Change Without Changing: The Rush and Bresnahan Story

The story
In 1957, Patrick Bresnahan III opened an insurance agency on High Street in Holyoke and built it one client at a time, sometimes knocking on five doors a day. Over nearly seven decades, it grew to two locations, employed four generations of the family at once, and became known as much for its community service as for its policies. Sam Hanmer, president of Rush Insurance Group, calls it a legendary agency.

When no one in the family was positioned to take over, the Bresnahans faced the choice so many independent agencies face today. They turned down private equity offers and chose Rush instead.

Our approach
An acquisition announcement tells readers who bought whom. We saw a bigger story: a respected local institution choosing continuity over a payout, and a buyer whose success depends on changing as little as possible.

So we built the story around both sides of that decision. The Bresnahan family explained why their father’s legacy and their employees came first. Sam described an acquisition model built on keeping each agency’s people and local character in place. The detail that brought it home came from a longtime client. Two and a half years after the acquisition, he hadn’t noticed anything had changed.

We pitched the angle to BusinessWest and shot supporting video to carry the story across Rush’s own channels.

The result
BusinessWest’s feature gives Rush third-party validation of what sets it apart. It also honors a family business that helped define insurance in the Pioneer Valley. As Eileen Bresnahan put it: “It’s the end of an era, but the continuation of a tradition.”

Read the BusinessWest feature →https://businesswest.com/issues/nov-9-2026/#p=4