BHC Insurance In Fort Smith Celebrates 100 Years In Business

Nov. 15--Like 1915, 2015 is a watermark year for BHC Insurance.

Celebrating its 100th year in business, the Fort Smith company which started in the basement of a downtown bank has grown to become one of the largest insurance companies in the state. And more growth plans are on the horizon.

Formerly known as Brown-Hiller-Clark Insurance & Associates, a rebranding last year shortened the name but not their activity. On both the business and community outreach fronts, BHC Insurance has pumped its personal insurance profile and played pivotal roles with nonprofits.

United Way honored BHC Insurance this year with The 2015 Pacesetter Award for having 100 percent employee participation.

With business associates at First National Bank of Fort Smith, the insurance brokers also sponsored the massive Bicecleta Sem Freo mural in the 800 Block of Garrison Avenue for September's The Unexpected Project in downtown Fort Smith.

With close to $100 million in insurance premiums written in 2015, BHC Insurance is ranked fourth in the state of Arkansas, according to BHC Insurance President Marty Clark. The insurance brokers have access to about 100 insurance carriers, which Clark says allows them to better shape policies to a client's needs through a "consultative" approach.

Cyber liability insurance has become more in demand in recent years, he added.

Independent Advantage

"I think people think of us mainly as a business insurance agency, and that is primarily the biggest part of what we do, but we also write personal insurance for almost 2,000 individuals for home and auto," Clark said. "As an independent agency we represent a lot of different markets."

BHC Insurance has about 65 employees in three offices. They also offer financial advisers. BHC Insurance offices are at Fort Smith, Lowell and Sallisaw.

"We are and independent and represent many markets, so we can find the right solution for the right need," Clark said. "We have markets for beyond just the one company that our competition represents."

Personal home, auto and health insurance account for between 5 and 10 percent of the company's profile. Growth at the BHC Insurance office in Lowell is a goal for the company, according to company partner Sam Hiller, who recruited Marty's father Larry Clark to the company in the early 1970s when they both worked in downtown Fort Smith.

Representing a lot of insurance carriers is "an advantage," Hiller said.

"We want to find the best product for the best prices," said Larry Clark, the partner who had been the assistant manager of the Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce from 1965 until 1972 when he took a chance on Brown-Hiller, Inc. located in the basement of a bank building.

The local chamber of commerce back then was at 613 Garrison Ave., where R. Landry's New Orleans Cafe is now located. The insurance company was nearby what is now the Stephens Building, which houses the city of Fort Smith offices. At the time it was Merchant's Bank.

Larry Clark, along with his boss Paul Latture at the 1960s-'70s era Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce, had been instrumental in the city's growth with recruitment of Whirlpool, Rheem and Gerber. Janie Glover, who became a chamber staff member in 1960, attested to Latture's stature as one of the most successful chamber leaders in the nation at the time.

Success in recruitment of a major corporation to Fort Smith sometimes was made by learning the right person's "hot button," Larry Clark says. Hardscrabble Country Club and Golf Course turned out to be just the thing they needed to turn a decision in the chamber's favor. It didn't hurt that the executive's daughter leaned toward enrollment at the University of Arkansas.

BHC Insurance has many large construction companies and manufacturers as clients, and also manages policies for the city of Fort Smith and local schools. Viewing the history of BHC Insurance is a like a local history lesson.

Past Blast

In 1915, W.A. Booker opened the insurance company that would become the Booker-Brown-Agency. P.G. Brown bought half interest in the company in 1933. They grew modestly, even during the Great Depression. Five years after the end of World War II, Brown's brother-in-law F.M. Hiller joined the agency as a partner. Then called Brown-Hiller, Inc., the company expanded as a family business when another generation joined the agency in the 1960s.

Gaylon Brown Jr., son of P.G. Brown, joined in 1962. Sam Hiller, son of F.M. Hiller, joined in 1963. Ten years later, Larry Clark's surname was added to the masthead to form Brown-Hiller-Clark & Associates. Having outgrown their downtown office, the agency moved in 1976 to a larger building and built its current two-story home at 5500 Euper Lane in 1983.

Over the years, the agency has handled accounts for a number of natural disasters, including a 2008 hail storm that wrecked the Fort Smith Convention Center's roof and caused $600,000 in damage to the city's police car fleet. In all, the agency filed $80 million in claims for the 2008 hail storm.

The 1996 tornado that devastated portions of downtown Fort Smith and Van Buren called for about $25 million in claims filing. This was a few years after Marty Clark had joined the family agency. Scott Clark came aboard in 1990. Both were told by their father to "go see the world" and make sure that insurance was really what they wanted to do by working at another agency first.

"I wanted them to get a taste of it," Larry Clark says in a video at the company's website. "They did that, they decided to join and it couldn't have been any better."

In 1996, the Clark brothers persuaded Shannon Schmidly to leave the trucking industry and pursue a career in insurance. Today the three lead the agency, with Scott Clark and Schmidly serving as executive vice presidents.

Sam T. Sicard, president of First National Bank of Fort Smith, calls BHC Insurance "the best in the insurance industry" and commends their community partnerships. BHC Insurance became a member of First National Bank's parent company First Bank Corp in 2002, Sicard added.

"We believed they shared our values of commitment to serving our customers and our community with professionalism and integrity," Sicard wrote in an email of BHC Insurance. "Our confidence in them has been validated since they have been a member of First Bank Corp. BHC Insurance has helped First Bank Corp. become a stronger company through their expertise and the expanded array of financial solutions they have allowed us to provide our customers."

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