The people behind the practice.

Jeff has spent over fifty years in insurance. He started in 1976 as a clerk in policy processing at Texas Central Life Insurance Company, learned every function of the company and eventually became its president. Since then he has run insurers, reinsurance programs and managing general agencies, including a Texas non-standard auto program he built to $100 million in annual premium. He has worked with Lloyd’s underwriters since the Texas Central years.

He moved into equine and livestock in 2000, when he founded Equi-Sure Agency, a farm, ranch and livestock mortality agency endorsed by the National High School Rodeo Association and the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America. He is a member of that association, the American Quarter Horse Association and the Appaloosa Horse Club.

He began consulting for the firm in 2003 and has run the US operation since 2007. Acies is a Lloyd’s coverholder, and Jeff is a named principal on its Lloyd’s binders. He oversees the surplus lines compliance that lets the firm write in all 50 states.

Tonia runs operations for the division, with day-to-day responsibility for the equine and livestock books. That means the full life of a policy — quoting, underwriting support, issuance, endorsements, renewals, billing reconciliation, carrier reporting and loss analysis — plus the farm property program and canine liability.

She also administers the rating and policy systems the whole office works in, which is why operational problems tend to arrive on her desk: the accounting data, the underwriting requirements, the carrier reporting and the agent workflow all meet in one place, and she is usually the person who can see where the break is. She trains the staff on systems and security.

Jolene came to underwriting from the clinical side of the horse business. She managed the research barn at Kentucky Equine Research, spent five years scanning thoroughbred hearts at Equix Biomechanics, and was co-supervising veterinary technician at Rood & Riddle. She then spent a year adjusting claims, including the investigative end of them — which is why she reads a submission with a clear idea of how it will look as a loss. She now assesses risk, builds renewal options and handles agent and broker relationships. MBA, Sullivan University. BS, Colorado State University.

Heather has been in insurance since 1985 — administration, underwriting and claims across equine, property and casualty, credit life and lender’s single interest. She has also worked as office manager and veterinary assistant at three veterinary practices, so an equine mortality file arrives on a desk that has seen the clinical side of it. She has owned and trained horses her whole life. Business management degree, Sam Houston State University.

Sherrie runs the cattle book day to day — applications in and approved, rates for agents, renewals out on time. When a claim comes in, she is the person who builds it: the reports and correspondence the underwriting decision rests on, the policy and placing documents the adjuster needs, and the reconciliation back to the carrier. Agents hear from her when a claim has been paid, which is the call that matters most to them.

Kathy is the first person an agent speaks to about an equine or livestock risk. She has been with the firm since 2002, and before that worked in insurance and financial services in compliance, claims and human resources — she reads a submission from all three sides at once.

She reviews new and renewal business against underwriting guidelines, reads the claim history and sets the exclusion wording, and works every renewal two months out on the age, use and claim record of each animal. She manages the agency accounts and approves the policies that go back out to agents, which in practice means an agent has one contact from the first call through to cover rather than a handoff at each stage.

Pam has been with the firm since 2014 and learned equine underwriting here, from the application forward. She reviews submissions for eligibility, works the risk factors, rates them and prepares the premium and policy terms — then does the same work again on the way out, quoting renewals, writing endorsements and amending cover.

She carries a named book of agents rather than a queue, which is why they call her directly: coverage questions, endorsements, renewals, a policy that needs explaining, and the risks that don’t sit neatly inside the guidelines. Those last ones are what she’s known for staying with.

Shelby joined the firm in June 2025 and works with equine and poultry farm risks. She grew up on a horse breeding and training ranch in Central Texas, where the family raised Tennessee Walking Horses and Missouri Fox Trotters alongside a commercial Black Angus herd.

She holds two bachelor’s degrees from Angelo State University — finance, with a minor in real estate, and animal science, with a minor in range and wildlife management — followed by a master’s in animal science and rangeland management and certification in ranch management and beef industry leadership. Since 2022 she has run her own ranch management and consulting firm, and she keeps a commercial Black Angus herd managed for native rangeland preservation, natural inputs and direct-to-consumer beef marketing. The operations she works with are the kind she has spent her life on.

Kathie has handled the regulatory side of the business since 2011. She prepares and files the premium tax reports — monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and year-end — with state insurance departments and secretaries of state across the equine, farm property and canine liability programs, keeps the company and officer licenses current, and files the authorizations that let the firm write in each state. She drafts the agency contracts, checks producer licenses before an agent is appointed, and pulls the documentation when a state or an underwriter audits the book. It is work nobody notices until it is wrong, and the reason an agent in a new state can be appointed and writing without a wait.

She also runs canine liability day to day with the agent who writes it: endorsements, dogs added and removed, limit changes, additional insureds, certificates, the daily payment report, and the first notice when a claim comes in. She is the office notary.

Laura keeps the books. She has spent nearly twenty-five years doing it, for businesses of almost every shape — property management, real estate development, retail, nonprofits, professional search firms and insurance brokerages — which means she arrived already knowing how an insurance ledger behaves and how it differs from everything else. Payables, refunds and reconciliation run through her. Bachelor of Fine Arts in public relations, Valdosta State University.