Higginbotham and Stephens Insurance Services Join Forces in West Texas

Specialty Benefits Firm Brings Local Leadership, Experience and Relationships to Strengthen Combined Regional Presence

FORT WORTH, Texas, Oct. 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Higginbotham, a broad-based employee-owned insurance, financial and HR services firm headquartered in Fort Worth, has teamed up with Lubbock-based Stephens Insurance Services, a benefits specialist. The collaboration pairs on-the-ground relationships with added resources to enhance combined service offerings across West Texas and into eastern New Mexico.

Higginbotham's strategic growth model, championed by Chairman and CEO Rusty Reid, looks to find prospective partners that share the Fort Worth firm's values. Stephens has fit that model since its inception in 1997, when Ed Stephens left a comfortable role at a larger agency to build his own firm based on the personal client relationships he considered essential.

"Stephens is West Texas born and bred and laser-focused on relationships and community," Reid said. "By combining their trusted local leadership and decades of benefits experience with our resources, we're building an unbeatable team that can provide single-source solutions to any client in West Texas — even the most complicated public sector and commercial accounts."

Stephens Insurance Services specializes in three key areas: group benefits, individual health and life benefits and Medicare advisory assistance. With the added Higginbotham resources, the firm looks forward to providing a broader spectrum of services — without diluting that specialty focus.

"It's about being good at what we do, and not trying to do everything ourselves," said owner/broker Zach Stephens, the son of Ed Stephens. "That focus on what we do best helped introduce us to Higginbotham, as we've had great experiences referring our clients to their property & casualty teams. Now we get to have those same people in house, making sure our clients get everything they need under one banner."

Stephens noted that the collaboration will also give the West Texas firm access to larger-firm capabilities — and the clients who require those capabilities — without losing their local touch.

"We're particularly excited to work side by side with Higginbotham Public Sector," Stephens said. "We've talked to school districts out here who are torn between wanting to maintain those West Texas relationships but also needing the depth of service and specialty divisions that only big companies provide. Now we can walk in with those local boots on the ground — and the backing of an entire specialty practice focused on public sector employers."

Stephens' director of operations Dana Teague and owner/broker Rick Kopytkiewicz shared that even with the obvious synergies and benefits to joining a larger firm, the cultural fit proved the decisive factor in the decision to join forces.

"Higginbotham's employee-ownership model was a big appeal," Teague said. "We've always prided ourselves on treating our employees like family and Higginbotham lives that value every day. They also offer a great benefits package and industry-wide career paths for our people."

"I started my career on the carrier side, so I know folks at a lot of local agencies," Kopytkiewicz added. "When some of those agencies were sold, I heard mixed reviews. But when I talked to people who had gone with Higginbotham, I got nothing but smiles. Then we met with Rusty and the team, and they didn't just ask about our numbers, they wanted to know us as people. We left that meeting saying, 'If we're going to do something, it's going to be with Higginbotham.'"

Stephens concluded, noting, "The Higginbotham model isn't to come in and take over your company and make changes. It's to stand behind your company with the resources and support you need. We get to keep running our office as usual — and be the best we can be for our clients, our team and our community."

ABOUT STEPHENS INSURANCE SERVICES

West Texas owned and operated since 1997, Stephens Insurance Services is an independent agency serving Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. The firm focuses on employee benefits, individual and family health insurance and Medicare services. The agency prides itself on developing long-term client relationships built on customer loyalty and trust and provides individual solutions and claims advocacy for every client.

Visit stephensinsservices.com for more information.

ABOUT HIGGINBOTHAM

Higginbotham is a single source solution for insurance, financial and HR/employee benefits services. The employee-owned firm was established in 1948 and today ranks as the nation's 18th largest independent insurance brokerage by revenue, according to The Hales Report by Dowling Hales, a leading authority in insurance M&A. Based in Fort Worth, Texas, Higginbotham serves businesses and individuals through locations across the country. The firm specializes in tailoring programs to meet each client's unique needs and stands by those programs with their Day Two Services®, which provide proactive customer support through the life of each policy.

Higginbotham is a values-driven firm that strives to be family to employees, accountable to clients, teammates to carriers, and generous to communities.

Visit higginbotham.com for more information.

SOURCE Higginbotham