'It's still a people business': Northern Insuring celebrates 90 years

Press-Republican (Plattsburgh, NY)

Jun. 16--PLATTSBURGH -- Northern Insuring Agency is in its ninth decade of business and Chairman Roderic "Rod" Giltz says, unsurprisingly, times have changed since his first day on the job in 1959.

"I can remember a large commercial client back then saying to us, 'You have to get a fax machine,'" Rod told The Press-Republican. "I said to him, 'I've read about those. What's a fax machine?'"

IN THE FAMILY

Northern Insuring Agency, Inc., a full-service insurance group with offices in the City of Plattsburgh, Glens Falls and Potsdam, was first incorporated in June 1930.

About three years later, E. Glenn Giltz, Rod's father, joined the business, becoming its president in 1941.

It became a family affair when Rod started there in the late 1950s and, upon his father's death in 1985, his daughter Deena Giltz McCullough stepped in, as well.

Rod's son Randall "Randy" Giltz joined the insurance agency in 1990 and was later followed by Collin McCullough, Deena's son, in 2017.

"I get this great benefit of working with Collin, and so does Rod and so does Randy, but especially me, as his mom," Deena, agency president and CEO, said.

"Now we're under the fourth generation. That's not something that I thought would have happened."

DOOR-TO-DOOR SERVICE

The family thought the firm had come a long way in its 90 years, first starting as a three-man show.

In Rod's early years on the job, he said he'd grab a stack of policies and follow a route, making door-to-door visits.

"I'd go to people's homes and deliver a policy on a car or on a house," he said. "Then, subsequent to that, I was visiting various businesses and physically delivering an annual renewal on a policy."

MORE INSURANCE OPTIONS

As the times have changed, Northern Insuring said most of its policies were delivered electronically.

"The idea of going out and visiting on a route and stopping house to house or business to business -- it was pretty simple back then," Rod said.

But even with advancements allowing for streamlined services, and less filing cabinets, Deena said insurance itself had gotten much more complex.

There are policies about sexual harassment and cyber liability, she said, "there is a lot more depth of insurance coverage."

"The breadth is huge."

'WE STAND OUT'

While technology offered its efficiencies, Randy said relationship building still had its place in the insurance world.

"It's still a people business for us here," the senior vice president said. "Talking to people, meeting with people and having that connection is where, we feel, we stand out.

"Because it's such a virtual world right now, being local is not enough anymore," he continued. "It's having a relationship, being better, being more efficient and delivering better advice."

THE ICE STORM, PANDEMIC

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, 80 percent of Northern Insuring staff started working from home.

Deena said the firm was ready to make that move in line with a disaster preparedness plan first penned in 1998, following the North American Ice Storm.

Rod, then president, was vacationing in the Cayman Islands.

"I had only been in the business for 12 years or so at this point and I really had to figure it out in Rod's absence," Deena said. "We were an essential business and during the ice storm, no matter how bad it was for us regionally, we had to get people to work.

"We did what we could."

That meant creating a makeshift daycare that Collin remembered as his first time seeing "Star Wars."

"We were all in this lounge, which is right near where I work now," he said. "Every day during that crisis, we just had a bunch of kids in there."

That year, and for each year after, Deena said Northern Insuring had updated its disaster preparedness plan, which had featured

guidelines for a pandemic.

WHAT IT TAKES

Collin, a sales executive and marketing associate, said joining the business as an adult was a surreal experience.

"I definitely enjoyed a pretty fortunate childhood where we had means," he said. "I think, as a kid, you don't realize. You just think, 'Oh. This is just the way it is.'

"Now, working here, I've realized how much work goes into the success; they work hard," he continued. "That's why this firm is successful."

Email McKenzie Delisle:

mdelisle@pressrepublican.com

Twitter: @McKenzieDelisle

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