Our History

This agency has been in existence since 1880 when it was founded by James R. Young. Mr. Young, who was also the first Vance County Clerk of Court, later sold the agency to become the first Commissioner of Insurance of North Carolina. Claude Hunter purchased the agency and one important account that this agency had the distinction to service was the North Carolina State Capitol Building, until the state began a program of self-insurance. Hunter later sold the agency to a group of men including Robert Lassiter & R. S. McCoin. This group later named the agency Henderson Loan and Real Estate Company.

On August 1, 1909 McCoin hired a sixteen year old named Alfred Benjamin Wester who was eager to begin a career in the insurance industry. Wester acquired the agency during the Depression in 1933 following McCoin’s disappearance. At this point the agency became known as Al B. Wester Insurance & Real Estate. In 1950 the name was changed to Wester Realty and Insurance and was later incorporated in 1954 following Al Wester’s death.

The agency was purchased from Wester’s estate by his son W. D. Wester, his daughter Dorothy W. Knott, and William Powell. This group late in 1977 acquired Southern National Insurance and Henderson Premium Finance Company from Southern National Bank. In 1991, the agency ownership was acquired by Thomas W. Frazier, III, John P. Wester and W. D. Wester, Jr. In 1995 the agency purchased the Coldwell Banker Real Estate franchise and began operating as Wester Insurance Agency and Coldwell Banker Wester Realty.