Risk & Business Magazine Reider Insurance Fall 2015 | Page 6

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& Reider Insurance
B A Brokerage Half Century in the Making
BY: ALEX MANESS, RISK & BUSINESS INTERVIEW WITH SHALE REIDER, PRESIDENT, REIDER INSURANCE

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eider Insurance is celebrating fifty
years of professional brokerage
services for their clients. As one of the
highly recognized names in Manitoba
insurance industry, they strive to not
only build on what they have done in
the past but also to innovate and push
the boundaries of what they are able
to do for their clients. The way that
they operate, with an open and honest
approach to every business decision, and
the integrity that they bring to the table,
they are everything you could want for in
a brokerage.
The inception of Reider Insurance came
about when it was founded by Morley

Reider in 1966. Since then, the company
has grown to seven offices (soon to be
eight) and one of the largest brokerages in
Manitoba.
The second generation of the Reider
family, Ronald, Ray and Shale, all joined
the firm between 1989 and 1996. Each
of them, individually, worked part time
in the business when they were still in
school. Having grown up in the business,
it should come as no surprise that they
took to it quickly and began to grow in
their roles at the company.
In 1997, they became the owners of the
company. With two offices at the time,
the brokerage was ripe to grow and,
under their leadership, it began to grow
quickly. Expanding first to a third office

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and then to a fourth, fifth, sixth and
seventh and soon to be eighth, the sky
is the limit for Reider Insurance. They
attribute much of their success, however,
to a few key factors which played an
important role in bringing the company
to where it is today. The first is their
ability to not only hire professional staff,
but to retain them. Ray Reider says “We
have been very lucky to have such a great
staff and that they share our vision to be
the industry leader in our service offering
and in our commitment to clients
coming first.” The second is to encourage
continuing education for their staff and
to invest in their self-improvement and
growth.

By far, one of the most important
decisions that the business made was
to put a key focus on commercial
insurance, which is one of the companies’
fastest growing sectors. Covering
large corporations, medium and small
businesses, the brokerage helps their
clients to mitigate their risk. This has
also included the establishment of Reider
Corporate Insurance Solutions, which
is a division of the company specializing
in handing corporate accounts. This
division provides a centralized team of
specialists, in order to provide clients
with commercial insurance expertise.
They provide professional insurance
solutions for offices, contractors, retailers,
wholesalers, manufacturers, garages,

RISK & BUSINESS MAGAZINETM FALL 2015

truck fleets, property owners, specialized
programs, bonding and liability.
Ronald Reider says “Insurance is
very complex and we help people by
making sure that they have the right
coverage. Many people spend more time
researching and buying a cellular phone
then they do on insurance. Clients need
to have good sound advice and this is
what we specialize in.”
Ultimately, Reider Insurance is looking
forward to another fifty years of
doing what it has always done: put
the big decisions into the hands of the
consumers that they work with.
While customer service has always
been part of the culture, growing the
company has also meant having to
innovate and Reider Insurance has
invested in order to have some of the
most sophisticated computer systems
and processes. Shale Reider says “When
I first started in the business, we wrote
everything out by hand. A person would
come in to insure a car and we would
pull out a rate manual and work it out
and then write an application by hand.
Nowadays, everything is automated
and our computer can do an Autopac
quote or issue a policy instantly for
the customer. When it comes to home
insurance quotes, our system can provide
a quote with every insurance company
we deal with and this allows us to ensure
that the customer gets the best policy.
Having a computer system providing
quotes is a very important piece of the
puzzle, as customers are very concerned
about getting the best price. However,
understanding the differences between
the products and recommending the
best product ends up being very different
depending on each client’s needs and this
is where expert knowledge is necessary.”
At Reider Insurance, their goal is to
protect clients by ensuring that they
not only have a competitive price, but
complete coverage, and to ensure that
there are no existing gaps in coverage.