About us
Independent since 1987, and stubborn about it.
34 people in Asheville, licensed across5 states, holding12 carrier appointments. We are not owned by an insurer, a bank, or a private equity fund, and that single fact explains most of how we work.
- 39Years in business
- 34People on staff
- 12Carrier appointments
- NC · SC · TN · GA · VALicensed states
Positioning
What we are, in one paragraph.
For Carolina families and small businesses who are tired of a renewal that only ever moves in one direction, Greene Insurance is an independent agency that re-markets your coverage across 12 carriers every year, whether or not you ask. Unlike a captive agent, we can change your insurer without you having to change agents.
Who this is built for
Five kinds of client, what usually goes wrong in each, and what we put in place.
Who we turn away
The accounts we decline and why, published in advance instead of discovered later.
Where we lose
The objections everyone raises, how we are paid, and four situations where somebody else is the better answer.
The model
Independent agent, captive agent, and why the difference shows up on your bill.
A captive agent sells one company's products. An independent agent holds contracts — appointments — with many companies and places your policy with whichever one fits. Both are licensed, both can be excellent at the job. Only one of them can move you when the company gets expensive.
| Independent agent (us) | Captive agent | |
|---|---|---|
| Who we represent | You. We hold contracts with many insurers and none of them owns our advice. | One insurance company. The agent is that company’s distribution channel. |
| What happens at renewal | We re-market the policy across the panel. If somebody else is better on price or coverage, we move you. | The renewal is the renewal. The agent can adjust your coverage, not your carrier. |
| When a carrier gets expensive | We leave. You keep the same agent, the same file, and the same phone number. | You leave, and you start over with a stranger somewhere else. |
| When a risk is unusual | We shop it, including through wholesale and surplus-lines markets when the standard market declines it. | It fits the appetite or it does not. |
| On a claim | We advocate for you with the adjuster. We are not employed by the company writing the check. | The agent works for the same company that is deciding your claim. |
| How we get paid | Commission from the carrier, and occasionally a fee for consulting work that is disclosed up front. | Commission from the one carrier, sometimes with volume incentives attached. |
The honest caveat: independence is not automatically cheaper. A captive carrier with a good multi-policy discount sometimes wins, and when it does we will tell you rather than pretend otherwise. What independence buys you is the option to leave without leaving your agent.See who we are appointed with →
History
How the agency got here.
- 1987
One desk, one phone line
Marlene Greene left a captive agency after being told, one time too many, that she could not shop a client’s renewal. She opened Greene Insurance with a borrowed desk on Haywood Street and eleven households.
- 1994
The first contractor
A framing crew needed a certificate on a Friday afternoon and nobody else would write it. Commercial lines grew out of that one job and now makes up a little over half the book.
- 2003
Across the state line
Clients kept moving, retiring, or opening a second location. Non-resident licensing followed them into South Carolina, then Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia.
- 2009
Learning what a hard market is
Two carriers pulled out of the Carolinas inside eighteen months. We moved several hundred policies without a lapse, and the habit of re-shopping every renewal dates from that year.
- 2014
The handover
Marlene sold the agency to Avery Nakamura, who had started on the service desk in 2003. No private equity, no roll-up, no new logo. Marlene still comes in on Thursdays.
- 2019
Benefits and life
Small employers kept asking who did their group medical. Rather than refer it out, we hired for it.
- 2026
Today
34 people, 12 carrier appointments, and the same policy about renewals.
The people
Who you will actually talk to.
Every client gets a named account manager with a direct line. The list below is the leadership group; the other 27 people are account managers, service staff, producers, and the two people who keep the accounting straight.
Avery Nakamura
Principal
Started on the service desk in 2003, bought the agency in 2014. Still keeps about forty personal accounts because losing touch with what the work feels like is how owners get stupid.
Marlene Greene
Founder, semi-retired
Founded the agency in 1987. Comes in Thursdays, works the accounts she has had for thirty years, and is the person to ask about anything that happened before 2005.
Terrence Boyle
Commercial lines director
Twelve years underwriting contractors before switching sides. Reads the insurance requirements page of a construction contract for fun, which is useful and slightly concerning.
Priya Raghunathan
Personal lines manager
Runs the renewal re-marketing program and the account management team. If your renewal came back cheaper than last year without you calling, that was her department.
Sam Okonkwo
Claims advocate
Nine years as a property adjuster on the carrier side, so they know exactly which reserve conversation is happening behind a quiet week. They handle escalations on any claim that stalls.
Lucía Herrera
Benefits and life
Builds group medical, dental, and disability for teams of five to a hundred, and does the open-enrollment meetings herself rather than sending a packet.
Jordan Pell
Operations and technology
Owns the agency management system, the carrier data feeds, and a long list of spreadsheets they would like to stop maintaining by hand. They keep the honest inventory on our colophon page.
These people are invented. Greene Insurance is a demonstration fixture, not a licensed agency, and nobody named on this page exists. No real person's name, likeness, license, or designation appears anywhere on this site.
Community
What we do when we are not selling insurance.
Storm recovery
When western North Carolina floods, the office opens as somewhere to charge a phone, print a policy, and start a claim with a person instead of a hold queue. Staff take the week and we do not track the hours.
Local sponsorship
Youth sports, the volunteer fire departments in two counties, and the fall festival that has our banner on the same fence every year since 1996.
Small-business clinics
A free quarterly session on what a certificate of insurance actually proves, why your subcontractors’ coverage is your problem, and how a premium audit works. No sales pitch, and non-clients are welcome.
Where we bank and buy
Local credit union, local accountant, local IT shop. It is a small city and the point of it is that the money circulates.
Affiliations
Where we belong.
Membership in the independent agent networks is not a quality guarantee. It does mean we are subject to their standards of practice and have access to their markets, training, and errors-and-omissions programs.
Trusted Choice
Depicted — independent agent network
Big "I" — IIABA
Depicted — Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America
PIA
Depicted — Professional Insurance Agents
Licensing details, including our producer number and the states we are licensed in, are in the footer of every page on this site.
Come talk to us.
The most useful thing you can send is your current declarations page. We will read it, tell you what it actually covers, and say plainly whether we can do better.