Celebrating its 175th anniversary, Limestone Agency of Mt. Sterling is the oldest surviving insurance agency in Kentucky. Founded in 1847 by William Hoffman, the business has been passed down in ownership through five generations of the Hoffman family. Currently, it’s owned and run by J. Miller Hoffman, great-great grandson of William, and partner Ray Robertson.
Ray Robertson and J. Miller Hoffman
“We were founded long before anybody had thoughts of putting Abraham Lincoln on the penny,” said Robertson.
“We have an insurance policy dated April 10, 1869,” added Hoffman. That policy, countersigned by William Hoffman, carried a monthly premium of $15.21 and insured a barn for $800, providing about $400 of coverage for grain, hay and farm equipment. The elder Hoffman also worked as a bank clerk in downtown Mt. Sterling while running the agency.
“We [still] write a lot of coverage for agriculture,” said J. Miller Hoffman. “It used to be we were dominated by tobacco. It wasn’t just a crop. It was a culture. We still have hundreds of tobacco barns sitting around that aren’t being utilized for much.”
When J. Miller went to work at Limestone Agency in 1981, his father had a partner and three clerical workers. The agency now has 15 employees and has added an office in Paris.
Hoffman remembers when he’d pull a manual from a shelf, ask some questions and make a few calculations to arrive at rates for prospective clients. “That’s all changed,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you how they calculate the rates now. They call it an insurance score.”
Robertson said innumerable price points and esoteric factors determine rates. “Now, you just have to put it into the rating system and see what pops out,” he said.
Limestone Agency's oldest policy was written in 1869.
While Limestone has kept up with technological change — installing an internet-based phone system and a cloud-based management system — the agency still values face-to-face interactions with its clients. Hoffman notes one local agency that tried to move all of its business online. “That still doesn’t work in Western Kentucky,” he said. “That may be the norm in five years, but we like relationships with our clients and don’t want to distance that.”
One thing that hasn’t changed over the nearly two centuries of business is the agency’s status as an independent insurance agency.
“The independent agency system is the backbone of commercial insurance in the United States,” said Robertson, who served as the 2020 chairman of Big I, formerly known as Independent Insurance Agents of Kentucky, and then extended that through 2021 due to the pandemic. He is now vice-chair.
An independent insurance agent can offer policies from numerous insurance carriers, while a captive agent works with only one nationally branded carrier. Robertson said there are hundreds of licensed insurance carriers in Kentucky.
“We can figure out almost anything,” Robertson said. Limestone has direct contracts with about a dozen carriers and has access to the whole pool. In 2019, “ we did business with 79 different insurance companies,” said Hoffman.
By working with so many insurance carriers, Limestone can acquire multiple quotes with solutions for dealing with complex business needs and challenges. “A lot of clients come to us not knowing what they want, what they need, and what is required,” said Robertson. “And a lot of agencies just don’t deal with that very well.”
Limestone is also a partner in the Keystone Insurance Group. Keystone entered the Kentucky market in 2009, and Limestone joined right away. Through Keystone, Limestone joined a network with 27 other independent insurance agencies — a partnership in which agencies share their expertise or specialties. “It turned us, a small agency, into one with the capabilities of a very large agency,” said Robertson. “There are times when we just need some information or there might be somebody else who’s writing a lot of assisted-living policies, and we need help with that.”
Keystone also provides representatives with expertise to support the agency. Hoffman recalled that Keystone’s support enabled them to get three quotes for coverage on a $25 million piece of equipment. “There were a couple of parts and pieces for that which we couldn’t have put together without Keystone,” said Hoffman. “Keystone representatives will go to Paintsville, Mount Vernon or wherever. We deal with all the day-to-day stuff, but when we try to renew that account every year, Keystone is on-site with us.”
Trust remains the bedrock of relationships, said Hoffman. “Relationships are bigger than capabilities, bigger than what carriers you have,” he said. Limestone has numerous clients who have been with the agency for more than 50 years.
Hoffman mentions a client whose warehouses were frozen over by an ice storm and the trusses collapsed. “We were there that morning, as it was happening,” Hoffman said. “I couldn’t stop it or fix it. But my being there taking pictures and talking to them, being empathetic — that’s a big deal.”
Independent agencies also have more leeway to advocate for their clients. “We had one carrier that was going to deny a claim, and we felt that we had insured our client for just that kind of situation,” said Robertson. An expert from Keystone got involved, and the carrier paid the claim.
In addition to long-standing clients, Limestone also has longstanding employees. “Brenda, she’s been here for 52 years,” said Hoffman. “And Cheryl, she’s been with us for 18 years.” A good number of the employees have been there for more than 10 years. “One thing we offer our employees is flexibility,” said Hoffman. He described situations in which employees asked for time off for things like medical appointments or a desire to help a friend in need. “I tell them, ‘just make sure you got it squared off with everybody else and go on,’” he said.
It’s that kind of trust and relationship building, whether with clients or employees, that has anchored Limestone Agency over the long haul.