Best Insured earns rare award from Erie Insurance
Chase Fulcher’s Best Insured agency here recently received an honor rarely given by Erie Insurance.
The agency received Erie’s F.W. Hirt Quality Agency Award this summer at Erie’s Annual Branch Meeting.
While Erie has operated in Kentucky for more than 10 years and is represented by scores of agencies, “This is the first (F.W. Hirt) award given in the state of Kentucky,” Scot Hughes, senior district sales manager for Erie Insurance, said.
“We give awards all the time for being profitable, hitting a goal, having a certain amount of production,” Hughes said. The F.W. Hirt award “is more of a culmination of, you have to do a lot of things well including the relationship with Erie. We value that you do an excellent job in production, community service, promoting the Erie brand, your brand, cooperation with customers and willingness to do things the way we ask them to do.”
“This is not an award you just win,” Jerre McNeill, VP, Regional Officer at Erie, said of the F.W. Hirt award. “You have to earn it. There is a nomination process. It’s a difficult award to achieve.
“The last time we had one awarded in this (six-state) region was 2023,” McNeill said. “That’s almost 1,100 agencies,” he said. “No one won the award in the region, let alone in Kentucky. It’s a really big deal.”
“Best Insured is a phenomenally great partner, defining ‘partner’ as someone who cares about the insured and does the right thing for the policyholder but also balances the needs of the company they write (insurance policies) for,” McNeill said, adding that that includes “giving good advice for policyholders — going out to homes, checking roofs, trees, saying, ‘You really need to fix that. You need to fix that roof, trim that tree. This handrail is loose, you should tighten it up.’ It’s not just writing the right kind of business (for Erie) but also talking to the insured about how to protect themselves.”
“If I could put Chase Fulcher in every one of my states, my life would be easier,” he said. “He’s always upbeat, never down, finds a way to do this. He mentors way more than any agent I have in any state I have — reaching out to other agencies, offering to train on a product, techniques. He is a phenomenal individual.”
Best Insured is an independent insurance agency that was founded in 2019 by Fulcher. It has offices in Henderson and Owensboro.
Based in Erie, Pennsylvania, Erie is a Fortune 500 that ranks as the nation’s 11th-largest auto insurer, 10th-largest home insurer and ninth-largest business insurer.
HCHS grad takes first place in state fair cake competition
Henderson County High School graduate Tyler Brocato won first place in the Professional Decorated Wedding Cake category at the Kentucky State Fair last month.
Brocato, a 2023 graduate of HCHS, is pursuing a double major in Culinary Arts and Baking & Pastry Arts at Sullivan University. He has already earned his Associate Degree in Culinary Arts and is nearing completion of his Associate Degree in Baking & Pastry Arts. He is seeking an internship placement as he works toward completing the program.
“Tyler is an incredibly hardworking and dedicated student,” Chef Jaelin Sandman, his instructor and competition coach, said in a statement provided by Sullivan University. “He is talented, but what stands out most about him is his attitude and willingness to learn. He is kind, humble and very easy to coach. He is always willing to accept feedback and use it as an opportunity to improve.
“Tyler genuinely wants to soak up as much knowledge as he can and is constantly looking for ways to grow his skills and become better,” Sandman said. “I’m very proud of what he has accomplished and excited to see where his talent and determination take him.”
Other achievements:
- Cast members of “1,000-lb Sisters” came to Blue Moon Stables and a five-minute clip featuring the local farm was shown on the TLC show. It aired Tuesday, Sept. 1. The clip was shot on Oct. 26, 2025, said Stacy Denton, who owns Blue Moon. The show came to Blue Moon because one of the sisters, Tammy, had always wanted to ride a horse, but in the past had been too big, Denton said. Click here for the clip featuring Blue Moon.
- Whitney Risley has taken a new job at Stock Yards Bank & Trust.
- Tacoholics recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary
