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Our History

The Preferred Group (TPG) was founded in 1988 by Thomas P. Collins, CPA. Strategically located in the Capital District of New York State, The Preferred Group consists of three corporations including:

  • Preferred Group Plans, Inc. (PGP)
  • Preferred Data, Inc. (PDI)
  • NY Preferred Brokerage, Inc. (NYPBI)

For over 20 years, The Preferred Group has been one of the Capital Districts leading business consulting firms and“best in class” providers of a wide array of business products and services. TPG has recently formed a strategic sales and marketing alliance with the Watchful i, expanding its already diverse portfolio of products and services to offer crisis and risk management solutions designed to provide a means towards helping organizations to become safer and reduce liability.

  • Benefit Services
  • Insurance Services
  • Insurance Brokerage
  • Anonymous Warning and Response Systems
  • Payments Processing
  • Payment Systems
  • Data Entry
  • Scanning and Image Document Storage systems

Featured amongst our prestigious client base of over 350, including over 220 school districts alone, is NYSUT, the largest teacher’s union in New York State.  Additionally, The Preferred Group is well known throughout New York’s Capital District as an innovator in bringing value added services to the market place.  Our various products and services are diverse enough to handle practically every aspect of your business and share one common goal, unequaled customer service. 

 

Biographies

Thomas P. Collins, CPA

An employee benefits specialist with over 30 years of design experience, Thomas P. Collins is the President and CEO of The Preferred Group. He was the founder, and for ten years, the Executive Director of the CSEA Employee Benefit Fund, serving over 350,000 plan participants.

Mr. Collins co-designed the vision plan for the Governor's Office of Employee Relations in New York, which is still in use by State employees, including Management Confidential employees. Mr. Collins is past Treasurer of the Capital District Physicians' Health Plan, Vice President of the Mason Insurance Company, an off-shore captive company providing stop-loss health insurance and Vice Chair of Capital District Physicians' Universal Benefits, Inc.

Thomas Collins, Jr.

Having been with The Preferred Group for over 15 years and serving as the Chief Operating Officer, Thomas P. Collins, Jr. oversees all daily operations of the company. Prior to becoming COO, Tom served in the capacity of Assistant Vice President.

Tom has been a certified Accident Life and Health insurance agent since 1998, and is directly responsible for designing a wide spectrum of Employee Benefits Plans. He spearheaded the creation of several of Preferred’s innovative business solutions including the highly efficient Payments Processing unit and the valuable Claims Management scanning process.

Mr. Collins is very active in several Capital Region organizations in the business community including the Center for Economic Growth (CEG), NYS Business Council, as well as several local Chambers including Saratoga County, Southern Saratoga, Rensselaer and Colonie, where he also served on the Member Benefits Committee. Additionally, Tom has had the honor of Guest Speaker for the NYS Association of Towns and has been an Employee Benefit Plans presenter for various NYSUT Member organizations. Collins graduated from SUNY Potsdam in 1992.