Higginbotham
Rusty Reid
Higginbotham kicked off its landmark birthday by buying a big slab of beef.
The Fort Worth firm, specializing in insurance, wealth management, and human resources services, cast the winning bid at the Fort Worth Stock Show’s Sale of Champions on the first Saturday of February.
Snoop Dogg, a more than 1,340-pound heavyweight black European Cross, sold for $440,000, blasting away the previous record of $310,000. The proceeds go to Sadie Wampler, 15, of Canyon, Snoop Dogg’s owner.
The steer will undoubtedly be a smiling face at the big yearlong 75th birthday party for the firm founded by Paul C. Higginbotham.
There will be events throughout 2023, but Higginbotham will formally recognize its birthday in the form of what has been described as a “massive day of service” in April.
The company will kick off its annual Higginbotham Leadership Conference on April 25 by partnering with up to 12 area nonprofits, resulting in what a spokeswoman for the firm called thousands of hours of community service in both deed and monetary donation.
“We’ve enjoyed a long run at Higginbotham,” CEO Rusty Reid says. “To be around 75 years is abnormal. We’re also very, very excited. We just believe it’s important to give back, and we’re real excited to put a step forward in that regard.”
For years, employees have given back through the Higginbotham Community Fund, which has dispersed millions across communities since being created in 2011.
The conference is typically conducted in Marble Falls, but for the 75th, the company is bringing it to its hometown, Fort Worth. Reid says the four-day gathering will bring 500-600 people to town.
Paul Higginbotham founded the company in 1948 as a small agency in the Riverside neighborhood. He ran it until his death in 1962. His nephew, Bill Stroud, took over operations at the time of his uncle’s death and bought the agency from his aunt, Edith Higginbotham, in 1969.
Stroud sold it to Reid and the company’s other employees in 1989.
Reid, a graduate of North Texas, joined the company in 1986 as its 12th employee. He took control of the company at age 27.
He quickly instituted an employee stock ownership plan, which has been credited with the firm’s success and expansion.
In addition to increase productivity, Reid says he noticed soon into his career how equity impacted firms: 1) attracted would-be employees and 2) how they retained people. Employees could earn above and beyond a paycheck.
“I saw at a young age, if you didn’t share equity, there was a better chance they’d become a competitor,” Reid says of employees.
That structure, plus the firm’s single-source model, a single-source solution for clients’ insurance and financial services, as well as “Day Two Services” that range from loss prevention to contract review and risk management systems, “became the pillars of what launched Higginbotham into what it is today.”
Since 1989, Higginbotham has grown stronger roots in Fort Worth and expanded out far beyond its initial Riverside neighborhood. Reid calls it the SEC expansion, as in the Southeastern Conference. When you’re in Texas, football is never far from the front of mind.
Today, Higginbotham has 87 offices in 15 states, including every Southern state east of Texas, except South Carolina. As an independent broker, it ranks within the top 20 nationwide.
“It is a thrill for me every day to walk among our employees,” Reid says. “I see people who care for their customers, who work hard to provide for their families, and who are committed to their communities. We are proud to be a Fort Worth-based company and are grateful to show our many customers across 15 states — and growing — the values we learned right here in our hometown.”