Each week on “Around Town,” our host talks to members of the First Coast community who are making an impact in their part of town. Today our host, Sarah Olson, spoke with Matthew Snead.
Matthew Snead
Agent/Owner at SafeState Insurance Group
Website Address: https://www.safestateinsurancegroup.com/
Short company description:
SafeState Insurance Group is an independent property and casualty insurance agency based in Northeast Florida that helps individuals and businesses find the right coverage at competitive rates. The firm specializes in policies such as homeowners, auto, business owners policies, general liability, workers’ compensation, renters, and fleet auto insurance, working with multiple carriers to tailor protection for each client’s needs.
Transcript:
Sarah:
Welcome back to another episode of Around Town. I am your host, Sarah Olson, and today joining me from Saint Johns County is Matthew Snead with SafeState Insurance. Welcome to the show.
Matthew:
Thank you.
Sarah:
I’m so glad you’re here.
Matthew:
I’m very excited.
Sarah:
You’re a transplant.
Matthew: I am, yes.
Sarah: Just going, right?. You’re a transplant to Saint Johns County living in Rivertown, right?
Matthew:
Correct. Yeah. Originally from upstate New York.
Sarah:
Okay. Where’s upstate?
Matthew:
So upstate is Orange County.
It’s more downstate, thats’ where you get real serious.
But, about two hours from the city.
Sarah:
Oh, okay. Yeah, that’s downstate.
Matthew:
Yeah. Yeah. I worked in the city for quite some time.
Got tired of it.
Sarah:
Yeah. You’re a Covid. Covid move, right?
Matthew:
Covid move. But you have family here, so, yes.
Sarah:
So you came. You came to be for family. What do you love so much about Saint Johns County?
Matthew:
It’s got to be. Gotta be the river. Yeah. You know, let’s get out there. You know, on the boat. Kids enjoy that.
Sarah:
Yeah. A lot.
Matthew:
And it’s just a beautiful community. It’s just a different way of life, isn’t it?
Sarah:
I love River town. It’s growing. I love every town. The community is great. Everybody’s nice. Your neighbors?
Matthew:
They’re always there for you if you need it. It’s been a great move.
Sarah:
Yeah. Well, we’re not here to talk about leisurely things because we have to get busy, get down to business.
So be SafeStay Insurance. So you’re you’re a broker licensed in the state of Florida, and you’ve been doing insurance for quite some time.
Matthew:
Yes. So I’ve background in banking finance.
But once I moved down here, actually met my business partner, Kevin and Kayla.
Sarah:
Awesome.
Matthew:
They franchise the property and casualty insurance firm. So I was able to jump on it and become their location and start my at the state agency.
Okay, so three locations.
Sarah:
So you’re you’re the Saint John’s, the face of the Saint John’s office, you said.
And you’re growing too, right?
Matthew:
The goal is, you know, by the end of the year and the other two locations and then expand even more from there.
Sarah:
Okay. Yeah.
So insurance what what policies do you is it just property and casualty or other other policies as well?
Yeah. Of course. So you know we focus on the auto home.
And then you have your business insurance commercial.
And then we do also touch life insurance as well.
Sarah:
Okay. Great. You do worker’s comp.
Matthew:
Worker’s comp. Yes.
Sarah:
Okay. So that is included in the such a random question.
Matthew:
No it’s actually a great question.
Sarah:
So yeah that’s also included in that.
Okay.
Commercial on the business side.
What do you find people looking for insurance in Florida maybe being the most top of mind. What are what are their concerns?
Matthew:
Concerns. That’s a great question.
So concerns is the rate.
You know, Florida is one of those states that have hurricanes and natural disasters.
Right?
So a lot of the carriers, recently were pulling out or.
Sarah:
Right. I heard that the rates have been increasing.
Matthew:
So that’s a main concern. But being an insurance broker, it’s great because we’re able to kind of we have multiple carriers that we can we can shop.
So it’s not one size fits all.
Sarah:
You know, you can shop and be more customized to the customer.
Matthew:
Exactly. And that’s kind of what we pride ourselves on.
Well that white glove experience you know, learn about the customer and then their needs and being able to really point them to the right carrier.
Sarah:
Yeah, it probably surprised him at some point some times.
Matthew:
Right. I mean that’s the best part.
Yeah. I, I’m like, oh that’s not as much as I thought that would be a nice, nice surprise.
Sarah:
That’s the best.
Matthew:
Because they come in with that kind of negative like yeah. Rates of increase. You’re not going to find anything.
And then once you get that surprised you can actually, you know, help them.
Sarah:
That’s great.
Sarah:
The carriers were moving out I heard. And then now it’s not so much they’re back or.
Matthew:
Yeah. Correct.
You know, I would say 4 or 5 years ago you were seeing them, the bigger carriers leaving. But as of right now, that movement has it.
Sarah:
I know, in the real estate realm of things, when hurricanes come. So hurricane season, can you, advise the viewers about what to do and what not to do or timing of, like, if a hurricane is coming, policies kind of shut down. Can you explain that a little bit?
Matthew:
So I mean, the best advice is just making sure you have the correct coverage.
Right. It comes to that, right?
Don’t be the person that’s like declines that and then once throws it on before.
Right.
Sarah:
Yeah. That’s not good. That’s not to help.
Matthew:
You know I yeah, I’ve been advising people even if they have, they’re buying a home that’s not in a flood zone to still consider flood insurance. What is the difference.
Sarah:
What would that cover?
So what does flood insurance specifically cover if somebody does not technically need to have it on their policy?
Matthew:
Well any order damage you know.
Sarah:
So any kind of flood so it doesn’t really need to be a natural disaster.Correct?
Matthew:
Correct.
Sarah:
So that’s so important.
But you find, you know, again back to the rates.
Matthew:
You know most folks do. You’re not in the flood zone. They’re not that extra protection.
But it’s our kind of job to educate them.
Yeah.
And how it’s still going to help you and protect you.
Sarah:
Perfect. That’s great.
And so you love Saint John’s County. I know we talked earlier than you’re on 210.
And Saint John’s, so you’re like, I’m in Cimarron Golf Club, so we should go have lunch.
Have you ever been there?
Matthew:
No. Do we have it?
Sarah:
Oh, we have to have lunch. They’ve got a good restaurant there. I heard of a nice golf course. I know isn’t.
Yeah. If you’re, if you, if you go. Do you play golf?
Matthew:
I do.
Sarah:
Okay. So if you golf a Cimarron and you’re on the 14th fairway, you’re going to hit my house.
Matthew:
Okay.
Sarah:
It’s just a guarantee. But I’ll recognize you and I’ll throw your ball back.
Matthew:
All right, so those prices.
SaraH:
That’s right.
Anything else you want to share with the viewers here today about your business?
Matthew:
Yeah. Again, you know, we pride ourselves on that white glove experience. You know, we’re here to, of course, you know, surprise you and help you at your premiums.
But again, we really do like to educate you on your coverages. And so, you know, you know what is really covered.
You know, we’re looking for referrals from anywhere, you know, always out in the neighborhood, any networking events.
Get our name that we’re going to, we’re going to get you on our preferred partner list on our website and get you connected with our agents and our team as well.
So it would be perfect.
Sarah:
So be awesome.
All right. Well, thank you for being on the show, Matthew. And thank you all for watching another episode of Around Town. For more information on connecting with Matthew and go to HGTV jax.com. Thanks for watching.
Matthew:
Thank you.
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