Callahan & Rice Insurance Group is growing its footprint in North Carolina with the opening of a new office in downtown Raleigh, marking the company’s first office outside of Fayetteville, which will continue to serve as its headquarters.

President and CEO Landon Bentham said the move is a natural next step for the independent agency as it builds on strong organic growth in the insurance marketplace and responds to opportunities in the Triangle.

The office effectively opened around the first of February, giving the firm a formal presence in Wake County. 

The new Raleigh office will initially operate as an extension of Callahan & Rice’s existing services, but it will also open the door to expanded carrier relationships that could benefit clients across the company’s footprint.

“Some insurance companies have what we call moratoriums, or they're closed to certain counties as far as new appointments. So me, as a local Cumberland County resident, couldn't necessarily get an appointment with one of the insurance companies, but being in Raleigh, they have a different market, so they would appoint us, and of course, that product would be available across our footprint, so it may be a way for us to partner with some new companies as well,” shared Bentham.

The Raleigh office is part of a broader two-pronged growth strategy: organic expansion and acquisitions.

“Our hope as a company is that we not only grow through organic growth, but we do believe that with the systems and technologies and still human-optimized feel that we have… we are not moving away from a relationship type business, but we have optimized our people with systems, processes and technology that helps us to scale better and offer more solutions, and offer better solutions and more time with clients that need it,” Bentham said. “We’re growing organically in Raleigh, and the other part of our strategy is to grow through acquisition. We’re doing both.”

For now, the Raleigh office is staffed by one agent with a focus on building out the team over time. 

Callahan & Rice’s new Raleigh office is located at 107 Glenwood Ave. Bentham said the firm chose the space after exploring multiple options and relying on word-of-mouth to identify a location that would serve both clients and staff well.

“We wanted to be in the downtown area. We looked at several different locations for lease and discovered that this was going to fit our needs really well,” Bentham said. “It has really good client access...it’s right on Glenwood… a very well-known part of town. There’s a lot of urbanized area there, a lot of commercial opportunity there. We do have a commercial insurance focus in the Raleigh area… but the office will also be able to handle personal lines of work—home and auto, life insurance, those types of products.” 

The Raleigh expansion is intended as a first step in a longer-term plan to build a presence in North Carolina’s major metro markets.

“Anybody can call us with an insurance need, and what we're doing through this expansion, and then our process development here is making that feel much more available to the community…We're an open, small business that has been growing a lot in the last few years, and we're, trying to expand in different areas with process, organic growth and acquisition,” shared Bentham.