Beatty Insurance traces its roots to 1863.

Surface Insurance Agency Inc. was founded in 1910.

At the start of 2024, the two independent insurance agencies in Seymour entered into an agreement to join forces.

Surface’s office at 400 N. Ewing St. closed, and the owners, President Mark Smith and Vice President Darin Kriete, and front desk customer service representative, Linda Abraham, now work at the Beatty office at 111 N. Poplar St.

In total, there are now 12 staff members at Beatty, including half of them being insurance agents. Along with Kriete, the agents include the two owners, President Nate Tormoehlen and Vice President Lance Gentry, John Beatty, Adam Brooks and Kevin Ude. Smith is now a consultant helping transfer accounts and move the business to the Beatty office.

This all came about after Gentry attended a meeting with fellow Keystone Insurers Group partners in Indianapolis in the summer of 2023.

“One of our partners in northern Indiana was telling a story how he missed out on joining forces with another agency in his community,” Gentry said. “He always assumed if something would happen, they would communicate with each other, and something happened with that other agency in the community, and he missed out on the opportunity.”

Driving home from the meeting, Gentry said he thought about how Beatty and Surface have done business for years and are very similar in the characteristics of how they run their agencies, and he said he had a ton of respect for how they’ve done it.

“I’m just going to pick up the phone and make a call and say, ‘Hey, if you guys ever want to do something, if you’re ever thinking about it, we at least want to talk and have conversation,’” Gentry said. “I called Darin up, and it kind of went from there. … We were diligent about it, I think, on both sides because it’s a big change.”

As the conversations continued, Gentry said they found a lot of synergies between how they operate their agencies, and there was a lot of overlap in the insurance carriers.

“They do business very similar to how we do business,” he said. “We’re both independent and client-focused, community-based. We continued discussions and got into the numbers, and it made sense.”

Tormoehlen said the agencies sent letters to customers to let them know about the changes.

“We’re trying to get the word out as many different ways as possible, especially (Surface’s) customers, and make sure they are aware of what’s going on just so people in the community know,” he said.

John Beatty joined the office in 1972 when it was known as Hobbs Miller Insurance Co., which was the name of the business when it was founded in 1863. It was in two different locations on West Second Street until the name changed to Beatty Insurance in 1989. Two years later, it moved to its current location.

James Honan founded Surface Insurance Agency, and it was located on Second Street over a bank. Some time later, due ot his health, the agency moved to the first floor of the Vehslage Building.

In 1927, he sold the agency to J.V. Richart, who operated it along with his real estate business over Jackson County Loan and Trust Co., later changed to Jackson County Bank, until Jan. 1, 1960. Walter L. “Bud” Surface then purchased the agency.

In January 1975, The Roy C. Dailey Agency merged with Surface, and it moved to the Ewing Street location. The agency was incorporated on July 1, 1978.

Now with Beatty and Surface joining forces, there are several positives.

“I think it benefits the clients because there’s less disruption,” Gentry said. “We’re going to keep them with the same carriers they are used to having, doing business pretty much the same way. It’s just in this office now, so continuing to service the community with a community-owned agency, I think, is probably the biggest benefit.”

John Beatty having more than 50 years in the business and Smith approaching that mark is a plus, too.

“I’ve been around for a long time now. You start thinking about what’s going to happen in the future, and it just struck at the right time and the right combination for us,” Smith said.

“Lance was saying there’s no disruptions. It’s the same companies, and it gives me a chance then to move on to things that I’ve been thinking about, rather than having that worry,” Smith said. “The saying ‘It’s better to do it five years too early than five minutes too late,’ this is an opportunity, and so when it comes knocking, you’ve got to think about it, and that’s what we did.”

Gentry also said they are ecstatic to have Kriete and Abraham in the office on a full-time basis. Kriete started at Surface in December 1994, and Abraham joined the office in July 2018.

“It’s tough to run a small business, and we’re fortunate that we can continue to keep this local in the community, and we’re growing, we’re stronger and we’re thankful for that,” Gentry said. “We’re very fortunate we’ve got a great community that supports us, and we look forward in turn to give that back by continuing to offer professional insurance services for the community.”

With so much consolidation occurring nowadays, Gentry said some of the services you get locally in the community either aren’t available or are limited.

“We saw the opportunity and we’re thankful that it has worked out and we can continue to keep it local here in Jackson County,” he said.