The R.M. Coyle Company of Peoria Inc. opened for business on January 2, 1984. Founded by Robert Coyle, the first office location was suite 604 in the First National Bank building in downtown Peoria. The original door (pictured) is now a conference room door in the current office of Coyle Insurance Agency. In April of that year, Bob’s son, Peter, joined the agency.
The early years were especially challenging as the commercial insurance market was in a very “hard” market cycle, and getting insurance company contracts was difficult. We were able to access some insurance companies through the R. M Coyle Company in Rockford, the insurance agency owned by Bob’s son Mike. Due to the hard market, we focused on personal insurance, and sold home and auto coverage for the first few years.
In 1987, we acquired our first agency, the Peter Gulatto Agency, and moved into their space in the Northwest Community Bank building near Northwoods Mall. In 1990 we relocated to 4700 N. Prospect Rd. in Peoria Heights.
1991 marked a major milestone as we acquired the Property/Casualty book of business from the John P. Pearl & Associates Agency. This acquisition tripled our size, and we were then known as The Coyle-Pearl Agency. We were able to add space at 4700 Prospect Rd. and remained at that location.
In 1996, another opportunity to grow came with the acquisition of the Hefner-Yates Agency book of business, adding Nick Yates to our team. That year, we changed our name to The Coyle Insurance Agency, our name today.
In 1997, we were able to build our own building in the Glen Avenue Corporate Park in Peoria and relocated there. We were still primarily a Property/Casualty agency and saw the need to diversify into employee benefits to better serve our customers.
In March of 2000, Bob Knapp joined the agency to focus on developing an Employee Benefits Department. This has been a very successful venture, as that department now represents about 30% of our agency’s revenue.
We are successful because we have people who are professional, committed, and passionate about the work they do. We invite you to visit us and discover “who we are”. We look forward to meeting you and learning more about you and your business.
