Business Moves

Keystone Insurers Group, Rowland, Rudd, Peel & Holland

Pennsylvania-based Keystone Insurers Group (KIG) has added three more Kentucky agencies as partners.

Those agencies are: Rowland Insurance Agency Inc., with locations in Tompkinsville and Glasgow; Rudd Insurance Inc., which is located in Madisonville and owned by Allen Rudd, Bob Werner and Tim Quinn; and Peel & Holland Financial Group, based in Benton, with additional offices in Mayfield, Paducah and Murray. This additions bring to 14 the number of Kentucky agencies that have joined KIG this year.

Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Northumberland, Pa., KIG is owned by its employees and more than 200 franchise partners in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. Each partner is an independent agency. With property/casualty premiums exceeding $1 billion, KIG is ranked sixth on Insurance Journal’s 2009 list of Top 100 privately held property/casualty agencies.

PURE

Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange (PURE), a member-owned reciprocal insurer, has begun to offer property/casualty insurance coverage on high value homes in Rhode Island. PURE will also offer automobile, jewelry, art, personal liability and watercraft insurance to high net worth individuals and families.

PURE already writes insurance for members in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida and South Carolina, and has obtained licenses in Texas, Alabama, North Carolina and Georgia.

Since PURE began writing policies in 2007, its members have reported average savings of more than $3,200 on their annual insurance costs. PURE tailors its policies to the high net worth market. PURE’s High Value Homeowners policy includes $50,000 of coverage for jewelry that is lost, misplaced or stolen at $25,000 per item.

PURE has partnered with two independent Rhode Island agencies with offices throughout the state. Starkweather & Shepley Insurance Brokerage Inc., based in East Providence, has served Rhode Island for more than 130 years and is the 36th largest privately owned insurance agency in the United States.

PURE also has partnered with Middletown-based Carey Richmond & Viking.

As a reciprocal insurance exchange, PURE is member-owned. Members pay a surplus contribution of 10 percent of their high value homeowners and watercraft premiums and 4 percent of their premium for all other policies for each of the first five years of membership. PURE and the PURE Group of Insurance Cos. serve more than 5,000 members. PURE is an admitted insurance company and products and prices are regulated by the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation.

ASPN, ISU International

Chicago-based ASPN, the Agency Specialty Products Network Insurance Agency, formed a new alliance with San Francisco-based ISU International and the ISU Network, one of the nation’s largest group of independently owned and operated agencies.

The new marketing alliance expands the ISU Network’s national presence and allows both ASPN and ISU to offer independent agents a suite of products and services.

ISU provides its more than 100 ISU Network member agents access to exclusive ISU programs and over 300 insurance companies. ASPN is a subsidiary of Aon Corp. and operates as a marketing arm for more than 20 provider companies, including carriers, managing general underwriters and insurance services companies.

“ISU will provide our independent agencies ways to increase revenue and gain a competitive edge,” says Paul Granata, ASPN’s western regional vice president.

“Indeed, the combination of exclusive goods and services from ISU, our model offering our members direct access to standard carrier products and services plus ASPN’s suite of specialty carriers and products can be a significant and unique competitive advantage for the qualified independent agent,” added Steve Pearson, president of ISU International.

Topics Kentucky