Insurance company brings a family touch

Fidelity Associates’ idea of personal service: When a pipe burst and flooded a client’s Spokane home years ago, Scott Jones, now company president and CEO, showed up in person to reassure the homeowner and jump start the cleaning – despite the fact it was 2 a.m.

“What we’re selling is claims service – and we think this is the way it should be done,” said Barry Jones, Scott’s father and former president of the 100-year-old insurance and financial firm based in Spokane. Fidelity Associates was founded by Barry Jones’ grandfather, Fred, in 1906.

This year, the company will handle more than $40 million in premiums, putting it among the nation’s top 5 percent of insurance agents and brokers. That makes the company one of the oldest and largest independently owned insurance brokerages in the Pacific Northwest, and it’s still growing.

Fidelity has insured everything from a surgeon’s hands to expensive artwork, broadcast towers and wineries. Average customers just need policies on their homes, cars and perhaps a few pieces of jewelry.

Larger clients turn to Fidelity Select, a new division of the company created to help those who may need to insure their businesses, provide group health and life insurance to their employees and cover their various homes, cars, boats and other belongings.

About 50 percent of Fidelity’s activity involves commercial businesses and product liability, 30 percent is personal insurance on homes and autos, and 20 percent is individuals and businesses in need of health and life insurance.

Fidelity has handled the two largest claims since Spokane’s great fire of 1889, which gutted much of downtown, said Barry Jones.

In 1998, the Sonderen Packaging plant in Hillyard sustained at least $10 million in fire damages, likely sparked by a malfunctioning electrical device. The other incident occurred last March, when an apartment complex under construction for Gonzaga University went up in smoke. Officials said arson caused the structures $11 million in damages.

Said Scott Jones of the two incidents, “there’s always a silver lining – the lessons I learn in a loss I can share with other clients.”

Company founder Fred Jones, a Massachusetts native and Harvard grad, discovered Spokane while working for the Northern Pacific Railroad. He moved his family here and purchased the Trustee Company of Spokane, managing five commercial buildings in the city’s center.

Eventually Fred changed the company’s name to Central Business Property Co. and turned the insurance side over to his son Kennard, a newly-discharged World War II Army officer.

Kennard groomed his son Barry to follow in his footsteps but continued to come into the office every day until he was 92. Barry came on board in 1957 and expanded Fidelity’s insurance trade.

After a health scare a few years back, Barry decided to hand the reins to sons Scott and Craig, who is vice president and commercial marketing manager. Barry still handles his own book of business, as do both boys, who in addition to managers are charter property and casualty underwriters.

Rubbing elbows all day long causes friction in some families, Barry said. But the Joneses found it best to take a cooperative – not competitive – stance.

“It works because the family has worked to make it work,” said Barry. “We respect each other as business partners.”

Each generation of the clan has left its mark, modernizing business practices while nurturing family and business relationships nearly as old as the city itself.

“You can have all the computers in the world, but the relationships you have surpass all that,” said Barry.

And today, a board of directors that includes members from outside the company helps the Jones’ stay on track, said Scott.