A group of 5 Holmes Murphy employees from the Sioux Falls office wearing Give.Fully. shirts at a volunteer event in 2023.
Corporate Culture

A Toast to Independence

Susan Hatten
Susan Hatten
Chief Marketing Officer

Recently, our Holmes Murphy offices celebrated our second annual Independence Day tribute and internal celebration.

Our Independence Day is not necessarily tied to the Fourth of July holiday; rather, we use this as a moment to celebrate and honor our Holmes Murphy independence as a business and community.

For those not as familiar, Holmes Murphy is a 91-year-old privately held insurance brokerage firm with more than 1,100 employees and 13 unique office locations. Our original founders — Max Holmes and Ray Murphy — partnered together in 1932 to create an insurance consulting business with our employees, clients, and communities at the heart of the company. We are now nearly 200 employee shareholders strong, four leadership generations into our business journey, and yet, these philosophical tenants of focus remain.

As a part of our Holmes Murphy Independence Day, we allow time for reflection, education, and visioning around what being privately held affords us to be and do as an organization. Structurally, we are not beholden to outside investors or board members, thus allowing us to make decisions for the benefit of our employees and caring for our clients and their best interest.

Our leaders along the 91-year journey have made intentional sacrifices and decisions to allow us to remain privately held and to perpetuate the business for future leaders and employees of our company.

Why does this matter? Our purpose statement is “Caring for your unique potential is our soul purpose.” Key words within this phrase — caring, unique potential, and soul. We believe that our independent ownership model allows us to not only live by, but to uphold, this very purpose.

Decades beyond 2023, we see a vision for continued perpetuation of our Holmes Murphy story. And while sparklers and fireworks were not a part of our own Independence Day festivities a few weeks ago, the energy, passion, and culture within our organization are without question sparkling. Here’s to a toast to independence and another 91-years strong! Cheers.Fully! And if you’re interested in learning more about us, our business, our career openings, the work we do in our communities, etc., just reach out. We’d love to talk.

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