Focus On Risk Consulting, Tech Innova
“Advice not price” is the mantra of the company—which also stands out with its no-commission
AGENCY OF THE YEAR
K CHAMPION AT A GLANCE
E PARKER, SMITH & FEEK employee-owners gather in front of their Bellevue, Wash. headquarters.
Pictured are: (front center) Susan Stead; (first step l-r) Jim Hamlin, Gary Grosenick, Greg Collins,
Ed Rhone; (second step l-r) Marty Bask, Shelley Cardiel, Herb Van Der Veer; (top step l-r) Mike
Woltersdorf, Kevin Norris, Steve Wolf, Dwight Jarvis.
Parker, Smith & Feek
E Entering Principal: Gregory Collins,
president & CEO
E Headquarters: Bellevue, Wash.
E Website: www.psfinc.com
E Principals: 22
E Employees: 185
E Commercial-Lines Producers: 26
E Commercial-Lines Premium Volume:
2008: $177,270,000
2009: $198,230,000
2010: $186,000,000
E P&C Commercial Income:
2008: $21,270,000
2009: $23,923,000
2010: $22,935,000
BY MARK E. RUQUET
WHILE SOME agencies have only recently come to embrace the idea of being a risk consultant for their
clients, the concept is nothing new for the
agency Parker, Smith & Feek.
“We have always taken the approach
that we are a consulting operation not
a sales operation,” says Gregory Collins,
president and CEO of the Bellevue, Wash.-based firm, founded in 1937.
This consulting focus is reinforced by
the firm’s compensation structure. “Our
employees are owners and do not work on
commission,” Collins notes. “They support
the concept that we are selling consulting
services to clients and not selling them a
policy. Lowering client cost and improving
risk-management operations is our aim.”
This approach to its business is paying
off: Through all the trauma of the past
decade, the firm has more than doubled its
revenues—virtually all organically.
ADVICE—NOT PRICE—KEY TO KEEPING,
ATTRACTING CLIENTS
Focusing on advice not price, Collins says,
is the key to the success of the firm, which
insures clients on six continents. Creating so-
lutions for their client’s problems by lowering
their cost of risk is a concept that is used not
only to maintain the satisfaction of the firm’s
current roster of clients. The approach is also
an important aspect of PS&F’s marketing ef-
forts for new business.
