Erie Insurance is a Pennsylvania-based insurer that sells auto, home, business, and life insurance exclusively through independent agents. Known in the industry as ERIE, the company has kept this same distribution model since it opened its doors in 1925.
Website: erieinsurance.com
Head office address: 100 Erie Insurance Place, Erie, Pennsylvania 16530
Founded: 1925, Erie, Pennsylvania
Founders: H.O. Hirt and O.G. Crawford
Company type: Erie Insurance Exchange is a policyholder-owned reciprocal insurer managed by Erie Indemnity Company (Nasdaq: ERIE)
Business focus: auto, home, business, and life insurance
Regions served: 12 states and the District of Columbia
H.O. Hirt and O.G. Crawford started the business in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1925 after leaving jobs at another insurance exchange. They built the company around independent agents and personal service, and that structure has carried through nearly a century of growth. Key milestones include:
Each expansion kept the same agent-first approach rather than a shift toward direct sales. That consistency is part of how the firm frames its own history today.
The insurer sells four main lines of coverage, all placed through local independent agents rather than a direct sales team. Its offerings include:
All four lines run through the same distribution model. A local agent handles the sale, the paperwork, and the ongoing relationship, rather than a call center or a direct-to-consumer app.
Erie Insurance runs on a two-part structure common among reciprocal insurers. Erie Insurance Exchange is the policyholder-owned entity that issues coverage, and Erie Indemnity Company manages it, handling sales, underwriting, and policy administration in exchange for a management fee.
Indemnity trades publicly on Nasdaq under the ticker ERIE, while the exchange itself stays owned by its policyholders. The firm sells only through independent agents, a model it has kept since 1925. Agents work out of local agencies across the company’s 12-state footprint, which gives customers a local point of contact instead of a call center.
Erie Insurance groups most of its community work under the Erie Giving Network. The network covers employee volunteering through the Erie Service Corps and a matching-gifts program for staff donations.
The company also funds the H.O. Hirt Scholarship Fund, named for its co-founder, and the F.W. Hirt Employee Emergency Fund, which supports staff facing financial hardship. Its Investing in Our Future program grants money to education nonprofits focused on school readiness and youth development.
On the environmental side, the firm says its 100 Trees Project has planted street trees in Erie neighborhoods, a partnership it has extended with the Arbor Day Foundation.
In 2025, ERIE folded much of this giving into the newly launched Erie Insurance Foundation, funded by a $100 million commitment from Erie Indemnity Company. The foundation now oversees the group’s long-term charitable strategy.
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