John J. Byrne founded our firm in 1946, then called Sparks and Byrne. He entered the agency business after a long and successful career with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Several years later, Sparks and Byrne split, and the firm became known as John J. Byrne Insurance. He built a solid foundation for the firm. James A. Byrne, CPCU, President, entered the firm in 1958. A new corporation was formed – the J. Byrne Agency, Inc. James Byrne has been an active leader in business and community organizations for three decades. James’s two sons, Tim Byrne & Tom Byrne, joined the agency in 1982. While seeing firsthand that the coastal homeowners’ insurance marketplace was underserved by unfavorable surplus lines products, my father Tim Byrne left the agency to start Coastal Agents Alliance LLC in 2005. Tom Byrne, who was the commercial lines sales manager at the time, stepped up to the plate and was named president in 2005 after Tim left. Since it’s inception, J. Byrne has grown to well established business operating out of 7 locations, writing business in 15 states, and a staff of 52 employees.
My personal background in the insurance industry began when I was 14 years old, working in our office services department as my summer employment. After 3 more summers of likewise duties, I left for other typical seasonal employment while in high school & college. My intentions were never to return to the insurance industry after the exposure to the boredom of a support staff position at such a young age. Concurrently my father left the agency and founded/established a coastal homeowners insurance MGA, Coastal Agents Alliance. Moving forward to 2015, I was a senior in college when my father sold Coastal Agents Alliance to Orchid Underwriters Agency of Vero Beach, FL. That summer I worked with Coastal Agents Alliance during the merger as an underwriting assistant processing home inspection for recommendations and other related duties. When Orchid was looking to hire 3-4 new underwriters to their growing business, I jumped at the chance to be in a role I could really sink my teeth into. Within 2-3 months of training I was the regional underwriter of high valued homeowners in catastrophe exposed areas with a territory ranging from Maryland north to Maine. Lucky for me I had fantastic underwriting mentorship with Orchid. Within those 2 years as an underwriter, I was exposed to the front-line excitement the insurance industry has to offer. Dealing with complicated, coastal, surplus lines accounts quickly became a passion of mine. I also very much enjoyed working with other agencies up and down the northeast coast. I got to observe firsthand many different agencies along the coast of all sizes. Some operations I admired while there were others I did not, I did not know this at the time, but these experiences & observations would prove useful later in my career.
Watching from a far while I moved up the ranks as an underwriter, my uncle Tom Byrne was currently president of J. Byrne Agency. Tom began to approach me at family events encouraging me to come work with him on the agency side of the industry. At that time, I was very hesitant & more so uninterested as I very content with my career as an underwriter and the direction I was going. Over the span of about 6 months I gave the possibility of moving to the family agency more thought and after a discussion with my father it was clear this is a good opportunity. The agency was on it’s 3rd generation of family ownership with no other family members of my generation actively involved with the agency to be considered for another perpetuation. I eventually left my career as an underwriter to become an insurance agent with the family business in January of 2017. At this time perpetuation & ownership were considered to me to happen in good time once I have many years of experience. Over that first year at the agency, I worked lightly as a commercial producer, attending networking & community events shaking hands and writing an account when I could. Meanwhile Tom began to delegate more & more presidential responsibilities to myself, I was determined to do everything within my abilities to make decisions and operate in a way that benefited the agency. By 3rd quarter of 2017, the majority of presidential duties related to the agency were all on my shoulders. Realizing this and very content with the direction things were moving, Tom was willing to start the perpetuation process of the agency relating to his 50% ownership of the business. With the outstanding help of local legal counsel, we had a solid perpetuation plan relating to Tom’s 50% ownership. These dealings were signed on January 31st, 2018, officially naming myself as president of J. Byrne Insurance, Inc. with a long-term (about 9 years to be precise) strategy to transfer Tom’s 50% interest to myself and my brother Tim Jr. & Logan in equal parts. Since then every day is learning experience, thankful for me I am surrounded by a staff of veteran insurance professionals that see I strive for the agency’s success every day. Tom continues to work in the capacity of a consultant, solidifying our public sector relationships while giving crucial input on major agency decisions. I also have great resources such as my father, who currently works elsewhere in the insurance industry but experience as president of J. Byrne for 20 years, and my brothers who also work elsewhere in the industry and provide valuable input.
J. Byrne Agency has evolved over the years as a product of our environment, specifically a coastal location with a local economy that relies heavily on seasonal tourism. As president, my primary objective is hone in on our core specialties and be the best at them. In the commercial lines departments, these specialties are condominium associations, hospitality businesses, contractors, and public sector. In the personal lines department, our primary specialties are coastal homeowners’ insurance (largely secondary homes) and flood insurance. The coastal catastrophe exposure is an area where underwriting variables change every day, with advanced technological advancements over the years we have seen a vastly changing marketplace with carriers constantly opening and closing appetite on the coast. While historically many of these risks would be placed with a surplus line’s carrier, we have recently been successful partnering with admitted insurers that have an appetite for our geographic location. Our primary objective is to partner with not only carriers with an acceptable financial rating, but carriers that understand the nature of the coastal environment and are here to stay from an appetite standpoint. J. Byrne Agency has a wonderful reputation in the area of being the go-to agency for your home or business near the new jersey coast and I intend to build off that with constant market research along with implementation of innovative initiatives to secure this reputation.