Wilton, Connecticut · incorporated July 1932
Ninety-four years of picking up the phone.
One of the largest independent, family owned and operated insurance agencies in Connecticut. Three generations, two offices, and the same name on the door since the Brennan-Tooher agency was formed out of a house on Hillside Avenue in Stamford.
- Incorporated
- 1932
- Licensed in
- 38 states
- Career professionals
- 36
- Clients served
- 2,500+
July, in Stamford, CT
Offices in CT and NY
Not a call list with quotas
Families, boards, businesses
Which is really four agencies sharing one carrier list.
The four specialty departments were not a marketing decision. Each one exists because somebody here found an underserved market and staffed it.
Homeowner Associations
Boards, property managers and the master policy behind them. The department was formed in the 1980s around Community Association Underwriters, when Tooher-Ferraris was one of only two agencies in Connecticut able to write it.
High Net Worth Personal Lines
Houses, collections and the excess liability sitting over all of it, placed with the private client carriers: Chubb, AIG Private Client Group, PURE, Cincinnati.
Specialty Commercial Lines
Targeted classes rather than everything: arborists, landscapers, refuse haulers, hospitality, custom home builders and real estate portfolios.
Group Benefits
Health, dental, vision, disability and voluntary benefits, with HR consulting, compliance and benchmarking behind them.
The renewal nobody reads
A policy is only ever tested on the worst day of the year.
Two storm-felled oaks three weeks before a closing. A homeowner suing the three board members who voted on a pergola. A building still insured at its 2021 replacement cost. None of those are pricing questions on the day they happen. They are questions about whether anybody read the form while it was quiet.
That reading is the work, and it is the part a four minute online quote cannot do for you.
Risk Synergy®
So an account here gets people with names, and a service model with one.
Thoughtful Insurance® was trademarked in June 2018 and Risk Synergy® three months after it, because the client service model behind them was specific enough to be worth naming. In practice it means the same team places the coverage, reviews it at renewal, and argues about it with the carrier when there is a claim.
Placed
Exposure first, form second, price third. The carrier list is long because the right answer is not always the same one.
Reviewed
At renewal, against what changed: a build, a new unit count, a subsidiary, a valuation that has quietly aged out.
Argued
A claims manager of 25 years told one of our commercial clients he had never worked with a broker who was a fiercer advocate for their client. That letter is on the testimonials page.
What that review looks like on paper
This is the association file we would hand back to your board.
Five lines, taken from the guidance our association department publishes for boards. Two of them are where most Connecticut communities are exposed right now.
| Line | On the current policy | Status | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insured value versus today's rebuild cost | Last appraised 2021 | Look at this | Construction costs have not come down since. An insurance appraisal is not a market appraisal, and it should be refreshed every three to five years. |
| Coinsurance clause | 90% required | Look at this | Insured below 90% of replacement cost and the penalty applies to a partial loss, not only a total one. |
| Directors and officers limit | $1,000,000 | Holds | The floor we would want for an association this size. Communities over 50 units, or with an active litigation history, should sit above it. |
| D&O retroactive date | Full prior acts | Holds | Claims-made cover responds on the policy in force when the claim is reported, so a carrier change is where prior acts quietly get lost. |
| General liability | Common areas scheduled | Holds | Bodily injury and property damage sit here, not under D&O. Boards regularly assume the opposite. |
Illustrative of the review, not of your policy. Bring the declarations page and we will do this one properly.
Their words, not ours
And it is why the letters we get tend to open with a number of years.
It is my pleasure to write this as a long-term customer of over 30 years for my business, myself, and my family. It started with Peter, and now Eric, along with every agent and receptionist.
Ed
Two weeks ago, a storm downed two huge 120-year-old oak trees on our property. And we were scheduled to sell our house just three weeks later. The Tooher-Ferraris team filed a claim right away, and the insurance company came through without a quibble.
John
Tooher Ferraris Insurance Group is the most professional insurance group we have ever worked with for the condominium associations. Their response time is outstanding whenever questions arise.
Carly
So start with a conversation, not a quote form.
Send the declarations pages you already have. We will read them, tell you what we would change and what we would leave alone, and the notes are yours to keep either way.
Before you call
The five things people ask us first.
Are you tied to one insurance company?
No. Tooher-Ferraris is an independent agency, so the carrier is chosen for the account rather than the account fitted to a carrier. The partnerships are long-standing ones: Chubb, AIG Private Client Group, PURE, Travelers, The Hartford, Liberty Mutual, Philadelphia, Hanover, EMC, NJM, USLI, Berkley One, Acadia, GNY and Community Association Underwriters among them.
Where can you write business?
The agency holds licences in 38 states and works from two offices: The Kent Building at 43 Danbury Road in Wilton, Connecticut, and 845 Third Avenue, 6th Floor, in New York City.
Who handles a claim once it is filed?
The account team that placed the coverage. Advocacy on a disputed loss is the part of this job our clients write to us about, and it is why several of them are still here after thirty years.
Can I get my auto ID cards without calling?
Yes. The Tooher-Ferraris mobile app for Apple and Android gives you 24/7 access to account information, auto ID cards and policy change requests.
Do you place group employee benefits as well as property and casualty?
Yes. The Benefits Division opened in March 2021 and services group health, dental, vision, disability and voluntary benefits, alongside HR consulting, compliance and benefits strategy.