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What sets LRS&C apart?
Service — every client, business or individual, is "priority one" in our agency. We're here when you need us to answer questions, walk you through an application for coverage, or go to bat for you on a claim.
Continuity — our staff's combined experience in the insurance industry numbers nearly 150 years, most of which was attained with LRS&C.
Professionalism — all of our customer service representatives are licensed insurance agents.
Knowledge — all agents regularly attend continuing education classes to maintain product familiarity and stay abreast of regulatory information.
We invite you to meet the LRS&C staff who look after your insurance needs.
Lambert, Riddle, Schimmel & Caldwell, LLLP
3931 University Drive
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
Phone: 703-691-1300
Fax: 703-273-4078
Partners
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Jim Riddle never gave the insurance business much thought as a youngster growing up in Fairfax, Virginia. That's what dads did. He was more interested in the outdoors, shooting hoops, and playing golf. Years later, however, Virginia Tech journalism diploma in hand, Jim experienced a real-world career epiphany. Insurance was in his genes and he wanted to give the property and casualty business a try.
The best way to learn insurance advised Dad Riddle would be to work at a company as an underwriter. Jim joined Travelers and was assigned to the Richmond office for two years, followed by two years in Roanoke. By 1985, he had come full circle to find his career niche and join the agency founded by his grandfather.
Jim is justly proud of LRS&C's 85-year heritage. "Property and casualty is our history," he says, "we like it and we're good at it." He believes that personalized customer assistance will never go out of style or be replaced by technology. "People continue to need service and they need the choices we offer by representing different carriers," he adds. "We serve our customers, and they know we care about them."
Today Jim is a family man — married with two daughters — and he still likes to shoot hoops and play golf. He finds special satisfaction in coaching a girl's basketball team for the Springfield Youth Club. He is an avid Redskins fan and season ticket holder who favors the stars of his youth — Sonny Jurgenson, Billy Kilmer, and Charley Taylor. "When I was a kid I caddied for Pat Fischer in a golf tournament," he recalls with a smile. Other interests include camping — he and his wife spent their nearly five-month honeymoon camping across the U.S. and Canada — and music. Jim has a particular interest in the Celtic music that reflects his roots.
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"I try to watch details and get it right the first time," Tom Schimmel says. "I think that's why customers hire us — they need someone to pay attention to the details for them." Tom is meticulous and intensely focused, but he can shift effortlessly between left and right brain activities. Effort and diligence exemplify his logical, goal-oriented left side, while a quick wit and ability to work and listen to music reveal his intuitive right.
Born in El Salvador, Tom and the rest of the large Schimmel family spent part of his childhood in El Salvador and Peru. After returning permanently to Northern Virginia he finally learned that his dad was a CIA communications specialist on official postings with the State Department and the military. "I just thought he couldn't keep the same job very long," Tom quips.
Most insurance professionals end up in the business more by accident than design, but Tom knew a little about the industry through the family of his high school sweetheart, Debby Riddle (and her "goofy" teenage brother and his future partner Jim). "It seemed like a field with a lot of opportunity and I always liked working with numbers," he says. Tom went on to Virginia Tech to major in finance with an insurance specialty. He completed his degree in less than four years and joined St. Paul Fire & Marine in Boston as an underwriting trainee. Tom and Debby married in 1977, lived in Boston and Syracuse, NY before returning to Virginia where he completed work on his professional designation "Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter," or CPCU.
Tom joined Lambert Riddle in 1980, and more than two decades later he says part of the continuing appeal of the business is finding solutions to customer needs or problems. "As things change in the business world," he says, "insurance has to adapt." He points out that just a few years ago issues such as cyber liability, mold, and employment practices liability didn't exist. "You have to stay up to date on issues and education."
Away from the office Tom enjoys all kinds of sports — particularly golf and tennis — and he caught the travel bug as a child. Now that his son and daughter are in college, he hopes to combine interests by traveling to unique locations to play golf. Right now his sights are set on... Iceland, perhaps because — in another example of logic and whimsy — the midnight sun enables summer visitors to play the splendid courses almost 24 hours a day. Tom avidly follows the Virginia Tech Hokies, the Redskins, and the Washington Capitals.
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Staff
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Charlotte Fulcher, A.C.S.R.
Ext.206 cfulcher@lrscins.com
Customer Service Representative
Commercial Lines
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Lush green plants dot the office areas at LRS&C, testament to the nurturing abilities of Charlotte Fulcher. Since 1978, she's also cultivated relationships with many of the agency's commercial accounts — matching their needs to appropriate lines of insurance. "I want to help everyone I can," she says. "I want to do my job the best I can."
Charlotte was born in the small farming community of Ruckersville, Virginia, and raised in Bailey's Crossroads where she graduated from Jeb Stuart High School. She married her husband of 39 years and became a mother before taking her first job with Nationwide Insurance. She later worked in two other agencies before making the move to LRS&C.
While most companies have the same basic insurance needs, Charlotte says helping her clients acquire just the right coverage for their specific situations is what makes her job interesting. "There's so much more that people can buy these days," she says. "There's so much more to know." She particularly enjoys talking to customers. "After a while, you get on a first name basis; you get more involved." Charlotte also handles court bonds for guardians, administrators, and executors and home improvement bonds for contractors.
