J.W. Allen has operated as a specialty personal lines insurer in the financial district of New York City since it was started by John Woodford Allen in 1928 and succeeded by his son, Tim. For more than 75 years, John and Tim were known to be a preferred access to Chubb Insurance on Wall Street and in greater Manhattan. John, from Bronxville, NY and Tim, who settled in Greenwich, CT, expanded their client base by word of mouth throughout Manhattan, Westchester and Fairfield counties.

In 2006, Tim sold J.W. Allen to his nephew, Bob Lawrence, and to Marshall Hendrian who together have over 40 years of collective insurance and executive management experience. At that time, Mr. Hendrian consolidated his three generation family agency clients into J.W. Allen. Since 2006, J.W. Allen expanded its team with some of the finest brokers available in the New York City market, invested in state-of-the-art technology for electronic (and paperless) commerce, tripled the insurance companies it represents, and expanded its licenses to service a client base spanning over 40 states.