Two generations of the Fernandez family team up to
serve south Florida's Hispanic-American community
By Elisabeth Boone, CPCU
The close-knit staff of the Avante Insurance Agency in Miami, Florida, serves the Hispanic-American community in south Florida.
In Spanish, "avante" means "forward." For almost 25 years Avante Insurance Agency of Miami, a close-knit staff led by owners Paco and Mary Fernandez, has been moving steadily forward to serve the growing Hispanic-American community of south Florida.
Avante Insurance was formed in 1978 by Francisco "Paco" Fernandez, who had been a life and health insurance agent in Puerto Rico and later worked for an agency in Miami. "When he started Avante, it was just Paco and two assistants, trying to build a business," says Mary Fernandez. "In 1982 I started giving him a hand. I had been the office manager for a Venezuelan investment group, and when it returned to Venezuela I moved into Paco's office. He started training me to handle homeowners policies, and now I'm the head of that department. In 1986 our daughter Gaby joined us, and she just finished her CPCU. In October our whole family will go to Orlando for the Society of CPCU convention and see her receive her designation." Paco and Mary's son, Angel, is a CPA who has his office in the agency's building and serves as Avante's controller. The agency purchased the building in 1993 and converted it from a duplex into office space.
Although Paco is now officially retired, he goes to the office every day. "He supervises everything and reviews the commercial policies when they come in," Mary says. "He's very thorough and goes over each policy line by line. I'm in charge of homeowners and flood; my department has four employees besides me. Three of us are licensed agents, and we do all the quoting. Another employee handles the renewals, and another takes care of the endorsements."
Francisco "Paco" Fernandez (right) formed Avante in 1978, after having been a life and health insurance agent in Puerto Rico and in Miami. His wife, Mary (left), joined the agency in 1982 and handles the agency's day-to-day operations.
In addition to Paco, Mary, Gaby, and Angel Fernandez, the agency has 10 full-time employees and three part timers, plus three producers. Gaby is in charge of the commercial lines department and will take over the agency when both of her parents are retired. "It's good that after working hard for so many years, we have one of our children ready to take over," Mary says. "We have a lot of friends who are our age and have worked hard to build their businesses, and now their children aren't interested. We've been very lucky with Gaby, not just because she's our daughter but because she's a really good agent."
Growing strong
Through a combination of pursuing new business and acquiring other agencies, Avante Insurance has built its premium volume to about $12 million, of which 45% is commercial lines and 55% is personal. "At first we wrote mostly commercial business, and then we expanded into personal lines, mainly homeowners," Mary says. "Then we began to write auto coverage, because our clients expect it."
On the commercial side, Mary says: "We're pretty diversified. We do a lot of condominiums, apartment buildings, offices, warehouses, and garages. We also write artisans and trucking risks, and we offer workers compensation."
How has Avante Insurance been affected by the tightening of the property/casualty insurance market? 'A hundred and ten percent,' Paco says," Mary responds with a rueful laugh. "It's tough finding markets to place risks, especially property. Sometimes we almost have to beg to get an account written. It's very hard, but we do our best."
Although Avante doesn't currently have a life, health, and benefits department, it plans to open one in the near future. In the meantime, to ensure that clients have access to a reliable source for these coverages, the agency refers this business to a life and health agency.
Avante Insurance is fully automated on the Applied system. Under Angel's direction, the agency recently finished scanning all of its personal lines paper files into the system. The commercial files are next, and that's likely to prove a much more daunting task. "When you're over 40 and you're used to a physical file, it's very hard to let go of that," Mary says with a chuckle. "Even though all our memos are in the computer, I still like to get out the physical file and take a look at what I wrote. But I'm learning that I have to keep up with the times."
Extending the hand of friendship
In south Florida's tightly knit Hispanic-American community, the agent-client relationship often goes beyond selling and servicing insurance. "Sometimes we are more like friends to our customers than insurance agents," Mary says. "We may even help them with family problems." Avante employees not only help clients understand their insurance policies; they also explain the terms of documents like escrow agreements from mortgage lenders. "We especially try to help elderly people who may not speak English very well," she notes. "Sometimes they receive a letter from the insurer, so they bring it to me and ask me to tell them what it says."