Charlotte looks forward to early retirement in 2006 — she plans to live in Colonial Beach, Virginia, fish with her husband, and maybe do a little traveling. "I'd like to visit Martha's Vineyard and some of the Indian sites in the West," she says. Charlotte says she isn't a hobby person, "I get involved with my children." She has a son and daughter and four grandchildren. She also expects to grow plants and flowers and keep a nurturing eye on her husband's vegetable garden.
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Tammy Garland
Ext. 203 tammy@lrscins.com
Customer Service Representative
Personal Lines
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If Tammy Garland ever wins the Lottery, you'll probably find her basking on a beach or unwinding in a remote mountain cabin. Until that day, though, she enjoys "helping customers" as a LRS&C customer service representative. "Every day brings something different," she says.
A native Virginian, Tammy grew up in Manassas and graduated from Stonewall High School. She took business courses at Northern Virginia Community College and began her professional career with a national trade association based in Alexandria where she worked in the insurance department.
Tammy joined LRS&C in 1997 and was licensed as an agent in 2000. "I like knowing that I've helped solve problems for people," she says. She also serves as the company's network administrator and solves technology problems for colleagues.
Tammy is a soccer mom who enjoys being involved in her young son's school and sports activities. Her radio is tuned to country music — Toby Keith is her current favorite. One goal she has yet to accomplish? Whitewater rafting!
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Linda Hottle, A.C.S.R.
Ext. 202 lthottle@lrscins.com
Accredited Customer Service Representative
Manager, Personal Lines
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You imagine that she might have captained the pep squad or been voted 'friendliest' in high school. Since coming to LRS&C in 1980, Linda Hottle has turned clients into friends with her cheerful, lively brand of customer service. "This isn't rocket science," she laughs. "All I care about is that my people are happy."
Born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia, Linda married right out of high school and started a family. In 1974, she landed her first insurance job in the accounting department of a local Travelers office. She recalls her arrival at LRS&C years later, "I was the third personal lines customer service representative, and within six months I was the most senior." Linda is justly proud of her successful career that has so far-spanned more than two decades.
"I see insurance as peace of mind," Linda says. She takes great pride in improving her knowledge and, thereby, her ability to serve her clients. "I always try to improve," she says. She believes that continuity is one of the best features LRS&C offers clients. "They have just one agent for all their needs — I know my people, I know what's expected."
Linda is a homebody with a yen to travel. She enjoys curling up with a good book and a glass of wine, watching the news, Biography, and History channels on television, and cleaning house. "Okay, I don't like to clean, I just like the way it is afterward." Linda remarried the same year she came to LRS&C, and she has three children, one stepson, and seven grandchildren. Someday she'd like to open a seasonal tee shirt shop at the beach and journey across the U.S.A. in a Winnebago. Top destinations include the Grand Canyon and California.
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When Claudia LaPorte's creative juices start flowing, the outcome might be a gourmet meal, a striking floral arrangement, or just the right coverage for one of her commercial clients. "I try to get the best value and ensure that clients have all the coverage they need," she says. "Counseling new clients, listening, and making suggestions are what make my job interesting."
Claudia joined LRS&C in 1998 and serves as agent and customer service representative on accounts that range from consultants to trucking companies to professional medical practices. Although she entered the insurance field in 1987 and worked in both personal and commercial lines, LRS&C covered some types of accounts that were new to her. "Learning garage coverage for our different towing companies — I'd never done that before," Claudia says. Today she's a pro!
Reading is Claudia's favorite at-home activity, and her eclectic interests include romance, science fiction, and action adventure. She also enjoys crafts, floral arranging, cake decorating, and cooking. Her favorite dish to prepare is manicotti with marinara and béchamel sauces and, not surprisingly, her favorite food to eat is "any kind of pasta."
Claudia and her husband recently celebrated their 25
th anniversary. They have two children and two granddaughters.
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Betsy Strader
Ext. 211 betsy@lrscins.com
Office Manager
Customer Service Representative
Commercial Lines
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Spend five minutes with Betsy Strader, and it won't come as any surprise that her secret ambition is to be an entertainer. She loves to make people laugh, and her own laugh rings out often. "Getting to know people — laughing with them — makes it easier to do my job and it's a lot more fun," she says.
Richard Nixon was president and America was at war with Viet Nam when Betsy began getting to know people on the job at LRS&C in 1971. Since then, she's seen seven U.S. presidents and five LRS&C partners come and go. She's worked with hundreds of clients — first personal and now commercial accounts, paid the bills, planned events, coordinated employee benefits, and tended to the myriad details that make the agency run smoothly. "I see myself as a cheerleader, a motivator," she says. "I want work to be fun." Of her long-term colleagues Betsy says, "we've been through a lot together and we're certainly here for each other."
Betsy is a native Virginian — born and raised in Falls Church. At Marshall High School she participated in a cooperative business curriculum, going to classes half a day and processing new business applications for auto insurance part-time at Travelers Insurance. After graduation, Travelers hired her full time. "I wasn't ready for college then," she says, "I was a late bloomer."
As is often the case with late bloomers, Betsy later made up for lost time by obtaining her insurance license and taking annual continuing education courses. She continues to explore new interests including skiing, golf and, most recently, kayaking. She is married, has one daughter, and a three-year-old grandson. Betsy says her wants are simple: "to live comfortably, to be happy, to see my grandson grow tall, to improve my golf game, and to find laughter along the way."
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