As fifth-generation insurance agents, Matthew and Joe Carlucci said the key to success in the industry is working hard and treating clients well.
Joe Carlucci said their family history in insurance has helped Brightway, The Carlucci Agency, which they’ve owned since 2009.
“Our dad and his dad have established our last name as a very trustworthy, good last name, and one that’s been in insurance for a long time,” Joe Carlucci said. “We definitely had a head start with branding.”
Their father, Jacksonville City Council member Matt Carlucci, runs a State Farm agency less than a mile from their Brightway office on Hendricks Avenue in San Marco. Matt Carlucci’s father, the late Florida Sen. Joe Carlucci, was a State Farm agent, as well.
Matthew and Joe’s great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather and great-uncle also were insurance agents.
“It must be in our DNA,” Matthew Carlucci said.
Matthew, 36, and Joe, 32, started in the industry in 2006 working for their dad at his State Farm agency. They decided to open their own in 2009.
“We did start at a very good time when State Farm and all the big companies were not writing (policies),” Joe Carlucci said.
The Carlucci Agency, at 3535 Hendricks Ave., offers property, auto, business and umbrella coverage insurance.
After working with their father at State Farm, the brothers realized they enjoyed several aspects of the insurance industry, like working with clients and problem-solving to help them with better coverage.
Co-owning the agency has been “great” so far, they said.
“We’re different people,” Joe Carlucci said. “We play on each other’s strengths and weaknesses very well. We talk through everything and we each recognize who’s got good ideas and bad ideas. It’s worked out really, really well.”
They say the company has grown mostly through referrals. Clients primarily are in Northeast Florida and are concentrated in the San Marco area.
Matthew Carlucci said their attention to detail has helped them find customers policies that have the most coverage, but that aren’t the cheapest policy available.
“When you try to save money in insurance, unfortunately, that usually backfires,” he said.
“We have learned that the hard way. So we try to sell based on quality. And I think that that differentiates us substantially from most agencies. People find that attractive and they trust us.
“If we don’t feel we can offer what is best for them, we will tell them that and they appreciate that.”