Meet June Taylor - Wilkinson Agency

Meet June Taylor—Wilkinson Agency

The Wilkinson Agency is located in White House, Tennessee about thirty minutes up I-65 from Nashville, not far from the Kentucky state line. The town was named for a historic white house that served as an inn for travelers transiting the old Louisville & Nashville Road on horseback or by stagecoach between Nashville and Louisville starting in the 1800’s. The inn gained notoriety when General Andrew Jackson stayed there before he was elected President on his way to Kentucky. He was purported to tell people, in good humor, that he had stayed at the White House, albeit not the one in Washington. By some accounts, President Andrew Jackson continued to stay at the inn when he travelled from Nashville to Washington from time to time. White House prospered as a small-town farm community until I-65 was built with an exit at White House in 1972. Since then, the community has steadily grown and developed into a thriving business and residential community.

June Taylor started working in her family’s agency shortly after her graduation from Middle Tennessee State University in 1976. After working for a brief time at K-Mart, June joined The Wilkinson Agency in April of 1977. Working side by side with her mother, she learned about insurance and running the agency. June remembers taking Chuck Bidek’s licensing class in June of 1977 through the Insurors of Tennessee. She recalls that Chuck was a great teacher and she learned much about the insurance business through that class. She also quickly enrolled in a CIC course to further her insurance education only to be told by the instructor she might not be ready for the course. June asked that she be allowed to prove herself by going forward with the course that day. She scored quite high on that first test and in short order became the first woman in Tennessee to earn the Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) professional designation in Tennessee.

The Wilkinson agency was located just a couple of blocks from June’s parent's house, so they would often go home to have lunch. After about six months, June noticed her mother started taking more time away from the agency after lunch until one day she just did not come back. After working in the agency for many years, June’s mom was ready to turn over the day-to-day operation to her daughter. Though her mom

The Wilkinson Agency located in White House,TN is a fourth generation family owned agencyserving personal and commercial clients.

was always available to answer questions and support June, her mom told her that as long as she was in the agency, clients would gravitate to her and not June. So, at twentythree years old, June became a young female agency principal in what was then a male dominated insurance industry. She has run the family business ever since. In a very real sense, she is somewhat of a trailblazer business woman in small town America.

June’s biggest challenges in the beginning were to earn the trust of her clients, the respect of company representatives and how to adapt the agency to a rapidly changing insurance marketplace. As a young person, she was not afraid of technology and saw the benefit of employing technology in the operation. She became an early adopter of agency automation including the Rackley Rating system, AMS agency management systems and other software and hardware available to run an agency. She notes that eventually the agency migrated to Applied Systems. Looking back now, June says technology was one of the most essential elements of success for the agency and continues to be today. The technology allowed the agency to focus more on serving the insurance needs of their clients and on the growth of the business. June has also focused on hiring and keeping good people to serve clients and is quick to give credit to her staff who have worked diligently to serve agency clients with care and integrity.

Over the course of June’s forty-four year career as an agency principal, she placed a strong emphasis on continuing education, community service, professional networking, and industry engagement. She has also served on numerous insurance association boards through the years. Giving back of her time and talent has also been a cornerstone of her success.

Now, June’s son Andrew, an accountant, is an active partner in the business and the fourth generation of the family to carry the Wilkinson Agency forward into the future. One day when the time is right, like her mom who came before her, June may not come back from lunch, handing off the agency to the next generation. u

16 The Tennessee Insuror