Republic of the Lost by John Jay McCarty

Still, the company in 2000 settled with McCarty for more than $2.5 million. Menke later described the investigation as “completely legal,” and said the state’s ensuing investigation of Bankers was “unfair and unlawful” and a “witch hunt.” The company admitted to hiring the private investigator, but denied knowledge of the wiretap. The investigator tailed McCarty in his personal life and illegally tapped his phone in search of information that could discredit him with the state. In 1995, Bankers hired, with Menke’s authorization, a private investigator to look into the personal life of Kevin McCarty, an influential state insurance official who would later become Florida’s insurance commissioner. “You’re looking for pockets of businesses and things that are out of the mainstream, because you can’t really compete head-on with the big guys.”Īs Bankers grew, some executives grew frustrated by state regulators, who they felt were treating the company unfairly. “As a small, regional company, that’s what you do,” said former Bankers president David Meehan. It also diversified its portfolio, adding products ranging from bail bonds to contact lens insurance to casualty for motor homes and contractors. In the 1980s, the company was one of the first to dive into the flood insurance market, eventually becoming the nation’s fourth-largest flood insurance carrier. “There was still good will built up around the name, and besides, we didn’t feel you should hide behind a new name,” he told the St.

The strategy worked, as the new company managed to retain nearly 95% of prior policyholders. In rebuilding, Menke didn’t see a need to change the business’s brand. It’s a shame for the industry.”Ī University of Florida graduate, Menke founded Bankers in 1976 after the state shut down its predecessor, Bankers Fire & Casualty, when its liabilities, primarily in its auto insurance sector, outgrew its assets. “He lived it, he understood how we got to where we got, the good and the bad, what we should be doing, and what we did do. “It’s difficult to find people like Bob anymore, who’ve been in the industry as long as he had, and seen the changes that have gone on here in Florida,” said Ray Blacklidge, an executive vice president at American Traditions Insurance Company in Pinellas Park, who knew Menke for three decades.

Republic of the Lost by John Jay McCarty