OneDigital, an international insurance brokerage, financial services and human resources consulting firm, has acquired one of Philadelphia’s most visible African-American-owned insurance brokerage firms, Bradley & Bradley Associates, Inc., in a move that founder Steven Scott Bradley said he believes will be a major step towards leaving a legacy.
Formed by Bradley in 2001, Bradley & Bradley is a corporation that provides property and casualty brokerage products and services in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
According to B&B’s website, the S-corporation’s mission is “to create and offer innovative risk management services for the financial protection of commercial customers in niche markets.”
S corporations are corporations that elect to pass corporate income, losses, deductions, and credits through to their shareholders for federal tax purposes.
By making this acquisition, OneDigital said its goals are to “increase Bradley & Bradley’s access to national P&C (property and casualty) resources and add HR, financial services, employee benefit solutions, and enhanced technology to better serve its current and future clients,” according to a news release.
“Steven and I bonded quickly over a shared philosophy as business leaders that is rooted in the importance of establishing trust and building strong, long-lasting relationships — whether that be within our own teams, with our clients, or the greater community. I am excited to grow OneDigital’s commercial property and casualty presence in this market with Steven and his team’s leadership and insight,” said Shawn Orenstein, senior managing principal at OneDigital.
According to Bradley, who has long been a civic leader in Philadelphia, serving on the board of directors for numerous organizations as well as acting as the chairman emeritus for the African American Chamber of Commerce of PA, NJ and DE; the move to join OneDigital will allow him to pass his experience onto the next generation of entrepreneurs in Philadelphia.
“I can bring some young people in now to teach them the business, but they (will) have much more resources than I had, and they can be much more successful. Hopefully at an earlier pace than the 22 years it took me to grow to the point where I am now. I plan on staying really intricately involved, whether it’s recruiting, whether it’s mentoring, whether it’s coaching.”
Ultimately, Bradley said the most important factor in this move is to begin to build a legacy that he can leave behind in order to inspire the next generation.
“I just think one of the key points is building a legacy. I started my business 22 years ago from scratch, and now, years later, being bought out by a large corporation just shows how being driven, how being civic minded, how having goals can create wealth. … Hopefully this will motivate some other young people. That’s what we need in Philadelphia to overcome poverty and gun violence is (to) give young people some aspirations and some goals and teach them how they can create some wealth the honest way.”