Sticking Together Through Tough Times

Southwest Florida-based Harbour Insurance employees are well versed in helping their clients get back on their feet following a hurricane. But last year, the agency had to step into different shoes when Hurricane Irma hit the state and destroyed its main office in Naples.

Employees of Insurance Journal’s Best Agency to Work For 2018 Bronze winner for the Southeast praised how their agency responded during that tough time and said the experience has made them all closer.

“As a company, we all pulled together not only to get back up and running to assist our clients through the losses they suffered, but also pulled together to help our community and our agency get back to some normalcy,” said one Harbour Insurance employee in Insurance Journal’s annual survey. “It was a tough time, and we are still not back in our office (hopefully soon) but continue to grow and prosper as a company.”

Harbour Insurance founder and owner Will Kastrol said that Irma ripped the roof off the agency’s Naples office building and everything inside was ruined. Still, the team helped thousands of insureds rebuild their lives while working from a much smaller temporary location.

“For nine months, we worked tirelessly to fight for our insureds and help our insurance companies pay claims; and personally, all of us were dealing with the financial and emotional effects of Hurricane Irma … [but] with all of this turmoil, our team got stronger,” Kastrol said.

Kastrol said it’s the Harbour team that makes the agency great.

“We feel we are living a mission of service and enjoy advising our clients … We are an agency most concerned with protecting our clients,” he said.

Employees of Harbour agree and also highlighted the agency’s “fun” atmosphere and team spirit in their survey responses.

“This doesn’t feel like a job. Our agency staff are very close with one another and stand beside each other in both good and bad times,” wrote one survey respondent.

“What this agency does every day – the atmosphere is nothing but uplifting. You are immediately family,” wrote another. “And our team is the strongest it has been ever.”

The agency offers auto, home, flood, boat, fine arts and business insurance coverages and now has a total of three locations – two in Naples and another in Fort Myers, Fla.

Employees say their agency is also working to be on the front of technology and embracing insurtech agency options so it can better assist its clients.

“Our office is all about collaboration of ideas and brainstorming,” said one employee.

Considering the tumultuous year it’s been for the agency, Kastrol said he is “humble, very grateful and shocked” to be nominated as a Best Agency to Work For by his employees.

“It was the hardest year of our professional life [and] our team just kept moving forward every day,” he said. “As hard as its been the last year, it has been one of the more gratifying years of my life.”