The Founder

Meet Jeff.

Jeff Friedlander has been placing insurance for New Jersey contractors since 1987.

Construction isn’t a sideline in the agency’s book — it’s where the agency concentrates, with the carriers, the markets, and the expertise to back it. That’s why it knows which carrier will look at a roofer, which one won’t touch excavation, and which one will quote a residential remodeler with a difficult mod.

Jeff wrote The Contractor’s Insurance Handbook because the questions kept repeating. Contractors were signing contracts with insurance requirements nobody had explained to them, buying policies with exclusions nobody had pointed out, and finding out at claim time. The book is the answer to the fifty questions he’d already answered fifty times.

He holds the Construction Risk & Insurance Specialist (CRIS) designation — the industry credential specific to construction risk.

He works out of the Flemington office, and he still takes the calls.

Jeff Friedlander, founder — NJ Contractors Insurance Center
Author
The Contractor's Insurance Handbook — by Jeff Friedlander The Contractor's Insurance Handbook A plain-English guide to the coverage every NJ contractor actually needs — GL, workers comp, tools, and the gaps that quietly sink a business. Expert tips to save you premium and keep you out of trouble. See the book on Amazon →
Leadership

The people behind your program.

Jeff Friedlander, CRIS

Founder & Senior Producer

Founded the agency and still writes new business himself. In New Jersey insurance since 1987, with the CRIS and workers-comp designations and two published books — focused on the coverages and audit traps that quietly make or break a contractor.

Becky Merritt

Senior Commercial Lines Account Manager

Becky has worked in insurance since 1986, with her entire career focused on commercial lines. She’s the first point of contact for new contractor clients and handles ongoing service and certificates of insurance — the day-to-day work that keeps jobs moving and paperwork off a contractor’s desk.

The Team Behind the Scenes

Our CSR team handles your servicing — policy issuance, mid-term changes, COI delivery, renewals, claims facilitation, payment management. They’re the people you’ll talk to most often. We staff them appropriately so you’re not waiting days for a callback.

On the technology side, our AI infrastructure handles intake, quoting, carrier routing, and workflow automation. That means we can quote a multi-line contractor program faster and more accurately than agencies still doing it manually — which most agencies still are.

How We Work

We’re an independent agency. We work for you, not for any single carrier. We have access to Travelers, Nationwide, The Hartford, AmTrust, Allstate, Nat Gen, Cumberland Mutual, Farmers of Salem, Plymouth Rock, Preferred Mutual, Merchants Mutual, Geico, Foremost, and Next — plus E&S markets for harder placements. We match your business to the right market — not the other way around.

We’re honest about what we do well and what we don’t. If you’re an NJ contractor running NJ work, we’re built for you. If you do meaningful work in NYC construction, we’ll be straight with you about why a specialist will serve you better, and we’ll refer you to one we trust.

We don’t shop your renewal every year just to look busy. We touch your renewal proactively, we tell you when the market changes, and we move you when moving makes sense — not when commissions on the other side look better.

The Crazy Rich Contractors Note

Separately from this insurance agency, Jeff also operates Crazy Rich Contractors — a NJ-based program helping contractors use AI to grow revenue. That business is run under a separate legal entity, on a separate domain, with separate operational staff. It’s not affiliated with this insurance agency for insurance purposes and access to it is not conditioned on being an insurance client. If you’re curious, you’ll find it at CrazyRichContractors.com.

Where We Are

Home office: 361 Route 31, Suite 1301–1302, Flemington, NJ 08822. Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM. After-hours claims support available through the carrier emergency lines we provide to every client.

We serve all 21 NJ counties. Most of our contractor accounts are in Hunterdon, Somerset, Morris, Warren, Sussex, Monmouth, Ocean, Burlington, Bergen, and Middlesex — but we write business statewide.

Beyond NJ

We hold producer licenses in all 50 states — including PA, NY (with the caveat noted on the GL page about NYC construction), DE, and CT. For NJ contractors with cross-border work, we handle that as part of your normal policy structure.

Ready When You Are

Want to talk? Coffee in Flemington works too.

Hit the quote button. Or just give us a call — the number is in the header.