At 75, Slocum Agency is still a family business

His first day on the job, Phil Slocum was given some advice from his father, George.

It was 1978. The father and son were sitting in a conference room at Slocum Real Estate and Insurance, the Warwick agency George started some 29 years earlier, shortly after finishing his service in the U.S. Navy.

Phil had grown up around the business. As a kid, he hung around the office on the weekends, tidying up and helping out however he could. Though he was never pressured to join as he grew older, he watched and absorbed his father’s entrepreneurial spirit and, naturally, found his place alongside his dad.

And there he was, his first day on the job – officially.

Across the table, George looked Phil in the eye.

Then he said: “The first day you put the commission dollar ahead of the customer’s need is the last day you’ll ever be in this business.”

“I looked at him. I said, ‘Yeah OK, Dad. Yeah. I got it,” Phil recalled to The Warwick Beacon on Tuesday.

But George hammered his point home. He leaned over the table, looked his son in the eye once more, and repeated his words.

“The first day you put the commission dollar ahead of the customer’s need is the last day you’ll ever be in this business.”

The second time, he added: “Not because I tell you, but because they’ll tell it. There will be it all over everything you do, and you will never be successful.”

Now, more than four decades later, that last day has still never arrived.

This month marks the Slocum agency’s 75th anniversary – a milestone Phil credits to his father’s enduring words of wisdom, and, simply put, the business’ commitment to being there for customers in the community.

“We’re dealing with people – real people – who have a challenge that they need help with, and we’re here to figure out how to help,” Phil said.

“And that core value statement, it flows true within everything we do in the company and everyone who works here knows that’s how we feel passionately.”

A third generation at the helm

These days, those working alongside Phil, now 63 and co-owner and president of the business, include his own son, Nick, and his nephew, Christopher, both 39 and each of them co-owners and vice presidents. (Phil’s brother, Robert, retired from the company in 2019.)

The third-generation agency is buoyed by a total staff of about 30 employees, who work out of an office at 333 Centerville Road.

It’s quite different from the days when George started the business as a “one man show” out of his home in Buttonwoods, as Nick described.

But, eventually over the years, the agency moved to an office in Wilde’s Corner, then onto Greenwich Avenue in Apponaug to meet its growing needs before settling into its current location.

George primarily focused on the insurance side of the business in its early days, as was typical at that time in the industry, according to Phil.

First Century 21 in RI

But that changed in 1977 when the family – with George’s wife, Hazel, working the agency’s real estate end – became the first Rhode Island franchisee of what was at the time a young but promising national company: Century 21.

And through the years, both Nick and Christopher found their own ways into the family business after scooping up their licenses during their college years.

“For me, my drive and my passion behind all of this is really helping people,” said Christopher, who works on the insurance side of the company. “We spend a lot of the time talking to clients and helping them through whatever struggles they're dealing with.”

Nick can still recall making his first sale as a real estate agent. He represented a neighbor who sold a home in Buttonwoods to a family of six.

“They were basically saying how appreciative they were and how much of a difference we made in their lives, being able to find a home that could house their family in their price point and things along those lines,” he said. “And I very quickly became addicted to that feeling of helping out clients and helping people in the community.

“I was hooked right out of the gate with that first sale, and [I] haven’t really looked back since.”

According to Phil, there will be some celebratory events to mark the agency’s anniversary this year, including an August gala for employees and close associates, though details about others are still in the works.

Through Slocum Cares, a nonprofit launched last year, there will also be a charity golf tournament at Potowomut Golf Club on Oct. 7, Nick said.

As for whether there will be a fourth generation leading the agency down the line someday, well, those details are still in the works, too.

“They’re probably going to handle it the same way we did and say, no pressure,” Phil said, referring to Nick and Christopher and their own children. “If it happens, that’s terrific. If it doesn’t happen, then follow your passion.”