Business Moves

NFP, Absolute Advantage, Vanorsdale Insurance

NFP Property & Casualty has acquired Lake Havasu City, Ariz.-based Absolute Advantage Insurance Services LLC. NFP also acquired San Diego, Calif.-based Vanorsdale Insurance Services Inc. Both deals closed in December. Terms were not disclosed.

Absolute will operate from the existing NFP office in Lake Havasu City, and Brian Castle will assume the role of account executive at NFP.

Vanorsdale’s president, Doug Galloway, will assume the role of director of NFP and will report to Paul Saich, California regional president at NFP. The newly acquired operation will remain in San Diego under the direction of Saich and NFP.

Absolute is a property/casualty agency that specializes in commercial and personal line services and employee benefits.

Vanorsdale is a property/casualty insurance agency that specializes in providing commercial and personal coverage and employee benefits to the San Diego and Los Angeles communities.

NFP Corp. provides employee benefits, property/casualty , retirement, and individual insurance and wealth management solutions.

Cross Insurance, Knapp Schenck & Co.

Cross Insurance, an independent insurance agency based in Bangor, Maine, purchased Boston-based independent agency Knapp Schenck & Com. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Knapp Schenck & Co. is a regional property/casualty retail agency providing insurance services to commercial and personal clientele. The agency is based in Boston’s financial district, with a branch office in Braintree, Mass. The firm has 33 employees and reports $35 million in premium volume.

Under terms of the acquisition, Knapp Schenck & Co. will retain its name and continue to operate with the same staff and leadership from Boston and Braintree offices.

Cross Insurance is an independent insurance agency serving 100,000 customers throughout the Northeast region. Cross Insurance, a subsidiary of Cross Financial Corp., provides insurance and financial products including personal and commercial insurance lines, employee benefits, surety bonds, risk management advice and counsel, and products focused on higher education and high net worth needs.

OVIA, Banach Insurance

Oswego Valley Insurance Agencies LLC (OVIA), an independent agency based in Oswego, N.Y. has acquired Banach Insurance Agency in Pulaski, N.Y. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Banach Insurance Agency is an independent agency offering personal and business property/casualty insurance. Cindy Banach, owner of the Banach Insurance Agency, plans to retire following the transaction. OVIA said it will move Banach Insurance Agency’s customer accounts to its office in the town of Mexico, N.Y. Kathie Hoffman, a Banach Insurance employee, will join the OVIA staff.

OVIA was founded in 1997 with the merger of Dowd & Harrington Inc. and Streeter & VanSanford. OVIA has 24 employees and serves more than 10,000 personal and commercial clients in New York State.

Eastern Insurance, Northwestern Benefit

Eastern Insurance Group in Natick, Mass., has acquired Northwestern Benefit Associates, an independent group benefits broker based in Boston, from the broker’s parent company Northwestern Mutual. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Eastern Insurance said Northwestern Benefit Associates’ Boston office will remain open and rebranded as an Eastern Insurance location. Upon completion of the transaction, Eastern Insurance will have 25 locations in New England. Eastern Insurance is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eastern Bank, an independent, mutually owned bank in Boston.

Eastern Insurance provides personal and commercial insurance products, surety, and employee benefits services. The firm was ranked 34th in Insurance Journal’s Top 100 Property/Casualty Agencies list in 2015, based on total property/casualty agency revenues for 2014.

Chestnut Hill, Rotatori

Chestnut Hill Insurance Group, an independent property/casualty insurance agency in Chepachet, R.I., announced that it has acquired Rotatori Insurance, an independent P/C agency also based in Chepachet.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Chestnut Hill was launched in 2013 by Agnone after leadership positions at The Hartford, Travelers, AIG, and Providence Washington.

CoreLogic, FNC

Real estate information provider CoreLogic is buying Oxford, Miss.-based FNC Inc. for $475 million.

CoreLogic, based in Irvine, Calif., announced the purchase Dec. 17, saying it wants to integrate FNC’s real estate appraisal software into its products.

