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Most people think about insurance only after they've been in an automobile accident or a tree has crashed through the roof of their home. But in Linda Rey's view, that's the exact opposite of how you should think. "You should buy insurance when you don't need it, because when you need it, you can't get it," she said.
Rey and her sister Laura should know they sell all types of insurance from Rey Insurance, the Sleepy Hollow agency that bears their family name. Their father started the business back in 1978.
Linda joined the family business in the mid-80s, then took a side trip to Atlanta and the reinsurance world. "It just didn't feel like Atlanta was home," she said. She moved back to Sleepy Hollow in 1999 and hasn't looked back.
"Our father had bought a place in Florida, and he semi-retired there, and we actually struggled a bit at first in his absence," Rey says. "Now when he comes back we find ourselves looking over HIS shoulders ,'" she laughs.
Besides the two Rey sisters, three other women work at the agency, making it an anomaly in the insurance business. "It's still primarily a man's world," says Rey. "We have to compete with that image." They've been successful doing so and helped create the Professional Women of Westchester organization to help other women in business network and share secrets of success.
The recent trend of buying everything online hasn't skipped the insurance industry, but Rey still feels a personal relationship with an agent is important. "You don't jump out of an airplane without someone to show you how to do it," she says. "And when you buy a car you take it to a mechanic. You don't have to know how it's built, but you still know when it's running right."
Rey says there is a flurry to save money on insurance, "an incredible angst to cut costs. But you have to look at what you're getting less of by paying less you can't just look at the bottom line of the premium. People may not understand that it could cost them more in the long run."
With their own long run in the business, Linda and Laura Rey have the experience to provide their customers with that knowledge.
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