Benson Kearley IFG:
Family Owned,
Service Oriented
B
BENSON KEARLEY IFG has always been a close-knit,
family-oriented business. Founded by Bruce Benson in
Toronto in 1969, it remained a relatively small family business
for years. Steve Kearley, the current president, began working
there in 1985 as a producer. He worked diligently at the
company, learning everything he could and growing in the
industry until, in 1990, he got the inkling to strike out on his
own and hang his own shingle.
During that time, he approached Bruce about his ideas. Bruce
stated that he had been thinking about selling the company
and offered Steve the opportunity to buy it. Spending the next
five months putting the financing together, Steve bought the
brokerage in August of 1991.
At that time, the business was 90 percent personal lines (home
and automotive) and about 10 percent commercial business
lines. Right from the beginning, Steve knew that to grow the
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company, it would need to transition to a more even split.
Thus, from 1991 to today, that split has moved to around
60 percent commercial insurance and 40 percent personal
insurance, with sales growing from $3 million to $100
million.
During the early 2000s, Steve began attending the
Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) in Toronto, eventually
meeting Andy Buyting. Together, they attended the
Birthing of Giants Program through the EO and continued
on through the Gathering of Titans Program. As a class, all
attendees decided to continue meeting every year thereafter
at MIT in Boston—14 years and counting so far!
LAUNCHING THE MAGAZINE
The close-knit relationship between Andy and Steve was the
seed that grew into the launch of Benson Kearley IFG Risk