Business Moves

TAPCO

Insurance agents in Alabama and Louisiana may now access the services provided by TAPCO Underwriters Inc. (TAPCO), a Burlington, N.C.-based MGA that specializes in high-volume, middle-market excess and surplus insurance lines.

The company says it has the ability to electronically generate, deliver and archive quotes, binders, policies and endorsements, which allows for coverage to be bound within minutes.

TAPCO initiated an aggressive national growth plan in 2007 when the company’s territory covered eight states – Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington D.C. The company has since expanded to a total of 19 states, adding California, Delaware, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, Mississippi, and now Alabama and Louisiana.

TAPCO has the binding authority for more than 1,000 classes of business, including all types of general liability; general, specialty and artisan contractors; property; vacant property and builder’s risk; dwelling/homeowners; miscellaneous professional and directors and officers liability; liquor liability; and, personal umbrella among other lines.

Combined Agents (CAA)

Austin, Texas-based Combined Agents of America LLC (CAA) reports that Central Insurance Companies, Texas Mutual Insurance Company, Travelers Insurance and The Hartford were named the 2009 “Top Four Company Partners” at its recent quarterly board meeting.

Additionally, CAA announced a more than 10 percent premium growth with Central Insurance in 2009.

CAA’s “Top Four Company Partners” award is given to the four companies that CAA placed the most written premiums with out of the over 100 standard insurance companies it represented in 2009. CAA projects that it placed more than $400 million in written premiums in 2009.

CAA recently expanded into Oklahoma and Kansas and is committed to further expansion across the country, the group’s announcement said. It now has 44 agency partners.

Protective Specialty

Indianapolis, Ind.-based Protective Specialty has created a new Professional Liability Division, which joins the company’s portfolio of nationwide products by offering Miscellaneous Professional Liability.

A subsidiary of Protective Insurance Company, which is rated “A+” (Superior) by A.M. Best, this is Protective Specialty’s initial foray into the Professional Liability market. The plan in the near term is to grow a broad-based Professional Liability Division offering a number of Professional Liability products.

Ed Velasquez has been hired to lead this division. He is a 30-year insurance industry veteran who started his career at AIG as a professional liability underwriter. He has a broad background in the management and underwriting of diverse products across Errors and Omissions, Directors and Officers Liability and various other financial product lines at market leaders including AIG, CNA and Zurich.

The team includes industry veteran Nathaniel Aiken who has 23 years of Professional Liability experience at market leaders AIG, ACE and Fireman’s Fund.

Protective Insurance’s parent company is Baldwin & Lyons Inc., which was incorporated in Indiana in 1930. Through its divisions and subsidiaries, Baldwin & Lyons, Inc. (B&L) specializes in marketing and underwriting specialty and niche property and casualty insurance as well as the assumption of property (primarily catastrophe) reinsurance.

B&L’s principal subsidiaries are: Protective Insurance Company (Protective) with licenses in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and all Canadian provinces and Sagamore Insurance Company (Sagamore), which is currently licensed in 47 states.

Topics Texas