Wallace & Turner’s roots run deep—a century and a half deep. With 150 years of doing business in Springfield, Ohio and beyond, Wallace & Turner serves its community through far more than insurance.
Springfield, Ohio
Founded: 1870
Employees: 19
Wallace & Turner's roots run deep—a century and a half deep. With 150 years of doing business in Springfield, Ohio and beyond, Wallace & Turner serves its community through far more than insurance.
“Take care of the community, and they'll take care of you," says Patrick Field, partner and third-generation team member. Many of Wallace & Turner's employees and producers serve on nonprofit boards, and when the coronavirus pandemic struck, Wallace & Turner canceled their plans to celebrate their 150th anniversary and instead made additional donations to local nonprofits hit hard by the crisis.
The agency also recently won a $10,000 donation from the Liberty Mutual Emergency Community Support Grant for the Second Harvest Food Bank, a Springfield-based nonprofit of which Field serves as vice president.
Partner and vice president P.J. Miller started in the industry working for his father's agency, which was acquired by Wallace & Turner. He and Lisa Miller, operations and commercial lines manager, are married and have the insurance industry to thank for the beginning of their love story.
Lisa Miller, Operations Manager, Commercial Lines Account Manager
I was working at Westfield Insurance as a personal lines and commercial lines underwriter. I even spent some time in their IT department. I met P.J. on the golf course at the Westfield Country Club. Seven years later we got married, after which I began working at Wallace & Turner. It helps a lot with company relationships to understand the underwriting side of things.
We have great relationships not only with companies but with our customers. People know who we are, that we can get the job done, and that they can rely on us.
When the coronavirus hit, we had a solid business interruption plan in place that we had practiced, and that allowed us to start working from home very smoothly. We are lucky to have a great staff that we trust, and that works hard and well through obstacles like this.
P.J. Miller, Partner, Vice President, Board Chairman
Honesty is valued very highly in our business. We treat our clients like we would want to be treated. Word gets around that folks in the community can come to us and we'll analyze their insurance and tell them what we need to do without trying to just collect the premium. Contributions, donations and support for nonprofits in our community is something we're very serious about. The community knows and holds us in high regard because of that.
An aspect that makes Wallace & Turner unique is using an agency bill as opposed to a direct bill. Clients come in to discuss their insurance and bill, and that leads to interactions and relationship-building. It's almost unheard of these days to have an agency bill, but there's a long history of it here.
Patrick Field, Partner, President
After college, I was tending bar for a living when my dad called me up and offered me a job as a producer at Wallace & Turner. I had vehemently sworn I would never work in insurance. But my dad asked me to promise that I would give it my all for two years. As a people-oriented person, I very quickly discovered that I loved it. An unexpected bonus was that my father and I became much closer than we ever had before.
I handle a lot of accounts from my dad, and P.J. handles a lot of accounts passed to him from his father. Our relationships with our clientele are unique in today's insurance world.
Both P.J. and I were raised in philanthropic families, and that's continued at Wallace & Turner. We represent most of the nonprofits in our area. Both personally and corporately, we are all very involved in our community.
AnneMarie McPherson is IA news editor.
