Company History

Chappell, Smith & Associates, Inc. (CS&A) boasts a long history tracing its roots back before the first flight by the Wright Brothers in 1903.

In 1881, Buell & Crockett Insurance was established and operated out of the Commerce Union Bank Annex in the downtown business district of Nashville, Tennessee. Since its inception, the agency has existed continuously under the stewardship of just three management teams for its entire 130+ year history.

In 1936, Paul W. Turner joined Buell & Crockett. Turner became a partner in 1941 and purchased the agency in 1948. He appointed Dempsey Weaver as his partner and renamed the firm Turner Weaver and Associates. It was under Turner's leadership that the agency began its long relationship with aviation insurance and what would become his career long "cornerstone" client, the Civil Air Patrol.

In 1966, John Wilson became a third partner, and agency's name expanded to Turner Weaver & Wilson. The partners sold their interest to Cook, Treadwell & Harry (CTH) of Memphis in 1972, but Paul "Pappy" Turner continued to head the local operation.

In 1977, CTH appointed Tom Chappell as agency manager. Chappell relocated CTH's Coker Aviation Insurance Agency from Memphis to Nashville and merged it with what was then the Turner Weaver Agency to create CTH of Nashville.

At the time, CTH was the thirteenth largest insurance brokerage firm in the United States with sixteen agency branches, a general agency group, and a brokerage operation in London. One year later, Chappell recruited Charles Smith.

In 1981, Smith and Chappell purchased the agency from CTH and rebranded it as Chappell, Smith & Associates, Inc. The agency continued to grow through acquisitions, including General Insurance Service in 1984, Rankin Insurance Agency in 1985, Davidson Insurance in 1988, and Mayes & Meadows Insurance, C. Folks Insurance, and the Charles R. Tompkins Insurance Agency in 1991. Chappell, Smith began to use the acronym CS&A to brand its insurance divisions and opened an office near Atlanta in 1996.

Said Chappell, "The real beginning of CS&A as we see it today started with a refocusing of the agency in 2000. I believe every business and every industry grows stale in time. If a business is to survive, it must recognize the archaic segments of its business plan and rebuild. This reorganization and refocusing of a company's assets may be the difference between continued success and extinction."

The stockholders of CS&A built a new office building in the Cool Springs area of Franklin and consolidated all local operations into the new headquarters. They developed a corporate perpetuation plan and added new staff to handle the increased client volume they were experiencing in all segments of the agency's operations.

Specialty niches were identified and staffed. This effort proved to be the source of great new growth. Not only would CS&A continue with its sixty year old Aviation niche, but now the general property and casualty commercial division would take on new depth by staffing for a restaurant division. Steve Lee and Todd Lee joined the CS&A commercial team, bringing with them a high level of expertise in the restaurant insurance industry.

A sales support, advertising, and marketing team was developed in 2003, which led to the addition of two graphic artists and a copy writer. With this effort, CS&A leveraged its specialized aviation knowledge and created Aviation Insurance & Risk Management (AIRM) magazine in 2004. AIRM has become an acknowledged source of highly valuable technical information for the aviation industry as well as insurance professionals. Underwriters, agents, aircraft owners, and operators look to AIRM as a quarterly source of information dealing with safety, risk management, and insurance. Because of the magazine's success, CS&A created a new company, Next Dimension Publishing, LLC, to handle production and growing advertising revenues for the publication of the AIRM magazine and numerous specialty publications.

In 2006, CS&A redefined its Rotor-Wing Division. Terry McDowell, a highly experienced rotor operator, leads a staff to serve a wider segment of the helicopter industry. "We needed an icon in the rotor world if we are to expand our market share of this industry and we got one," said Chappell. This redefined division will handle the specialty insurance needs of helicopters and rotary-wing aircraft through the country.