Nekema Inc., InsurePoint.com Complete Merger

New Jersey-based Nekema Inc. and Ohio-based InsurePoint.com Inc. have completed a merger.

InsurePoint.com was founded in 1996 by Bolton & Company in Pasadena and Atlantic Mutual Companies of New York.

Established in 1931, Bolton & Company have grown to become one of the largest privately held insurance brokers in the United States, currently placing in excess of $100,000,000 in premiums on behalf of its clients. Services include commercial insurance, employee benefits, risk management, and human resources administration. In addition to the insurance licenses it holds in 50 states, the company is a partner member of Assurex International.

Asked about the merger, Jim Bolton, a director of Nekema, commented that “an independent insurance agent will be able to go to their computer and access Nekema/InsurePoint through the Internet and be able to put in a simplified application and then send that to InsurePoint and route it to the four or five carriers we’d have signed up to quote small business. The risk would be scrubbed through different computer systems and make sure they’re legitimate. If everything is acceptable to each company, the quote would be returned to the agent within three to five minutes. The quotes will be lined up on a proposal screen with each company listed and their price for risk. You can select one of the companies and then the policy would be issued in under 10 minutes, in the mail that day. It takes a lot of the overhead and reduces the time. We have two companies signed up right now, with several more waiting.”

Bolton noted that the benefit to Bolton & Company, a minor stockholder, will be in reducing like any other independent agent, the overhead and funnel it to just a few companies. “The whole process will be streamlined. Nekema intends to contact agents all across the country and sign up. Agents can reduce their overhead and do their client a much bigger service.”

Nekema, founded in 1999 by the Kemper Insurance Companies of Long Grove, IL, and the Madison Consulting Group of Jersey City, is a business-to-business, e-commerce platform for property/casualty insurance agencies and carriers. It has services including InsurePoint.com commercial lines competitive market place, the Nekema Personal Lines competitive market place, and a variety of proprietary and private label implementations.

Nekema’s market place and proprietary systems are in more than 1,400 agency locations in 45 states and the District of Columbia, with more than 10,000 authorized professional users.

Products include small commercial BOP, workers’ compensation, commercial auto and umbrella; personal auto, homeowners’, and personal umbrella; and specialty coverages.

Nekema’s systems include features such as online new business applications, underwriting and appetite guidelines, quoting, binding, renewals, endorsements, referrals, and agency and carrier work flow support.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Agencies