Vendor: The Cone Company
Products: Out-of-home insurance (general liability/umbrella, property/inland marine, advertising/media liability, cyber, directors and officers, key exec and buy-sell life products)
Address: 4121 Carmichael Rd. Suite 502, Montgomery, AL 36106
Email: bcone@theconeco.com
Phone: 334-272-4791
Brian Cone grew up in the insurance business—literally. He spent summers working at his father’s agency, majored in risk management at the University of Mississippi, and spent 15 years working in other sectors of the insurance industry before joining the family firm. Brian’s firm, The Cone Company, has developed a specialty serving the insurance needs of out-of-home advertising companies. Billboard Insider will run a series in which Brian discusses the key risk factors and insurance decisions facing out-of-home advertising companies.
Brian, tell us about your background and how you started representing out-of-home companies in the insurance marketplace.
I’ve been in insurance since high school, working summers at my father’s agency. I went to Ole Miss knowing I’d major in Finance with an emphasis in Risk Management, one of the few schools with that program at the time. I always planned to come back to the family business, but I wanted to learn the industry from different angles first. The best advice for “learning insurance” that I’d heard was to start in claims, so you can see “how the sausage is made”. I was a property adjuster with State Farm, and right after Hurricane Katrina, I asked to be put on the road handling catastrophe claims. Living out of hotel rooms all over the country for months at a time, handling 5 or 6 claims a day, was hard work and not conducive to the married, family life I was about to live. I switched courses and became an insurance wholesaler in the Excess and Surplus Lines market. When an independent agent like me can’t find an underwriter willing to provide suitable terms for a “risky” account, he calls an “E&S Broker” who shops the “hard-to-place” insurers most people haven’t heard of. These insurers take bigger risks than your Travelers and Liberty Mutual underwriters will. I learned about niche insurance classes like billboards during this time, not knowing where all of that would lead, but after the birth of my twin sons in 2014, I moved back home to Montgomery and joined the family firm.
I’m selling insurance for the family firm and building a book of business when I connected with a local billboard operator, Neil Bell, with Rose City Outdoor at the time. I reviewed his policies, and it was clear to me that he was not only overpaying, but he wasn’t getting the best coverage either. Lots of premium for little coverage, is not what people want. So that’s how it all started. I used my background with property insurance and niche “hard-to-place” market to secure more favorable terms and he mentioned that there would be other people out there like him who’d want to pay less for more. We secured an insurance program with a national carrier and started spreading the word.
What states can you write billboard insurance in?
We’re able to write coverage in all 50 states. There are some nuances depending on the state—particularly with ancillary coverages like workers’ compensation—but when it comes to the two core coverages for out-of-home operators—property and general liability—we can provide solutions nationwide.
What’s next?
Next week, Brian will break down General Liability Insurance and why it’s essential for your out-of-home advertising company.
To learn more about how The Cone Company can support your out-of-home business, contact Brian Cone at BCone@theconeco.com or 334-272-4791
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