Mojave West accounts will go to Petersburg
Haines is losing its only insurance company.
Owner Ned Rozbicki left town this week to transfer account files from Mojave West Insurance Services to Petersburg-based P-W Insurance, Inc.
Mojave West operated five years and had “a couple hundred” customers but was unable to generate enough accounts to be viable, Rozbicki said in an interview.
“The challenge is you can’t write enough insurance to pay the bills for the first several years. It takes years to make volume to pay a salary. To start from scratch, the amount of effort required is fundamental… I gained enough to get a salary, but not to the point where we could pay more than one person,” Rozbicki said.
Also, Rozbicki said he didn’t have the time or ability to find a replacement for agent and office manager Kim Troutman, who recently moved to Juneau. “Moving service was the only way I could guarantee service.”
Business leaders in Haines this week said the company’s move hurts in several ways. Besides losing the convenience of in-person service, income from local insurance sales is now moving out of town, said Haines Chamber of Commerce president Kyle Gray.
“If everyone shops online or goes to Juneau, there are that many fewer dollars to go around here,” Gray said.
“Plus, if you’re getting your service over the phone or online, in some sense you’re just a number. With a local company, they know you. They know your story. And there’s a good chance they even know what you’re calling about… I’d definitely like to see it stay in Haines.”
Chamber executive director Debra Schnabel said she expected closure of the office would be felt. “It’s something that you don’t see, but when you need it, it’s important for it to be there.”
Rozbicki said he chose to move the accounts to P-W Insurance because it has a reputation for responsiveness.
Customers who have policies with Mojave West will see no lapse in service or coverage as the accounts move to the Petersburg company, he said. “You don’t need to do anything except understand that you will be receiving your policy documents, bills and information,” Rozbicki said in a recent letter to customers.
Rozbicki started the business a few months after Haines-based Chilkoot Agencies, a longtime insurance company, was shut down in 2009 by the state’s Division of Insurance for irregularities, including that owner Jeff Stout was fraudulently providing certificates of insurance.
Stout bought the business from Gene McNamara, who had spent decades building up its customer base in Haines and Skagway. The company’s closure triggered a months-long campaign by Juneau-based insurers to scoop up local accounts.
Rozbicki said his closure would be most acutely felt by customers “who like to walk in and pay for personal auto policies.”