EP #130 Guarding Your Home: Inside Burke And Burke Insurance

A family crest, a knight with a shield, and a beeper-era origin story collide in a candid conversation with Kim Oztuna of Burke and Burke Insurance. We dig into what it takes for a local agency to thrive for four decades while staying human, accessible, and relentlessly focused on education. From Alexandria to Fredericksburg, Kim shares how a small, family-owned team scaled to four offices without losing the heart that keeps neighbors walking through their doors.

Kim opens up about her journey from restaurant work to licensed insurance pro and why teaching clients is still the most powerful policy feature. We unpack the real drivers behind rising premiums—supply chains, labor costs, medical inflation, and complex car tech—and clear up the myth that aging vehicles automatically mean falling rates. Then we get tactical: bundling home and auto for multi-policy savings, opting into telematics for behavior-based discounts, and shaping homeowners coverage so replacement cost and deductibles fit real life rather than guesswork.

The story goes beyond numbers. Burke and Burke’s community giveback turns every referral into support for the GAD Youth Center, investing in teens who often miss out on after-school resources. We also map out the agency’s full slate of products—personal lines, business owners coverage, and life insurance—and how a veteran staff brings decades of insight to claims, renewals, and those “do I have enough coverage?” moments. If you value service over the cheapest teaser quote and want clarity on how to save without sacrificing protection, this conversation is your roadmap.

Subscribe for more local brand spotlights, share this episode with a neighbor who keeps asking why their rate went up, and leave a quick review so others can find the show. Got a question about bundling, telematics, or setting the right limits? Drop us a note—we’d love to help.

