Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com March 14, 2016 • Hartford Business Journal 3 By Stan Simpson I n a lobby area of Clark Insurance sits a small wood desk, circa 1930s, with two ink wells and a top that pulls open like the hood of a car. A wrought-iron attachment under the fixture carries the Metropolitan Life logo. The desk belonged to Jim Clark, a Simsbury tobacco farmer and accomplished trumpeter, who worked 46 years as a MetLife insurance salesman. He died in 1998 at age 96. Clark's son, Tom, and grandson, Dan, are carrying on the family insurance legacy. The father-and-son duo opened Clark Insurance on Lewis Street in Hartford two years ago. Every day, Jim Clark's desk serves as a reminder as to how they want to conduct business. "Everything comes back to my father's char- acter," said Tom Clark, who has extensive expe- rience as an entrepreneur and Wall Street investor; his education pedigree includes Harvard College and the Wharton School of Business. "He was a guy who worked hard, was a great person, who loved insurance, and was great at it. The quality of his character is an inspiration to us today." Jim Clark's simple philosophy about life was to treat people the way you want to be treated, and don't sweat the things you can't control. "He used to say there is no point in worrying about anything,'' Tom recalled. "Because there are only two scenarios. Either it is something you can control. And if you can control it, then do something about it. If you can't control it, then don't worry about it." Or, of course, you can try to insure against it. The nature of the insurance business is to protect people from things they cannot control, specifically property loss, injuries or death. It's a highly competitive multi-billion dollar industry. The Clarks are carving their niche serving small to mid-size businesses, a sector often ignored by the mam- moth insurance companies that fish in the ponds home to Fortune 100 firms. Dan Clark, 36, said he always wanted to run a business with his dad, Tom. Dan saw his father grow a municipal bond company from three employees to 50 and successfully invest in other companies. Similar to his grandfather and an uncle, Dan's background was in insurance. A licensed property and casualty agent, he is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross. Before Dan and Tom co-founded Clark Insurance, Dan had worked eight years in the insurance sector. He focuses on business development and sales at the agency. Tom concentrates on day-to-day operations and marketing. "I had the experience on the insurance side and my dad had the experience running a business,'' said Dan about his first foray into entrepreneurship. "What we needed to figure out was how to get car- rier access; how to be a legitimate firm with the right markets, so we could do a really good job for people." Through its connections, the firm has a network of over 100 carriers Continued Dan Clark (left) and his father Tom Clark teamed up to start their own insurance agency in downtown Hartford, where they focus on small and mid- size business clients. Stan Simpson FACES OF BUSINESS The Clarks make insurance a family business Subscribe online: HartfordBusiness.com/subscribe Delivering Business. When you need information to grow your business, we deliver! Subscribe today to receive weekly issues in print and digital, plus special publications and full online access! GreenGuide C O N N E C T I C U T S P R I N G 2 0 1 6 BUILDING MOMENTUM Big deals, new potential markets push FuelCell Energy toward profitability A s u p p l e m e n t o f TRASH-T0-ENERGY'S CHALLENGE ECOMPANY: LACK OF ROOF SPACE NO PROBLEM FOR JCC P H O T O | P A B L O R O B L E S

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