Fresh out of high school, Daniela Robustelli went to work for Allstate. She took to the insurance business right away — she loves helping people. For fourteen years she worked at a branch in the Bronx. In 2016, she ventured out to Rye and managed Ralph Borsella’s office on Elm Place. Earlier this year, she bought the agency.
“Ralph still comes in a few hours a day and consults, and we all look forward to having him there because he brings so much knowledge and experience,” she said with affection. “His dad ran the agency before him, and we have inherited clients who’ve been with this office for 50 years. It’s a legacy I want to continue,” said the mother of two “amazing” daughters, ages 21 and 15.
While she enjoys mentoring her team, Robustelli feels the most important job of an insurance agency owner is to educate clients. “I find out what they need. I outline how we’re going to protect them.” She added, “We do policy reviews regularly because circumstances change.”
On September 1, 2021, the day after Hurricane Ida flooded and devastated parts of Rye, including the first floor of the Allstate office at 21 Elm Place, right next to Blind Brook, which had overflown, she and the rest of the Allstate team set up temporary workstations on the second floor.
“We worked late into the night and for days after. We were all wearing masks because of Covid. So many of the people who came to us had no insurance. It was heartbreaking,” recalled Robustelli.
Two years later, she looks back at those days and feels proud that she and the team were able to help so many people out. “Every renter learned that they needed insurance; we learned even more ways we could be of service in difficult times.”
Robustelli is on a first-name basis with many clients and when a good cause, like a food drive, needs support, she emails clients. Helping people in need helps us all is the ethos she lives by and that’s the legacy she’d like to leave.
