Shelter Insurance has a long history of serving Grant County’s insurance needs, and Jeri Lynn Wells has been a part of that history. Wells presented at the July 18 chamber coffee at Grant County Senior Center and said she has been in the insurance business in Ulysses for 30 years, working for previous agent Lana Long Anderson for 23 years before taking over seven years ago.
Friday was her second time to host chamber coffee, and she gave a history of Shelter Insurance.
“Shelter started off as MFA Mutual Insurance Company, this was a small group of employees and salesmen all connected in some way to the Missouri Farmer’s Association as exchange managers or officials in local farm clubs,” Wells said. “They began selling automobile insurance January 1, 1946, as hundreds of thousands of young men returned to the states from military service around the globe.”
At the time, the roads were crowded with new cars following World War 2 as families with wartime savings had more disposable income and Missouri drivers were subject to new financial responsibility laws.
“Drivers lined up at MFA Mutual offices to buy auto liability insurance,” Wells said. “Some agents loaded their car with applications, parked at strategic locations in their communities, and wrote applications ‘as quickly as I could handle the pencil,’ one agent recalled.”
By the end of the first year of operations, according to Wells, the company had 400 agents and ranked 15th of premium production out of 129 insurance companies in Missouri. The company was one to reckon with and found the policies were built on sound, common sense principles. The company changed its name to Shield and Shelter Insurance in 1981, finally becoming simply Shelter Insurance.
JD Power and Associates ranked Shelter as the highest in customer satisfaction among auto insurers in the Central U.S. for the eighth straight year in 2025.
“Shelter received this honor in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025,” Wells added. “This study asked customers to provide feedback about their overall satisfaction with their auto insurance company in several categories and Shelter ranked number one in trust, price for coverage, people, and product coverage offerings.”
Wells tells her customers who leave for cheaper rates she understands things happen.
“We certainly do not have the cheapest auto rates right now,” Wells said, adding she has suffered losses because of it. “But I do like to advertise that all those companies have distanced themselves from their agents; I can still call the claims branch manager in Topeka, Kansas, and have a conversation with him about maybe something we disagree on or something my clients and I spoke with him about, and nine times out of 10, they’ll send some out to reinspect, they’ll take another look, they’ll have another adjuster take a look, so we really pride ourselves in still having that communication and that relationship.”
Shelter was also recognized on the Forbes list of World’s Best Insurance Companies in 2025.
In other business:
•Chamber Director Marieta Hauser gave an update on ongoing and upcoming events, including the Women Of Purpose Diaper Bank in coordination with Grant County Library. Take new diapers to the library through July 31, and the Women of Purpose will match the donation.
•Dream First Bank’s Third Annual Rise Up For Families Golf Tournament is Sept. 13, with a shotgun start at 9 a.m. The four-person scramble costs $100 per person and includes a burger and brat lunch, two drink tickets and two mulligans. There’s also hole-in-one chance to win $10,000 sponsored by Western State Insurance.
•Ulysses Rotary is having its annual scholarship golf Tournament with an 8:30 a.m. registration and 9 a.m., shotgun start August 2. Registration is $200 per team and includes lunch. All proceeds go towards scholarships for Ulysses High School students. Contact Bentwood Golf Course for more.
•The Ladies Golf Association’s Guys and Dolls Golf Tournament is August 9, with a limit of 36 teams.
•Sabrina Gaddis with Grant County Community Foundation said they are already gearing up for the 14th Annual Grant County Gives November 2-9. Local match funds are combined with $50,000 from the Patterson Family Foundation, and Gaddis anticipates 36 local non-profit organizations participating.
The Patterson Family Foundation also gave the community foundation itself $50,000 for its Unrestricted Fund, which the GCCF will be raising money for that fund during Grant County Gives.
“The more money we have in that unrestricted fund, the more grants all the nonprofits in the community get to apply for,” Gaddis said. “You will see two different Patterson match funds this year.”
•The next chamber coffee is Friday on the patio behind the civic center at 10 a.m.
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