GEICO employees stand in front the Hamilton local office at 825 Route 33. Pictured are (front) Joselyn Valarezo, Jamie Maline, Jennifer Tedesco, (center) Andrew Craven, Jonathan Flores, Jennyfer Castro, Maureen Cline, George Yulis and (back) Chris Cline. (Staff photo by Samantha Sciarrotta.)
Let’s face it. By this point, charming British geckos and the insurance company GEICO are inextricable.
And if you’ve seen the commercials, you’ve known since the 1990s that GEICO sells auto insurance. But did you also know that the reason GEICO is in all caps is because it actually stands for the Government Employees Insurance Company? Or that GEICO was founded in 1936 and was designed to only offer insurance to government employees and military officials?
It was a few decades before the general public got access to GEICO, and it wasn’t until 1996—when billionaire Warren Buffett bought the company and made it a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.—that the little British gecko became the spokesperson of the company.
Despite the ads’ popularity and the growing scale of the company, GEICO had never had a local office in New Jersey until 2007. Christopher and Maureen Cline changed all that when they opened their office in Lawrence. In December, they moved their office to 825 Route 33 in Hamilton.
The Clines have worked for GEICO since 2003. Christopher started in sales at the company’s Woodbury, N.Y., office “after a friend told me how great of a company GEICO was to work for,” he said.
Maureen started in customer service there not too long after. They relocated to the Buffalo office, and spent three years there before going back home to New Jersey to open their office. Christopher is from Old Bridge, and Maureen is from Queens, N.Y.
The company sells more than just car insurance. The Clines also purvey insurance for motorcycles, homes, condos, apartments, boats, ATVs and RVs.
They also offer extended liability coverage through GEICO’s personal umbrella policy, Christopher said. That means multiple policies for whatever property insurance needs you might have.
Cline says the advantage of having a local GEICO office is the access to a real, live person. The rates don’t increase just because you get your insurance from an agent in an office rather than over the phone, and having a real person to talk with puts residents and customers in touch with an actual member of the Hamilton community.
“I also encourage the agents who work in the Hamilton office to bring their ideas to me about ways we can further get involved, and I’ve been getting some really creative ways to help out,” Cline said.
Though he’s only been in Hamilton for a few months, Cline says his team is always at work for ways to make a difference and to make the local office something to be proud of.
“Outside of the office, my wife and I couldn’t be more excited to get involved in local Hamilton events,” Cline said. “The local businesses are one of the big reasons I’m proud to say I live in Hamilton—there’s tremendous support of a lot of really good causes, and there’s no better way for us to give back to our customers than to step up and support the stuff that really matters here at home.”
That’s not just talk. The Clines have extended an invitation to everyone to stop by and say hi, partly on behalf of a good cause. In April, they’re working with Autism Speaks to help promote autism awareness.
Anyone who stops by the office will have the chance to help ‘Light It Up Blue’ after being given a free blue grocery bag and a blue T-shirt. The office will also have free GEICO gecko puzzles to offer.
GEICO is located at 825 Route 33. For more information, email ccline@geico.com, call (609) 530-1000 or go online to facebook.com/GEICOHamilton.
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