Q&A with
BILL PURDY Bill Purdy is President of Purdy Insurance Agency. Based in Sunbury, PA, the full-service agency now includes fourth-generation family members. Bill also serves on the IA&B Board of Directors. Insurance is obviously a family affair for your agency. How many family members work there now?
it, and we let them decide what they were interested in. Everyone made their own decisions.
Currently, seven. It’s myself and my two brothers [Chris Purdy and Craig Purdy]. And we’re working on the next generation plans. My daughter [Season Purdy Looper], and two of Chris’s sons [Truman R. Purdy & Adam Purdy] have acquired an interest in the business and are involved with the day-to-day operations; my son in law [Andy Looper] is also in the business.
Many IA&B member agencies are family businesses. What’s your best advice to other agency leaders who are bringing the next generation on board?
Was there any doubt that you and your brothers would follow your father and grandfather into the business? That was something I wanted to do growing up. Both of my brothers went to Gettysburg College. My oldest brother thought about being a school teacher, and Craig thought about law school. But after they talked about the opportunities with Dad [Truman H. Purdy], they decided they were coming into the office. For me, I always wanted to work with Dad. When I chose a college, there weren’t many with insurance programs. I chose a university that had one, but when I got there, I realized that you couldn’t get into the insurance generations... programThree until you were a senior in college. So I came home and went to work in the office and took business courses at Susquehanna University. How about the next generation – did you know all along that they would join the agency? I would say that Adam was pretty focused on coming in and joining the business. The rest of them weren’t sure. We didn’t put pressure on anyone. We explained the positives, the responsibility, and the work that goes with 8
I think it’s important to let them know what’s involved – the opportunities and responsibilities. Many of us work a lot of hours. Kids may look at it and say, I don’t know if I want to put in all of that time and have that responsibility. But if you’re going to be successful anywhere, it takes that commitment. My dad and several business associates that have family businesses have a rule: the kids needed to work somewhere else first, before coming into the family business. I spent a year working on road construction for Faylor Middlecreek before going to work in the agency. The same applied for Truman, Adam, and Season. They all worked various jobs – at restaurants, a senator’s office, construction, and another insurance agency – before joining the business. It’s good to have some life experience, and it’s an opportunity to grow personally and professionally. You’ve spent your career in the industry. What has changed for the better over the years? And what has become more difficult for independent agents? Some of it is the same – the good also presents challenges. For example, the growth of technology has given us the ability to be more efficient and have information at our fingertips, but it also has changed the knowledge agents need to differentiate themselves. It’s much easier to offset that knowledge base with technology these days. To me, that’s a good thing and a bad thing.
JANUARY 2022
