Off to a fast start

DAYTONA BEACH 2019--DAYTONA BEACH -- In just a little over two years, Foundation Risk Partners has quietly -- and occasionally not so quietly -- become the fastest-growing insurance brokerage in the United States.

The Daytona Beach-based start-up saw its annual revenues jump last year to $155 million in 2018, up from $75 million its first year.

That 106.7 percent increase was tops in the nation among all insurance brokerages, according to a new ranking issued this past week by Dowling Hales, a New York-based insurance industry advisory firm.

The report also ranked Foundation Risk Partners as the 30th largest insurance brokerage in the United States based on annual revenues.

"For 2019, I think we'll be at $250 million in revenues," said Founding Risk Partners CEO Charlie Lydecker, who said his company has already seen its revenues grow this year to $200 million with another six months still to go.

While Foundation Risk was formed in February 2017, it really didn't start growing until it acquired Destin-based Acentria Insurance in November of that year, according to Lydecker.

Acentria, which continues to operate under its own name, has locations throughout Florida as well as in Georgia and South Carolina.

Foundation Risk also acquired Philadelphia-based Corporate Synergies Group in November 2017.

"That's when Foundation Risk Partners was really born," Lydecker said. "They were our first true transactions."

Since then, Foundation Risk has made nearly 40 other acquisitions to grow its operations to 54 offices in eight states.

It employs more than 1,000 workers, including 60 at its Daytona Beach headquarters.

"Our goal is to build something that perpetuates beyond us, but that always calls Volusia County home," Lydecker said.

"We'll continue to grow, both by bringing new people on board and by making more acquisitions where it makes sense for the company as a whole," he said.

"The larger we get, the more we can do for our community."

Area is home to other major industry players, too

Foundation Risk Partners' growth has occurred in the shadow of two established insurance brokerages that have also been on a growth tear: Daytona Beach-based Brown & Brown Insurance and Lake Mary-based AssuredPartners.

Daytona Beach-based Brown & Brown, whose revenues this past year topped the $2 billion mark for the first time in its 80-year history, is the nation's sixth-largest insurance brokerage.

Brown & Brown is building an 11-story $40 million headquarters on North Beach Street in downtown Daytona Beach in anticipation of eventually growing to become a $4 billion company.

Less than 50 miles away is the headquarters for AssuredPartners, a Lake Mary-based insurance brokerage founded in 2011 that has grown to become the nation's 12th largest, with $1.2 billion in revenues last year, according to Dowling Hales.

The Daytona Beach area is also home to Security First Insurance, an Ormond Beach insurer founded in 2005 that has grown to become the state's second-largest provider of homeowners' insurance. The company is nearing completion of a $30 million four-story headquarters along the east side of Interstate 95, just south of U.S. 1, that is already becoming a local landmark and is set to be ready for occupancy by August.

In contrast, the headquarters for Foundation Risk Partners occupies office space on the second floor of a building at Cornerstone Office Park along LPGA Boulevard. The only clue as to its presence at the office park are a couple small signs in the parking lot reserving vehicle spaces for Halifax Insurance Partners, a subsidiary whose headquarters are in the same offices as Foundation Risk, along with another Daytona Beach-based subsidiary, Reames Employee Benefits Solutions.

Encountering bumps in the road

Foundation Risk's swift growth has come with some bumps in the road, most notably a legal dispute that began last fall between it and Brown & Brown, where Lydecker and some of his new company's other senior managers were previously executives.

The other former Brown & Brown executives now at Foundation Risk include Chief Financial Officer Cory Walker; Chief Administrative Officer Tom Tinsley; Alan Florez, CEO of both Halifax Insurance Partners and Reames Employee Benefits Solutions; and Alex Doberstein, an executive vice president at Halifax Insurance Partners as well as Reames.

All, with the exception of Florez who voluntarily resigned from Brown & Brown, received severance packages upon their departures from the insurance giant, Lydecker said.

A Circuit Court Judge recently dismissed eight of the 11 charges filed against Foundation Risk by Brown & Brown, with three charges yet to be resolved.

Foundation Risk continues to dispute the remaining charges which have to do with claims regarding "trade secrets" and an alleged breach of an employment contract.

Lydecker noted that Foundation Risk's senior management team includes several veteran insurance industry executives who have no connection to Brown & Brown.

They include Rich Cooper, the former principal partner at Mitchell Noel Insurance, a longtime Ormond Beach agency that Lydecker and his partners acquired in November 2016.

Mitchell Noel was eventually renamed Halifax Insurance Partners.

Lydecker and his partners quickly followed their initial acquisition in early 2017 by purchasing Daytona Beach-based Reames Employee Benefits Solutions and added its owners, "Gator" Bert Reames, 92, and his wife Julie to its senior management team.

Reames, who began his career in insurance in 1955, serves as an inspiration and role model for the younger employees at Halifax Insurance Partners and Reames Employee Benefits Solutions, said Lydecker.

Also serving on the senior management team at Foundation Risk are Lisa Farrah, now a senior vice president at Reames who previously ran an agency of her own for 12 years, and Andy Thomas, a senior vice president at Halifax Insurance Partners who also previously had an agency of his own.

How it all began

Lydecker, a former retail division president for Brown & Brown who was let go from the company in June 2016, said the genesis for what would become Foundation Risk began later that year when he began talking with Cory Walker, who also received a severance package upon leaving Brown & Brown in 2014 where he had been CFO.

Walker introduced him to Cooper.

"When I left Brown & Brown, I didn't have a clear thought," Lydecker said of his next career move. "I hoped I could continue to live in the community."

Lydecker said his conversations with Walker and Cooper eventually included Florez and Tinsley, both of whom were also no longer employed at Brown & Brown.

"We're all involved in our community and all of us are young at heart and want to continue working and having fun," said Lydecker, 55.

Room for all?

Noting that three of the 30 largest insurance brokerages as well as a major insurer are now headquartered within a 50-mile radius, Lydecker said he believes there's plenty of room in the area for all to continue to succeed.

"We're all competing in the U.S.," he said. "We just happen to all hang our hats here."

Melissa Burt DeVriese, general counsel and chief administrative officer for Security First, said, "I definitely think it's a huge benefit (to have so many insurance-related companies based here). It brings a lot of high-paying jobs."

But she doesn't think it's necessarily a coincidence.

"My grandfather moved here in the late 1950s to form Burt & Scheld, a company that provides reinsurance products and is still based in Ormond Beach," she said, noting that AssuredPartners Chairman and CEO Jim Henderson got his start in the business working there, before moving on to Brown & Brown and eventually co-founding his own insurance brokerage.

"Quality of life is what brought my grandfather here," DeVries said. "He wanted a beach location that had nice weather and a reasonable cost of living and we still have all of that today."

Randy Dye, chairman of the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce, offered a similar assessment.

"It's not just the insurance industry, but other industries as well that are finding out what a great quality of life our area can provide," said Dye, who is a partner in several area auto dealerships including Daytona Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram & Fiat.

"Look at what we have to offer, the cultural and recreational opportunities, not to mention the good schools," Dye said. "We're on a roll and will continue to be on a roll. I'm proud to call Volusia County and Daytona Beach home."

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