Business Moves

Ascension, Walter L. Clark

Missouri-based Ascension Insurance Inc. acquired Walter L. Clark & Associates Inc., a California-based agency that specializes in agribusiness.

Walter Clark, founded in 1959, has offices in Fresno, Porterville and Visalia. Ascension said the move is part of its strategy to build a national platform of risk management, insurance and employee benefits firms featuring specialized market expertise.

PointeNorth, Hodges & Associates, Smith

Atlanta-based PointeNorth Insurance Group has acquired Hodges & Associates, an employee-benefit provider in metro-Atlanta.

The Marietta-based agency’s BondsPlus subsidiary, the Risk Management Continuum division and employee-benefits operation were purchased with an undisclosed amount of stocks and cash.Stan Hodges has been named senior vice president of the new PointeNorth Benefit Practice and sales manager.

PointeNorth also acquired Smith Insurance Services, a Marietta-based agency that offers property and casualty and life insurance products. It will operate as part of the NorthPointe Insurance Group and Ken Smith will serve as vice president.

Bill Skeeles, chief financial officer for PointeNorth, said the acquisitions are part of the company’s ongoing growth strategy.

PointeNorth was founded in 2010 out of the merger of TRC Stevenson and certain property and casualty assets of the former Merritt-McKenzie. With its latest acquisitions, the group now has locations in Atlanta, Decatur and Peachtree City.

Hub, Redcliffe

Hub International Ltd., has acquired Redcliffe Financial Group, a Vancouver, Canada-based employee benefits and life insurance brokerage firm. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Redcliffe specializes in group benefits, pension plans, life insurance and living benefits and related products and services such as risk management

R-T Specialty, American E&S

Chicago-based R-T Specialty, the wholesale brokerage unit of Ryan Specialty Group, completed its acquisition of American E&S Insurance Brokers (AES) from Wells Fargo Insurance Services.

RT Specialty acquired the operating assets, including eight AES office locations: San Francisco, Fresno and Irvine, Calif., New York, Denver, Atlanta, Nashville and Seattle. R-T Specialty has said it will also hire nearly all of the employees in those offices.

With this acquisition, R-T Specialty now has 22 office locations across the country.

Wells Fargo Insurance Services said the sale allows the company to focus on its core retail operations and other niche businesses.

Acentria, Advanced Comp

Insurance agency Acentria Inc., headquartered in Destin, Florida, has acquired another Florida firm, Advanced Comp, a workers’ compensation insurance agency.

Fielding Dickey, president and founder of Advanced Comp, and his team will continue to operate in Lakeland and Boca Raton, according to the announcement.

In addition to its Florida offices, Acentria has an office in Atlanta.

Buckner

Utah-based The Buckner Co. opened a new office in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

The new location has eight full-time employees and is managed by Bradley K. Nielson and Douglas Ball, two long-time area insurance professionals.

Iroquois, Plymouth

Yankee Insurance agency, of Plymouth, Mass. has joined The Iroquois Group network.

Confie Seguros, NII

Confie Seguros has acquired NII Brokerage, an agency with 26 offices concentrated in Upstate New York.

Confie Seguros is a private equity-backed firm that is building a nationwide brokerage business focusing on Hispanic insurance buyers.

The firm said NII’s significant presence in New York serves as a platform for Confie Seguros to expand throughout the Empire State, as well as into Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

With the addition of NII, the company said it will generate about $150 million in annual revenues.

Appalachian, Reliance

Tennessee-based wholesale insurance broker Appalachian Underwriters Inc. has obtained the assets of Reliance Administrators, Inc., a Rock Hill, South Carolina wholesaler that specializes in workers’ compensation, commercial lines and niche programs.

Robert Arowood, president of Appalachian Underwriters Inc., said that Reliance has actually been part of AUI’s business for 18 months but will now officially be merged.

The Rock Hill office will become an AUI satellite office.

Topics Florida New York