"My father loved insurance
and this "town". His desire was to have all three sons
in the business with him, and he got his wish.” said Raymond
Butler, III. The brothers also have a sister, Lynne Hendricks,
who is not active in the business.
"I'm very, very proud of the fact that my grandfather
started the company and his son and grandsons came into it,"
said Executive Vice President Tom Butler. "It's a close
family and it keeps the family together."
Over the years, the firm has moved only 3 times. From the Seybold
Building, the company moved in 1951 to one of Henry Flagler's
original Royal Palms Cottages - built in 1896 to house railroad
workers at 134 SE 2nd St. In 1979, when the property was condemned
under imminent domain resulting in a forced sale to the city,
the agency moved to its current location in the Waterford complex
on Blue Lagoon Dr.
In April 1994, Raymond W. Butler Insurance merged with Buckley,
Deets & Associates - which specialized in commercial insurance
for property, casualty and employee benefits - to form Butler,
Buckley, and Deets. "Today the agency has eleven agents
and premium volume has reached $25 million a year," Raymond
Butler, III said.
Butler, Buckley, and Deets are divided into several divisions,
handling nearly every type of insurance for businesses and individuals.
Divisions include commercial lines, personal lines, bonds, group
health and benefits, claims administration, and aviation and
ocean marine. "About seventy-five percent of the business
is commercial," Raymond Butler, III said.
"Usually agencies have niches," said executive vice
president Richard Butler. "But we try not to specialize
too much . We don't try to limit ourselves to one particular
industry or type of insurance."
The firm now represents about 55 insurance companies, including
St. Paul Insurance, which has been represented by the firm since
1912, Raymond Butler, III said.
On Butler, Buckley and Deets' client list are names such Security
Services of America, Overholt Construction Corp., Arquitectonica,
Merrill-Stevens Dry Dock Company and MBL Paving.
Merril-Steven's Vice President Phil Everingham said "They
were instrumental in getting our company out of the assigned
risk pool and into a standard company with a significant savings
on the premium," Everingham said the total savings over
the four-year period has exceeded $200,000.
The agency also insured the 186-acre property that is now the
Waterford complex from the time it was raw land in 1978, through
the development and construction by Weda Developers, up until
it was sold to Teachers Insurance Group in 1989.
Butler, Buckley and Deets also handle claims administration
for self-insured rental car agencies such as Cruise America,
based in Mesa, Arizona, which rents out its fleet of 5,000 motor
homes across the entire North, Central and South Americas. Raymond
Butler, III acts as the firm's risk manager.
Larry Deets, the firm's chief financial officer, also handles
insurance consulting for such clients as Carlos de la Cruz and
the University of Miami. "When you have five [partners],"
said Deets, "there's more time spent on production and
less time on administration."
Deets and Executive Vice President Tom Buckley - both of whom
have more than 35 years of insurance experience - said they
chose to team up with the Butlers because of the firms reputation
and compatibility, and to create volume and efficiency.
"The days of the little agent are numbered because the
insurance companies want to deal with agencies that have a large
premium volume, and the only way to do that is to have strength
in numbers," Buckley said. "[The Butlers] have been
in business since 1910, they have name recognition here in Miami.
I like that - with longevity, there's usually success."
Raymond and Tom Butler each have their sons in the business.
Forrest , Garrett , and Brandon Butler are now learning the trade to continue
the succession of this now four-generation "Miami"
company!
