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About

In April 1969 Normand Dion, a veteran producer for the Richard Flynn Insurance Agency in Lynn, bought the agency from Mr. Flynn and renamed it Columbia Insurance. The agency under one name or the other has been a fixture in downtown Lynn for over 60 years serving the home, auto and business insurance needs of its customers.

In April of 1995 John Olson, who at different times served as both an underwriting and claims manager at Plymouth Rock Assurance Corp, left Plymouth Rock to start a brand new agency in Salem, MA. He named the agency Corporate Group Insurance (CGI). CGI specialized in providing group auto and home insurance programs to the employees of the high-tech and bio-tech companies that are abundant in Greater Boston. One of CGI’s unique features was the free on-site and Registry service it provided it’s clients.

In August 2001 John purchased Columbia from Norm and merged the two agencies together under the Columbia name. Columbia is still located in downtown Lynn and is still providing the free on-site service that CGI offered.

MA Inspection Stations Up and Running (Mostly)

Hopefully with the recent announcement that most inspection stations are up and running we will be able to put the inspection sticker saga to bed. I say most inspection stations because apparently some stations are experiencing more complex issues and are still off line. If you go to have your car inspected and the station is down you may have to go to another station depending on your situation. Here are the current scenarios.

Vehicles with March and April stickers now have until May 31, 2021 to get a replacement sticker.
Newly purchased vehicles registered on or after Tuesday, March 23, 2021, have until April 30, 2021, to obtain an inspection. Newly purchased vehicles must typically be inspected within seven (7) days of registration.

Customers who recently had an inspection rejection and are in the 60-day free retest window will be afforded one extra day for each day the system was unavailable. By my calculations that should be about 18 extra days since the system went down on March 30th and was not available again until April 17th.

Columbia in the Community

We are very proud to once again be a sponsor of the Central Square Christmas tree lighting and Holiday celebration. We have been a sponsor/participant of the festivities since moving to the Square in 2006. Here is a video Chris and I did promoting the 2020 Festival of Lights.

On behalf of everyone at Columbia Insurance, have a Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

See the 2020 City of Lynn Festival of Lights

From Our Blog

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One of the services we offer our customers is free Registry services. Yesterday was my turn to head over to the local RMV branch to...
I was inspecting a vacant house the other day when I came across knob and tube wiring.

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