Woodard Insurance, LLP, was established in 1972 as Don Woodard Insurance. Don Woodard, Sr., began his career in the life insurance industry as an agent for Southwestern Life Insurance Company of Dallas. In 1981, Don Woodard, Jr., became a career agent with Southwestern Life. In 1982, William B. (Blake) Woodard began working for Don Woodard Insurance.
In 1986, Don Sr., Don Jr., and Blake formed a life insurance partnership called Woodard Insurance. This partnership was the first licensed life insurance partnership in the state of Texas. Life insurance partnerships were such a revolutionary idea that Woodard Insurance had to lobby the Texas Legislature and the Commissioner of Insurance (now the Texas Department of Insurance) to allow life insurance partnerships to be licensed.
Woodard Insurance formed a joint insurance marketing venture with Travis and Louise Key of Mineral Wells, Texas, in 1989. The Keys had been the center of the life insurance business in Palo Pinto County for almost 50 years. The venture operated under the name Key-Woodard Insurance until 2001, when Woodard Insurance bought out the Keys' interest. Woodard Insurance, LLP, continues to provide insurance services to citizens and businesses of Palo Pinto County.
The firm holds the first and only HMO partnership license issued by the Texas Department of Insurance. Woodard Insurance, LLP, lobbied the Texas Department of Insurance to permit HMO licensing of partnerships in 1996. Shortly after the firm received the first HMO partnership license issued by the State of Texas, Texas merged HMO licenses into the life insurance license. As a result, no firm other than Woodard Insurance, LLP, ever will hold a Texas HMO partnership license.
On January 1, 2001, Blake bought out Don Jr.'s interest in Woodard Insurance, LLP. Today, Blake and Don Sr. are the two partners of Woodard Insurance, LLP.
To hear Ronald Reagan talk about Blake's and Don Jr.'s teenage battle with the U. S. Department of Labor during one of his weekly radio shows in 1979, please click on the audio file below.