FNC will maintain its operations in Oxford, where the company is building a $20 million corporate headquarters, promising to more than double its workforce to 600.

The sale is scheduled to close by March 31, with CoreLogic using cash and borrowing money to pay for it. The company said the FNC acquisition would add to profit in 2016, excluding certain fees and accounting items.

CoreLogic said the purchase price is 13.5 times FNC’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

CoreLogic said FNC’s software is used by 18 of the 20 largest American banks and connects to 80,000 appraisers, property inspectors and title insurers.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., The Hawk Agency, Brown Hobbs & McMurray Insurance, Managed Healthcare Solutions

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AJG) has acquired The Hawk Agency Inc. in Peoria, Ill.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Thomas D. Fliege and his associates at The Hawk Agency will continue to operate in their current location under the direction of Michael Pesch, head of Gallagher’s Midwest region retail property/casualty brokerage operation.

The Hawk Agency is a retail insurance broker providing commercial property/casualty, employee benefits, risk management consulting and personal lines insurance services for its clients throughout the Midwest.

In a separate deal, AJG also acquired Brown Hobbs & McMurray Insurance in Urbana, Ill. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Brown Hobbs & McMurray (BHM) is a retail insurance broker providing commercial property/casualty, employee benefits, risk management consulting and personal lines insurance services to clients in the Midwest.

Thomas Brown, Paul Hobbs, William Hobbs, Dick and Rich McMurray, and their associates will continue to operate in Urbana under the direction of Michael Pesch, head of Gallagher’s Midwest region retail property/casualty brokerage operation.

In another deal, AJG acquired Managed Healthcare Solutions Inc. in Atlanta. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Managed HealthCare Solutions (MHS) provides employee benefit consultation, management and brokerage services for clients throughout the southern U.S.

MHS specializes in cost management, employee engagement, and plan design and funding arrangements for group health insurance programs.

Mark Ilgenfritz and his associates will continue to operate in their current location under the direction of David Ziegler, head of Gallagher’s Eastern employee benefit consulting and brokerage operations.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. is a brokerage and risk management services firm headquartered in Itasca, Ill.

Brown & Brown (Virginia), Ocean Marine, Smith Insurance

Brown & Brown Inc. announced that its subsidiary Brown & Brown Insurance Agency of Virginia Inc. has acquired certain assets of Ocean Marine Insurance Agency Inc., Ocean Marine Insurance Agency of Massachusetts Inc. and Ocean Marine Underwriters Agency Inc. (collectively called “Ocean Marine”). Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Ocean Marine has annual revenues of roughly $2 million. The firm specializes in maritime insurance products.

Following the transaction, the Ocean Marine team will remain in its current Warwick, R.I., and Fairhaven, Mass., locations and will operate as a branch office of Brown & Brown’s “Flagship Group” maritime operations in Norfolk, Va.

In a separate deal, Brown & Brown Inc. also announced that its subsidiary Brown & Brown of Connecticut Inc. has acquired substantially all of the assets of Smith Insurance, an independent agency based in Niantic, Conn. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Smith Insurance provides personal lines and commercial insurance services in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Smith Insurance will continue to operate from its current Niantic location under the leadership of the agency’s executives Bill Budds and Mike Meeneghan.

The agency will report to Don McGowan, executive vice president of Brown & Brown of Connecticut Inc.

Brown & Brown (Florida), BenTrust

Brown & Brown of Florida Inc., a subsidiary of Brown & Brown Inc., has acquired certain assets of BenTrust.

This includes: Bentrust Financial Inc. d/b/a Bentrust Insurance Group; Bentrust AIB LLC, and Florida MGA LLC d/b/a Delta Dental MGA.

BenTrust was founded by Frank Carreras in 1999 and has annual revenues of roughly $4 million.

The firm provides a range of retail insurance products and services to clients throughout Florida.

Following the transaction, the BenTrust team will remain in their current Miami location as a branch of Brown & Brown’s existing Miami operations.

Brown & Brown Inc., through its subsidiaries, offers a range of insurance and related services.

Topics Florida Connecticut A.J. Gallagher