Business Moves

TLLA, Crawford

Claims management provider Crawford & Company has acquired certain assets of Technical Loss Adjustment and Appraisal LLC (TLAA) of Chicago. The firm’s five experienced adjusters have joined Crawford’s Global Technical Services organization, Crawford announced.

TLAA, established in May 2005, includes executive general adjusters who handle complex commercial claims, including international, multi-million-dollar losses. The group’s adjusters have extensive expertise in a number of industry claim sectors, including power and energy, engineering, building and construction, appraisal consulting, time element and other exposures.

Crawford GTS has grown to include about 500 adjusters, with more than 150 in the United States alone. GTS serves reinsurers, the corporate market, major loss/catastrophe divisions of composite insurers such as the London market and Lloyd’s syndicates, as well as captives, risk managers and their brokers.

TLAA relocated to Crawford’s GTS office at 1900 E. Golf Road, Schaumburg, Ill., effective Nov. 2.

Beazley

Beazley is expanding its U.S. property insurance business with the creation of a dedicated Builders’ Risk team to be located in Chicago, Ill.

Colin Rose, a senior underwriter from the London Construction and Engineering team, will move to Chicago to lead the initiative and will be joined there by Tom Warner, who comes to Beazley from Allianz Global.

Mark Bernacki, head of Beazley’s U.S. Property unit commented, “This is a natural progression for Beazley. The Construction and Engineering business has established teams in London and Singapore. We believe there will be comparably strong demand for the skills of specialist underwriters in the US market.”

He said Rose and Warner have more than 45 years of combined expertise in the construction sector.

The Builders’ Risk product rounds out Beazley’s current admitted and surplus lines fixed property offerings, meeting the vast majority of brokers’ property insurance needs. The team will focus on owners and contractors who are engaged in construction in all areas of the United States, as well as their interests overseas. Their appetite will include all types of buildings, civil engineering, oil and gas, power, and light and heavy industries.

In the United States, Beazley’s underwriters focus on writing specialist insurance products in the admitted market, backed by Beazley Insurance Company Inc., an admitted carrier in all 50 states; and surplus lines risks, backed by the Beazley syndicates at Lloyd’s. Beazley Insurance Company Inc. is rated A by A.M. Best.

Rockhill

Rockhill Underwriting Management, based in Kansas City, Mo., has established a new underwriting division focused on serving specific segments of the healthcare industry.

The unit will be led by Rob Jurgel, who has 20 years of experience in the industry, including the past 14 years at AIG, most recently as healthcare underwriting manager Lexington National Branch.

Working with Jurgel will be Tracy Schulz and Justin Magee. Schulz has 20 years of healthcare underwriting experience, primarily with Reliance and Medical Protective.

Magee came to Rockhill from Lexington where he worked closely with Jurgel in the Healthcare Division.

Rockhill Healthcare will initially focus on long term care risks and five focused classes of miscellaneous facility business, all written on a non-admitted basis.

Distribution will be through a limited network of surplus lines wholesale brokers and will be exclusive to those with an expertise and commitment to healthcare business.

AmTrust, American Capital

AmTrust Financial Services Inc. is making an investment in American Capital Acquisition Corporation in connection with the acquisition by ACAC of GMAC’s U.S. consumer property/casualty insurance business.

AmTrust said it will initially invest approximately $42.5 million in a convertible preferred security.

GMAC’s consumer property/casualty insurance unit sells automobile coverages through independent agents in the U.S. It utilizes a network of 10,500 agents in 12 core markets, as well as exclusive relationships with 23 affinity partners.

GMAC’s U.S. consumer property/casualty insurance business had net written premium in excess of $1 billion in 2008 that encompassed all 50 states. Its coverages include standard/preferred auto, RVs, non-standard auto and commercial auto. The investment includes 10 statutory insurance companies that write the automobile coverages for GMAC.

American Capital Acquisition Corp. is an affiliate of American Capital Partners LLC, a newly formed acquisition corporation. The principal of ACAC was a founder of AmTrust Financial Services Inc. and Maiden Holdings Ltd.

Aon, Carpenter Moore

Global insurance broker Aon Corp. has agreed to acquire Carpenter Moore Insurance Services Inc., a provider of executive liability risk management services and a wholly-owned subsidiary of The NASDAQ OMX Group Inc.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Under the terms of the agreement, Chicago-based Aon and New York-based NASDAQ said they will enter into a five-year exclusive marketing agreement in the area of liability insurance. The two organizations also will collaborate on the annual Carpenter Moore Benchmarking Survey.

Carpenter Moore was formed through the merger of Carpenter Moore and NASDAQ Insurance Agency in 2005. It serves technology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, durable goods, transportation, energy and financial services industries.

A.M. Best deemed Aon the number one broker based on brokerage revenues in 2007 and 2008.

Earlier this month, Carpenter Moore reported it had sold its Western region book of 60 directors and officers liability insurance clients to the California insurance agency, Woodruff & Sawyer.

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