Business Moves

OneBeacon, Southern Marine & Aviation

OneBeacon Insurance Group announced an agreement with Houston-based Southern Marine & Aviation Inc. to represent OneBeacon’s International Marine Underwriters (IMU) division. Under the agreement, IMU will assume the new and renewal business written under a primary marine cargo program managed by Southern Marine & Aviation, effective Jan. 1.

Southern Marine & Aviation is specialty managing general writing commercial marine and cargo insurance. It is a division of Crump Insurance Services Inc. Southern Marine & Aviation has the capability to write cargo interests up to $50 million.

IMU, in New York City, offers ocean marine coverage for hull, marine liabilities, and private-pleasure yachts, as well as ocean cargo.

NYMAGIC, Southern Marine & Aviation

NYMAGIC Inc. said it is terminating its program management agreement with Southern Marine & Aviation on Jan. 1, 2008. Under the program management agreement, which commenced in August 2003, SM&A wrote ocean cargo business on behalf of NYMAGIC’s subsidiary, New York Marine And General Insurance Co.

A. George Kallop, NYMAGIC president, commented that the move gives the company more control over this business. “The cumulative results of the SM&A book during the term of the agreement have had little or no positive impact on the bottom line. Mutual Marine Office, a NYMAGIC subsidiary, has written ocean cargo insurance for more than 40 years and continued to do so very successfully during our relationship with SM&A. We concluded that going forward the company and its insureds would be better served by having MMO exercise complete control over ocean cargo production and underwriting.”

Darwin, Agency Marketing Services

Darwin Professional Underwriters Inc. and Wolf Professional Risk in Tampa, Fla., have agreed to acquire Agency Marketing Services Inc. of St. Petersburg, Fla.

The acquisition will be effected through a new Darwin affiliate, Evolution Underwriters, Inc. (EUI), to be headed by Boyd H. Wolf, as president, and David E. Gough, as senior vice president. With its headquarters in Florida, EUI has been created as a stand-alone entity focused on professional liability.

Brown & Brown, Dalton Insurance

A subsidiary of Florida-based insurance agency Brown & Brown Inc. has acquired Dalton Insurance Agency, of Glassboro, N.J.

Dalton Insurance Agency, with annualized revenues of approximately $2.5 million, is a retail commercial insurance agency serving New Jersey and neighboring states.

Agency principals Daniel Dalton and Jack Lynn and their staff will continue to operate from their existing Glassboro location as a freestanding Brown & Brown office, they said.

InsuranceNoodle, ACE USA

InsuranceNoodle Inc. announced a broker agreement with the insurance companies of ACE USA, under which ACE USA will provide workers’ compensation and specialized pollution liability insurance products to the more than 2,500 independent insurance agencies currently using InsuranceNoodle’s proprietary, online technology platform to write and service insurance for small commercial lines business across the country.