Business Moves

Texas Mutual, AgriComp

Texas Mutual Insurance Co. has launched a new workers’ compensation purchasing group for the agriculture industry, AgriComp. Any licensed Texas agent can submit qualifying clients for consideration.

AgriComp is open to qualifying seed merchants, cotton farming gins, feed manufacturers, fertilizer manufacturers, grain elevators, hay dealers, grain dealers, feed dealers and other segments of the agriculture industry. Group members get a discount on their workers’ compensation insurance, an industry-specific workplace safety plan and, potentially, dividends.

AgriComp purchasing group applicants must be members of the Lone Star Agribusiness Association.

“Our industry contributes to the $80 billion enterprise we call Texas agriculture,” said Ben Boerner, president of Lone Star Agribusiness. “This program gives our members a cost-effective way to protect their employees, their businesses and, ultimately, their bottom line with workers’ comp insurance.”

MarketScout Wholesale

Online insurance marketplace Market-Scout and Glenn Hargrove, former CEO of Crump Inc., have teamed up to launch MarketScout Wholesale (MSW), which will combine wholesale brokerage and managing general agency services with new distribution technology.

Hargrove and MarketScout said they see a need in the marketplace for a wholesaler that conducts business in a different format than others. MSW will build on the MarketScout Exchange technology platform but offer more than access to markets.

MSW’s role will be to provide marketing capabilities and technology for brokers to help add value to transactions, Hargrove said.

Hargrove will serve on the MSW board of directors and as president of MSW, which is based out of Dallas. “It’s a joint venture between myself and MarketScout,” said Hargrove. “It was really about bringing together my background as CEO at Crump and the traditional wholesale brokerage model. We wanted to build a wholesale market that uses the traditional practices but also brings in new ways of operation.”

In addition to Texas, MSW plans three regional offices – western, central and eastern. MSW intends to offer 10 to 12 products eventually, but it is currently focusing on professional liability and financial lines. Hargrove said there are not any classes MSW will not touch, as long as the circumstances are right.

MSW will be different than the MarketScout Exchange, which works as an online marketplace for agents to access different coverages through market specialists. However, MSW will use the technologies that MarketScout Exchange has developed. MSW will also provide wholesale solutions to MarketScout Exchange.

Topics Texas