Kim Oztuna 

Burke and Burke Insurance

dot.cards/oztunak 

burkeandburkeinsurance.com

info@burkeandburkeinsurance.com

+1 703-751-1001

4115 Annandale Road, Annandale, VA, United States, Virginia

Transcript

Speaker: 0:01

This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart. Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I'm excited to introduce you to my guest today. We've got Kim Oztuna joining us, and she is with Burke & Burke Insurance. Kim, welcome to the podcast. Thank you, Dori. I'm excited too. I'm elated that you gave me the opportunity to get myself and our business out there to the public. Amazing. Well, I'm looking forward to learning more about you and your business. So let's start there. Share with us all about Burke and Burke Insurance. Yes. So Burke and Burke is a family owned business. They've been around since nineteen eighty five. It started with Paul Burke as the owner, basically out of the trunk of this car with a beeper. If anybody remembers the good old beeper days. So they are getting ready to celebrate forty one years in business. They started out of Alexandria. They have since expanded. They have Alexandria location, Annandale. I work out of the Fredericksburg location. And then we also have one in Bowling Green. I've been with Burke and Burke for the past seven years as the director for the personal lines department. Although my insurance experience goes back to nineteen ninety two. Amazing. Forty one years. That's a really big achievement right there. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Quite a run. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, clearly doing doing all the right things to to have that kind of longevity. And so tell me about the agency motto. Yes. So at Burke & Burke, our motto is there is better protection behind our shield. So our logo is actually the Burke family crest. And so we came up with a little guy. I know I'm going to jump into the next question, but we're just going to roll into that. So this is our Sir Burke. You can see that he's holding a little shield with the Burke family crest on it. So just like the knights protect the castle, Sir Burke protects your castle. So he also protects your livelihood in the event that, you know, you have a devastating loss that could put you in danger. In ruins, we try to make sure that we provide the adequate coverage for you so that you are not stuck holding the bag and Sir Burke is there for your protection. So there's better coverage behind our shield here at Burke & Burke Insurance. I love it. I just love the branding so much with Burke & Burke. It's so much fun and I love that the company has fun with it and there's, you know, really strong meaning behind it too. I love it. Yeah. So Kim, I want to learn more about you. Tell me about your background. How did you get into this? So I was working in a restaurant business and the owner of the restaurant actually sold their business and opened up an Allstate agency. And that was back in nineteen ninety two when I joined them working for Allstate back in Annandale, Virginia. Within the first year, I got my insurance license for property and casualty, as well as my life insurance license. And the rest is history. It's definitely not something you wind up saying you want to be when you get older. Of course, like every other female, I wanted to be a teacher. But I do enjoy the industry. I love educating our clients. So many people pay premiums and have no idea what coverage they have. So we bring that extra special touch to them and take that extra time to go over their coverages, provide reviews and make sure that they have what they need. So it started in the restaurant business and then it progressed from there into the insurance business. I love that you mentioned that you originally wanted to be a teacher because you're really getting to do that in this business. You're educating your clients. And so you're, you're still getting to fulfill that. Yeah. Yes. Yes. And I have a lot of people say, I can definitely see that you could have been a great teacher. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I'm enjoying it. It's a great industry. Yeah. Amazing. So speaking of the industry, do you find that there are any myths or misconception about the industry or about Birkenberg specifically? So the insurance industry just in general, I guess, you know, the public understandably so doesn't really understand all of the factors that go into play when it comes to determining price. So, you know, we get those regular calls from the customers as to why their price increased. They haven't had any claims. Their car's getting older. They're getting older, but their price keeps going up. So, you know, there are a lot of driving factors when insurance companies establish base pricing. And the one thing that we've seen the past couple of years that's really been hitting our economy is inflation. So a lot of people don't understand that that is also a price point for insurance because when there's a claim, we have to rebuild or fix. So we're paying the price for the product. And when prices on product quadruple as they have, then of course our insurance unions have to adjust accordingly. So that's probably one of the biggest misconceptions with the insurance industry is that just because you're getting older, your price not necessarily is going to be going down because it depends on what the market's doing. Yeah. I'm really glad that you shared that because I imagine you hear it a lot, you know, like, I don't understand why are premiums going up? So thank you for explaining that to us. Yes. Yes. And real quick on that, there are some options that carriers do offer to the insurers to help, um, you know, take advantage of discounts, like making sure you bundle your auto and home with the same carrier to get that multi-policy discount. A lot of auto carriers now participate in what we call telematics. And that is a monitoring program that monitors driving habits. So if you have good driving habits, braking, acceleration, things like that, some of the carriers have as high as forty percent in discounts. So that's just one way that you can try to control some of your premium to take advantage of those discounts that that series have. Amazing. Amazing. I love that. Everyone can use that. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And so I understand that Burke and Burke does a lot to give back. So talk to me a little bit about that. What is your community cause? Yep. So one thing that we do here at Burke & Burke, like you said, is we do give back to charitable causes. So our current cause that we're running is every referral that we get into the agency, we will make a monetary donation. And the current cause is for GAD Youth Center that is here in Fredericksburg. Our current one is running through the end of August. And the youth center basically specializes in those kids from the age of twelve to sixteen. I know the owner had indicated that a lot of after school programs are not available for that age group. It's more for the elementary age students. So it gives them the opportunity to have some workshops for these preteens. help them, you know, navigate what they need to do if they plan on going into college or working a trade. So we definitely like to support those kind of causes. So that is our current cause. Amazing. Such a great cause. And that age group is sometimes neglected. So I love that. I love that you have partnered up with them. So thank you for that. Yes, thank you. So tell me, what is something that you wish the listeners knew about Burke & Burke Insurance? So as I mentioned at the beginning, it is a family-owned and operated business. There's been a lot of the insurance industries or colleagues that have sold their small agencies to bigger conglomerates. We still believe in being in our community, easily accessible, being part of our community. So I just want to say that we may not always be the cheapest price. And for those people that are going to be price shoppers are always going to be a price shopper. But those who are, you know, really looking for that true value with an agency, and especially a local agency, then we are the one for you. We offer, you know, an array of products from personal lines, like your standard auto and home, to business owners, products, to life insurance. We have about twenty staff. Most of us have ten, twenty, thirty years of experience. So you're going to get a great experience here at Burke and Burke. But the biggest thing I would probably push is that we are local. So you can walk in anytime to any of our four locations and we will accept you with loving arms. Amazing. Amazing. I love that community feel. I love that so much. And if the listeners, if they want to, if they want to meet up with you, if they want to learn from you, what's the best way to reach you? Yep. So you can either obviously stop by one of our locations. So we have a South Pickett Street in Alexandria, Annandale Road in Annandale, Plank Road, Route Three in Fredericksburg or Main Street in Bowling Green. Offices are open Monday through Friday from eight thirty till five. Our phone lines are open till six. So we do have that one hour overlap for those extra calls that people might have to do after work hours. Or you can call us at seven oh three seven five one one zero zero one. Or, of course, you can visit our website, www.BurkeAndBurkeInsurance.com. Amazing. Kim, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today and sharing Burke & Burke Insurance with us. Thank you. I appreciate it. And I did want to say one extra thing before we close up. Or should I say two extra things? I truly appreciate the opportunity to be the expert insurance contributor in Spotsylvania Living Magazine. So I'm elated to see where that's going to take us. And last thing, to all you out there, don't forget, there's better coverage behind our shield at Birkenberg Insurance. Please give us a call. We'd love to help you. I love it. Perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to fxbgneighborspodcast.com.