The Agency
Three generations of answering the phone
Walter Hartley opened the office at 214 Harbor Street in 1962. His granddaughter runs it today, with the same rule taped inside the front desk: quote it like it's your own house.
1962 — Walter opens the door
One desk, one carrier, and a promise to the fishing co-op that every claim would be walked in by hand.
1989 — Ruth goes independent
Ruth Hartley drops the captive contract and signs appointments with eleven carriers. The wallet is born: one household, many carriers, one agent.
2014 — Ellen takes the keys
Third generation. The carrier wall grows to 40, the paperwork goes digital, and the phone still gets answered by a Hartley.
The people on the other end of the line
Ellen Hartley
Principal agent · Third generation
Ellen has priced cover on Harbor Street for nineteen years and still does the kitchen-table visits herself.
She reads the exclusions out loud before you sign — which is why clients stay for decades.
Marcus Hartley
Commercial lines lead
Marcus runs the business book — shopfronts, trades and small fleets — and speaks fluent certificate-of-insurance.
If your lease demands new limits by Friday, he's the reason it's done Wednesday.
Priya Nair
Claims advocate
Priya owns the claims line. She takes the facts once, opens the file the same day and chases the adjuster so you don't have to.
Sixty-two families got a settled claim — and a phone number that answered — last year.
No call centre
A neighbour with expertise, not a hold queue
- Your call lands on a desk on Harbor Street — never a routing tree.
- A human answers within four business hours, or we call to say why.
- Every renewal is re-shopped across the market before it renews itself.
The carrier wall
Forty appointments, held because clients stay. National names for the house and the cars; specialty markets for the odd stuff — the flood zone, the food truck, the wood heater.
Kept receipts
“The tree came through the sunroom on a Friday night. Priya had an adjuster out Monday and a cheque in eleven days.”
“Ellen re-shopped the bakery, the van and the house in one go. Same cover, $1,900 a year back in the till.”
“Called at 8:35 with a teenager and a brand-new licence. By lunch we had three quotes and none of them made me sit down.”
Meet us before you need us.
The best time to shake your agent's hand is before the storm season, not after the tree.