The Kiley & O’Toole Insurance Agency (“Kiley & O’Toole”) has announced the acquisition of the assets of the Baltic Insurance Agency (“Baltic Insurance”) as of June 1, 2017. Kiley & O’Toole has offices in South Boston and Weymouth. As Baltic Insurance’s office is in close proximity to Kiley & O’Toole’s South Boston office, Baltic Insurance’s operations will consolidate into that location over the next three to four months.
Baltic Insurance is sixth agency acquisition for Kiley & O’Toole
The roots of Kiley & O’Toole go back to 1890 when Spinney & Kelly Real Estate opened in South Boston. In 1915, Spinney and Kelly obtained an insurance broker’s license and began selling insurance.
Tom O’Toole, the owner of Kiley & O’Toole started in the insurance agency business right out of college in 1985, as a customer service representative for Spinney & Kelly Real Estate and Insurance. Soon after the business’ named changed under a new owner to Kiley Insurance.
In 1989, Mr. O’Toole made his first agency purchase by buying Kiley Insurance and renaming it the Kiley & O’Toole Insurance Agency. Including that first acquisition, under Mr. O’Toole’s leadership, Kiley & O’Toole has acquired five agencies including the Krause Agency, the A.M. Johnson Agency, the City Point Agency, the Kalafatas Agency, and Baltic Insurance.
Although across the street agencies hardly knew each other before sale
Kiley & O’Toole has had its Boston location at 594 E Broadway, South Boston since it acquired the Krause Agency in 1996. Baltic Insurance has had its office at 597 East Broadway, South Boston for even longer.
Yet, when asked by Agency Checklists about how the sale came together, Mr. O’Toole said:
Baltic Insurance has been a close neighbor of ours in South Boston for several decades, and yet surprisingly enough, prior to our deal we hardly knew its owners. But what we always did know about our neighbors at Baltic Insurance was that they were a well-run operation, and that their customers were loyal and satisfied because they were cared for. It was primarily for these kinds of qualities in their business that we saw this as a smart acquisition to continue to grow our own agency business.”
Baltic Insurance Agency founded by Lithuanian immigrants in 1953.
According to Daiva Neidhardt, the present owner of Baltic Insurance, her grandparents came to the United States with her mother from Lithuania after World War II as displaced persons. Her grandfather worked a deliveryman for the Blue Hill Spring Water.
He went to Northeastern University to study real estate and gave up his steady job in 1953, to open a real estate office in South Boston. He soon added selling homeowner and auto insurance to selling real estate. In the 1970’s Daiva’s mother took over the agency and ran it until the 90’s until Daiva took over.
Daiva had not planned to run Baltic. She had degrees in both civil and electrical engineering from Northeastern University and had worked for Raytheon. But, after marriage and the birth of her children, she found running the agency allowed her freedom that working as an engineer could not provide.
Her children now grown, Daiva decided to follow a life-long dream to teach mathematics in high school. Once she passed her Massachusetts educators licensing test, she decided to sell Baltic Insurance and with the help of Mike Ryan, of Insurance Agency Consulting Services, LLC, and her attorney, Owen Gallagher of ForbesGallagher.
About Kiley & O’Toole
Kiley & O’Toole is a family-operated independent insurance agency with more than 30 years of valuable local insurance knowledge and experience. Started in Boston in 1985, they have grown to insure and service thousands of clients in Boston and the Greater Boston area. The agency believes in having a long-term relationship with its customers, and we know that is built by earning their trust and loyalty by being honest, providing great personal service and offering the proper insurance protection at the best possible price in our market, in other words the “the Right Insurance… at the Right Price.
