Insurance Group a Columbia mainstay
The Insurance Group traces its business back more than 100 years, and partner Charlie Digges Jr. said one key to the company’s longevity is its ability to keep up with the changes in Columbia’s commerce.
“As a result of that, we’ve got to be more aware of exactly what kinds of businesses are here and what they do,” Digges said.
The lineage of The Insurance Group is easy to trace. The company has had a Charlie Digges in leadership, either father or son, since 1946.
The insurance company started in 1922 as Rollins & Rollins, a family that included James S. Rollins, commonly referred to as the “Father of the University of Missouri.” The company also bought the Columbia Insurance Co., an agency founded in 1898.
Charlie Digges Sr. would join Rollins & Rollins two decades after its formation.
“I got out of the University in 1940, and, for a short time, I went with a life insurance company,” Digges said. “Then World War II came along, and so I went and served.”
Digges returned to Columbia in 1946, a 27-year-old fighter pilot looking to build his post-war future. The company, then Rollins & Vandiver, hired Digges to help with its growing insurance practice. With Digges joining the team, the company had just three employees.
In 1950, Digges was called back into action in the Korean War. Upon his return in 1952, the company was rechristened Rollins, Vandiver & Digges. Digges stayed with the company until his retirement in 1992.
Another major change came in 1971, with the addition of partner Skip Grossnickle, who leads the firm today with Charlie Digges Jr.
The junior Digges entered the picture when he was still in high school, working part time in the firm for spending money. Then there was college at MU, six years of service as a fighter pilot in the Air Force (following in his father’s footsteps) and several years as an airline pilot.
In 1979, Digges was visiting Columbia for Christmas when he got a life-changing phone call: “Interestingly, not my father, but Mr. Vandiver and Skip Grossnickle asked me if I would come to the office one day,” Digges said. “They asked me if I would consider coming back to Columbia and being a partner in the insurance agency. It was a wonderful opportunity, and I took advantage of it.”
In 1981, Grossnickle and Charlie Digges Jr. and Sr. partnered with Dudley and Hall Trice, purchasing a third agency, combining all of their operations and forming The Insurance Group.
Today, with the previous partners all retired, Charlie Digges Jr. and Skip Grossnickle run the company.
Charlie Digges Jr. explained The Insurance Group as it exists today: “We are an independent insurance agency, which means we represent a whole lot of different companies. The idea is that we match the company with the client to provide them with the best coverage at the most competitive price.”
The company provides insurance products for individual and business clients. In addition – and this is one of the largest changes the company has seen since its inception – it manages employee benefit programs for the businesses it serves.
“Back in 1922, nobody did benefits,” Digges Jr. said. “Back then, everybody just paid their doctor with money or chickens or eggs or whatever. Since ’65, the employee benefits side has become pretty important to employers.”
The year 1965 marked the passage of the federal Medicare program. “That’s when it all started,” Charlie Jr. said.
The Digges said they consider their success to hinge on personal service and their ability to understand the nuts and bolts of how their clients function, whether dealing with individuals or businesses. This tends to be more complicated with business clients.
“In order to properly manage the risk of a business, we’ve got to be able to understand what they do and how they work,” Digges Jr. said.
This means staying on top of a wide array of changes in many business sectors, and being ready to address new issues all the time. One that has arisen over the last few years is coverage for things related to the Internet, “Cyber Insurance.”
“A great example is that I’ve got a client who maintains a credit card base of his clients’ credit card numbers,” Digges Jr. said. “His fear is that some hacker will get in there and steal those credit card numbers. He calls me and wants to know how he can protect his business. That’s the kind of thing that 50 years ago we just didn’t have.”
Digges likes to show off the company’s two-story building at the corner of South Providence and East Southampton, which was finished in 2007. One of the most unusual features of the office building is a gym and wellness center that serves employees and customers, and which is open to the public. It’s staffed by four certified exercise physiology professionals.
“The whole driving force behind this is helping clients make lifestyle adjustments that will reduce healthcare claims,” Digges Jr. said of Optimus, The Center for Health. “Looking at our costs, 20 percent comes from administration, and 80 percent comes from claims. The center is one way we can work with clients to make claims less likely or less expensive.”
Looking back, Digges Sr. said that a big part of the company’s success relates to the partners’ commitment to getting involved in the community. Even in this, the Digges family could be seen following in each others’ footsteps. The very first Charlie Digges was Digges Sr.’s father; he was the sixth president of the city’s oldest Rotary Club, the Rotary Club of Columbia, serving from 1926 through 1927. Digges Sr. followed behind him, as president of the same club, in 1956-1957; and Digges Jr. likewise served in 1984-1985.
“This is important to us across the board,” Digges Jr. said. “I think everybody in this office is involved in some way or another.”
Today, The Insurance Group includes the main office in Columbia and offices in St. Louis and Lake Ozark. The company has about 40 employees and plans to continue expanding.
The Insurance Group
200 East Southampton Drive,
Columbia, Missouri 65203
573-875-4800
www.theinsurancegrp.com