff, is the company’s lead employee benefits producer and has six years’ experience with Waldman Bros. In addition, Plaskoff assists in providing direction for the company’s advertising and public relations efforts.

Finally, Michael Waldman, Steve’s son, has been with the firm about 18 months. Formerly with an actuarial consulting firm in New York City, Michael Waldman serves as an employee benefits producer for Waldman Bros.

With 50 employees, the agency operates primarily in four insurance sectors: commercial property and casualty is its largest line, followed by financial services and wealth management, employee benefits, and personal lines property and casualty business. In addition, Waldman Bros. shares ownership of a Dallas surety agency, Mills Roberts and Associates, with Hilliard Box Insurance in Tyler, Texas. Steve Waldman said his firm prefers to keep its exact financial information private, but acknowledged that, “each of our four disciplines generates revenue to the firm of seven figures.”

Realizing the company needed to expand beyond the family in order to grow, it began hiring new producers in the mid-1990s. Three of those producers, Melody S. Peevy, J. Todd Channon and Martin A. Golman, are now partners. In 1997, the company added Tom Callanan, who serves as senior vice president of the commercial insurance division.

Land and expand
According to Steve Waldman, if Waldman Bros. were to have a particular operating motto it might be “land and expand,” a phrase he adopted from a friend and fellow insurance agent. Waldman Bros. is a relationship oriented organization that emphasizes service in all of its disciplines, Waldman said, adding, “When I say we ‘land and expand,’ we try to get into many lines of coverage with the insureds we do business with. It allows us to develop an even stronger relationship with them. It brings us closer–we’re an adviser to our insureds. They love the fact that they can … make that one call to one firm and take advantage of the fact that we are so good in all those disciplines.”

Waldman said the company prides itself on being “expert about all the businesses we are in. … We go out of our way to hire the best, to train them the best and service [our customers] the best. … Our clients rarely leave us because we take such good care of them. We are over the top on service and professionalism. By doing such a thorough job in all the areas that we handle for our clients, we retain clients for a long time. We’ve been in business since 1939, and we still have clients we’ve represented since the beginning.”

He explained that while the company has added new producers and written a lot of new business in the last 10 years, many of its clients are second and third generation business owners who have chosen to remain customers of Waldman Bros. “We’ve had a lot of businesses on the books for a long time. And we don’t take them for granted; we pay close attention to them,” Waldman said.

My family, my job
No matter what kind of job one has or what business one is in, finding a balance between family life and work life is always tough. And having multiple family members involved in the same firm can intensify the push-pull between family and work responsibilities. While acknowledging the challenges, Waldman said his firm and his family take measures to keep the pressure of the work/family conundrum at a minimum.

One method Waldman Bros. employs to minimize the stress of family members working together is to avoid situations where parents supervise their children. For instance, even though Scott Cohen worked in the financial services division when he first came to Waldman Bros., his boss was Steve Waldman, not Howard Cohen, Scott’s father. Similarly, Steve Waldman’s children do not work for him.

“Melissa and Michael do not work for me, they work for Scott,” Waldman said. “Even though Scott is their cousin, Scott knows how to treat them and recognizes what they need.”

Waldman added that Michael Haselden, the company’s chief operating officer, is the person who runs the show at Waldman Bros. Haselden is a partner but not a family member.

“He makes the call,” Waldman said. “All my partners–family as well as non-family–recognize that.”

Increasing premium volume
The need to satisfy the premium volume requirements of property and casualty insurance carriers challenges all agencies, big and small. Waldman Bros. is no exception.

Waldman said one of the company’s biggest challenges is to satisfy “the ravenous appetites of the property/casualty markets that we want to do business with. It’s our goal to be their favorite agent. We want every property and casualty carrier we represent to point to us when they talk to or think about their other agents and say: ‘We want you to be just like Waldman Bros. …’

“From a behavior perspective we can fit the bill,” he said. “We go out of our way to provide the best submissions, the most complete submissions, the most professional submissions–to let the companies know everything they need to know, to work with them in any way we can, and to write profitable business.”

Waldman noted that the carriers the company works with are currently very aggressive “about writing new business. Maybe it’s because the business we write is profitable, but I think it’s a combination of that and the fact that they all want to grow. So our biggest challenge, like every other agent’s challenge, is to write enough business to satisfy the markets we represent.”

To do that, Waldman said, the firm plans to steadily add new producers for the foreseeable future.

“We’re actively pursuing producer opportunities. They have to make sense for us–they have to fit our culture, which is a very family-like, high integrity based culture.”

Community involvement is one way Waldman Bros. attracts new business. All of the company’s producers are committed to participating in outside activities and “are very much into serving our community,” Waldman said.

“We’re out there, so we know a lot of people, we’re well thought of and we support a lot of organizations. A good bit of our business comes from the Jewish community because we’re highly exposed there.”

Another growth opportunity for Waldman Bros. has been its involvement in the broker/producer organization, RiskProNet International, which has allowed the company to expand its presence both nationally and internationally. Waldman explained that the network has introduced the firm to peer agents around the world and the nation, whom the company can call upon if its clients have business in locations Waldman Bros. is unfamiliar with.

“If we need something done in Detroit, we just need to call a RiskProNet member who’s in Detroit, or near Detroit, and that agent will be happy to help us. And if one of our RiskProNet partners calls us from Buffalo or New York City,” Waldman Bros. would assist them.

“Recently,” he added, “we were brought in by an agent from Germany to write the United States exposure on a large account that this agent writes in Germany. This particular insured happens to reside in Texas, so they called upon us. We took care of them, it was a great experience.”

To be of service
Those new to the insurance business can look forward to long, hard hours, Waldman cautioned.

“It’s a long uphill climb, but the rewards at the end are so well worth it. To be able to be of service to people–there’s a significant need in this country for strong, excellent insurance agents like Waldman Bros.

“Those people who want to come and serve the public and do a good job are greatly rewarded. The financial rewards, the emotional rewards, the rewards are fabulous being in this business. But it’s hard work. I work harder today and more hours today than I’ve ever worked in my life.”