About Us

History of Wm. Rigg Co.:

Among the 35 largest agencies/ brokerage firms in the United States with 300 employees, $53 Million in revenues, global reach, Fort Worth based Wm. Rigg Co. bears little resemblance to the small agency that existed during the 1960s. The agency is now part of The Rigg Group, Fort Worth holding company, which includes five insurance subsidiaries.

It all began in the late 1800s with Australian born William Glen-Walker, a young man who grew up on a Virginia tobacco farm and headed west to make his fortune. Family connections landed William Glen-Walker a job as a lending officer in Fort Worth. Walker noticed quickly that after a loan, the next thing a business needed was insurance. So he began selling coverage to his bank clients, a common practice that was later outlawed during the Depression.

William Glen-Walker and several partners founded the Childress Co. Insurance Agency in 1895. Three years later, he and several other businessmen organized Millers Mutual Insurance Co. to provide fire insurance for grain mills and elevators. In 1910, William Glen-Walker and his partner Ed K. Collett, added Galveston insurance executive William Rigg as a partner.

After graduating from college in 1957, Rigg's nephew Cecil Y. Ray Jr., joined the agency, then called Glen-Walker, Collett & Rigg Co. Ray, a born salesman who dabbled in everything from a doughnut concession to peddling cookery, enjoyed insurance. Two years later, Rigg was acquired by Ray and Ray's partner, former Prudential Insurance executive Henry Meadows. Ray and Meadows became controlling partners after Rigg's death in 1964 and renamed the agency Wm. Rigg Co.

Today, Wm. Rigg Co. has offices in Fort Worth, Dallas, and Houston. The ownership includes 21 principals who are all active within the company.

Other Rigg Group companies include Dallas-based RISC, which brokers property and casualty coverage to specialty markets for a network of over 700 agents in Texas, International Lloyd's Insurance Co. and AFS/IBEX.

Rough Notes Magazine - Feb 2001: Entrepreneurism With Hustle