A Legacy of Community at EAB Insurance Group

Image source: Rough Notes

We’d like to congratulate HawkSoft agency EAB Insurance Group for being featured recently as a Rough Notes Agency of the Month. The agency has a unique story as a 3rd generation women-owned business started in 1950 by Eleanor “Ellie” Boniakowski, and taken on by daughter Doris “Dee” Zampella, who spoke with Jason Cass on Rough Notes’ Front Cover podcast. We sat down with Dee’s daughter Jackie Zampella, who joined the agency in 2018 as the third generation of female leadership, to discuss what has helped EAB Insurance Group succeed for over 70 years in business.

In this article

• EAB's story: 3 generations of women in leadership
• Bringing EAB into the future
• A focus on people
• A passion for client education
• Creating space for women in insurance leadership
• Building a nonprofit niche

EAB's story: 3 generations of women in leadership

The agency was started back in 1950, when Ellie was working at an attorney’s office and handled real estate closings. Being of Polish descent, she noticed that the Eastern European immigrant population in New Jersey was receiving inferior insurance coverage and higher premiums than other customers, partially due to the language barrier. She was only 18 when she decided to get her license and help meet the need in her community. With the help of her husband Ed, who took on the sales side of the business, they started an insurance and real estate business under the name EA Boniakowski, which honors the first two initials that both Ellie and Ed shared.

The agency grew organically over the years as the couple raised 7 children while running the business. Dee worked her way up in the agency starting in high school, and leads the agency now that Ellie and Ed have passed. Over the years the agency’s focus has moved from personal lines to commercial, and they now specialize in contractors and nonprofits in addition to small mom and pop businesses. Dee herself is heavily involved with nonprofits even outside of an insurance capacity, serving on multiple nonprofit boards and being recognized in 2015 as the Somerset County Citizen of the Year.

Bringing EAB into the future

Unlike her mother, Jackie initially started her career outside the agency. When she wasn’t given adequate leave to recover from a kidney donation and could no longer make the commute to her job at St. Jude’s Childrens Research Hospital, she started working at the agency in 2018 and got her insurance license.

Jackie joined around the same time the agency began working with Beyond Insurance Global Network (BIGN), which helped them standardize their processes and create successful insurance programs. Jackie helped modernize the agency with a new website and fresh digital marketing efforts, including an online newsletter that has an incredible 83% open rate and a Google review campaign that offered extra PTO to staff for bringing in Google reviews. It’s no surprise Jackie was named as a 2023 Agent for the Future Emerging Leader by Safeco/Liberty Mutual.

The agency also moved to HawkSoft’s agency management system in 2024, after decades on another system. The system was no longer serving their agency as it grew, and Jackie shares that she appreciates HawkSoft’s similar approach to business, intuitive workflows, and willingness to listen to and implement feedback from agents.

“With our previous system,” she recounts, “you could call and talk to them until you’re blue in the face and they’d just say, ‘This is the way it is. We’re not making any changes, deal with it.’ But HawkSoft is such a dynamic program. They’re always making changes based on what we as the agents want to see in the program. And anything that’s going to make our lives easier on the agency end, I’m completely bought into.”

Jackie (left) and Dee (right) hold a picture of Ellie Boniakowsi,
the original founder of the EAB Insurance Group. Image source: Rough Notes

A focus on people

When asked about EAB’s “secret sauce” that has helped them thrive for over 7 decades, Jackie points to its emphasis on people and relationships over aggressive growth. “We've obviously grown over the years,” she says, “but our main focus is just to really take care of the community. We don't really worry about growing at an exponential rate. We just want to make our clients happy and make sure they have the best coverage at the best possible price. As long as we do that, we feel like we're going to grow regardless.”

That focus on the client clearly pays off – 80% of the agency’s new business comes from referrals. “It’s really humbling,” Jackie says, “because there's so many agents to choose from these days, and the fact that people work with us - and work with us for a long time - is a really big deal to us. That's why we really put our focus on customer service.”

The agency is now licensed in 15 states, and though they receive frequent M&A solicitations, Dee has confirmed the agency has no exit plan. Instead, they focus on making a meaningful difference in the lives of their clients, employees (who enjoy a hybrid remote/onsite work schedule), and community.

“We just want to make our clients happy and make sure they have the best coverage at the best possible price. As long as we do that, we feel like we're going to grow regardless.”

A passion for client education

The agency also focuses on deep education and partnership with their clients, even going so far as to let go of clients who aren’t engaged in their program for mitigating risk to keep insurance premiums low.

“We’re not an agency that’s just going to throw you a quote,” Jackie says. “We work with Beyond Insurance on our EAB Protects process, and that’s a year-round situation. We’re not just giving you a policy and only coming back in 60 days to say your price went up. If you really believe that risk management is important for your business and your home, and you’re going to listen to us on the things we tell you to do to lower your premiums over the years, we’re going to be a good fit for you.”

Rather than trying to find insurance that offers the lowest price, clients should partner with an agency that will help them manage and mitigate their risks, which will result in lower premiums – even in today’s tough market. “By approaching the risk management aspect with our commercial and even personal lines clients,” Jackie shares, “we can show underwriters that they really are mitigating risk and are the best in class as a home owner or driver or business owner, and that they deserve a better rate.”

Creating space for women in insurance leadership

EAB has always been a women-led business, even in the 50s when it was unusual to see women in leadership positions. We asked how the agency continues this legacy today to help women at the agency have leadership opportunities. Jackie comments on the interesting phenomenon in the insurance industry where the majority of staff at agencies are often female, but leadership positions are often predominantly held by men.

Dee remembers that even in the agency’s early years, Ellie and Ed made an effort to take female staff members to Big I meetings and other events, which was nearly unheard of at the time. The agency carries on this tradition by making an effort to ensure that carrier reps and other business partners have relationships with all members of the staff, not just the leaders.

Dee and Jackie meet with team members at the agency. Image source: Rough Notes.

“A lot of our carriers have started women agency leader initiative groups,” Jackie notes, “and they'll have meetings or conferences. We try to send different women from the staff to go and meet other women and find some mentors that are leaders in the agency space. It can help them discover whether they want to step up further in our agency, whether it’s as a director of operations or team manager.” Jackie is grateful for having her mother and grandmother as mentors, and has built relationships with other women in leadership positions on the carrier side as well.

Her advice to women who aspire to be in leadership in the insurance industry? Don’t be intimidated – you have something special to offer. “Oftentimes when you walk into the rooms where decisions are made,” she says, “it will just be you and a lot of men. They often have a certain way of doing business, and I think women can offer our own unique insight. With clients, you’re selling them emotion and trust at the end of the day, and I think that’s a real strength women have.”

“A lot of our carriers have started women agency leader initiative groups. We try to send different women from the staff to go and meet other women and find some mentors that are leaders in the agency space.” 

Building a nonprofit niche

EAB Group has built a thriving niche in the nonprofit space, which now makes up over 30% of their commercial business. Dee is on the board of multiple nonprofits in the community, which helps her network and meet new clients. The nonprofit community is close knit, so they get referrals from clients as well. Jackie shared a few tips for agencies who may be interested in building a program for nonprofits - learn more about each of these in our separate article on building a nonprofit niche. 

• Education
• Submission tracking
• Team building and community involvement

The next generation

Dee and Jackie are excited to see what the next generation is bringing to insurance, and look forward to seeing the innovations in the industry for decades to come. Jackie and her wife recently welcomed their first child, and with the possibility of a fourth generation working at the agency, one thing is for sure – the future is bright for EAB Insurance Group.