Many of Avante's clients are recent immigrants to the United States from Cuba, Puerto Rico, or South America. "The insurance business here is very different from the way it is in those countries," Mary explains, "so we have to change our clients' way of thinking. I also try to help them with the language.
"There's a very high level of trust between our clients and ourselves," she continues. "That's how we have grown. We do not advertise at all, and all our business comes to us by word of mouth, from current clients and often from banks and mortgage companies. The key to our success is service. Before Hurricane Andrew, when we were competing against State Farm and Allstate and all the big names, we were able to grow. Why? Because we treated each customer as a friend. We were interested in their problems and tried to give them as much help as we could. I believe that's something our customers understand and appreciate. We have insureds who have been with us for as long as we've been in business. We know the parents and their children, and now we're seeing the grandkids. Sometimes it's hard to help a customer with personal problems as well as insurance, but it's very rewarding. We feel good knowing that we've been able to help, even in a little way."
Two generations of the Fernandez family are represented at Avante: Principals Mary (second from left) and Paco (far right) were proud to have daughter Gaby (far left) join the agency, as well as son Angel (second from right) who is a CPA, and serves as the agency's controller.
New markets, new directions
Like many other agencies in south Florida, Avante Insurance has formed a relationship with New America Insurance Company and New America MGA of Tarpon Springs, which were profiled in the January 2002 issue of Rough Notes. New America's mission is to serve as a conduit between minority-owned agencies in urban areas and large insurers to which these agencies otherwise might not have access. "Both Paco and I have been active in the Latin American Association of Insurance Agents, and we're both past presidents," Mary says. "In 1996, PIA had a meeting in Detroit for minority-owned agencies, and we were invited to attend and make a presentation.
"The first night, a gentleman by the name of Robert Willis (cofounder of New America and a former District of Columbia insurance commissioner) made a big impression on me. After dinner we were able to sit with Mr. Willis and talk with him about insurance-related matters. Later we received a letter from him announcing the opening of New America. I wrote him a letter telling him how excited we were about getting new markets and offering to help in any way I could. Bob introduced me to Peggy Reid (president of New America MGA), and that's how we got started. We've been with them from the beginning, and they have been fantastic."
The agencies that place business through New America MGA are small or medium-sized minority-owned firms located in inner city areas, and many have been ignored or rejected by large standard carriers. "Before Hurricane Andrew, Paco sent letters to many of the major carriers, expressing our interest in representing the company," Mary says.
"The response was almost always the same: 'Thank you for your interest, but we are not appointing any new agents at this time.' We were fortunate that many local companies, like American Reliance, MCA, Protective, National, Old Republic, and Highlands, opened their doors to us, and we have excellent relationships with them. After Andrew, when so many companies withdrew from the market or went out of business, all we had was the joint underwriting association. When we had to give good business to the JUA, I almost cried, but there was nowhere else to take it. It was a very tragic situation. So when Peggy called me and said New America was open for business, I couldn't believe it. I said, 'You're opening the doors for so
many people.'"
Before joining New America, Peggy Reid was an independent agent. "She understands our position," Mary says. "And now we can talk to an underwriter about how we can write a risk so it will be good for the company and good for the customer. Before this, we had to deal with someone at the JUA who always said, 'These are the rules and that's that.' I had to pinch myself to be sure I wasn't dreaming."
Looking ahead, Mary Fernandez says, Avante Insurance will continue to expand, at least in part by acquiring additional agencies. As she and her husband prepare to turn the agency over to the next generation, she speaks with justifiable pride about its accomplishments. "This is a family business, and we've grown mainly because of our service," she says. "We are good agents and we're honest; I don't have to take any pills to get to sleep. We try to help anyone who asks us, and that's why we're successful."
That's also why Avante Insurance, living up to its name, continues to
"go forward." *