Business Moves

The Navigators Group

Rye Brook, N.Y.-based specialty insurer The Navigators Group said its principal underwriting agency subsidiary, Navigators Management Company, expanded its Navigators Re division by launching a professional liability reinsurance unit.

The Navigators Group said this new professional liability reinsurance unit represents Navigators Re’s fourth business unit — in addition to agriculture, accident and health and Latin American property and casualty.

Verisk Analytics

Verisk Analytics, a risk information service provider, has formed the Verisk Underwriting Solutions division to better support customers’ underwriting processes. “As the business requirements of our customers evolve, Verisk continues to innovate and align its considerable resources,” says Scott Stephenson, Verisk Analytics president. The new division provides the integrated capabilities and tools to better identify and manage risk, the company said.

American International Group

American International Group’s Chartis is merging its previous four major global geographic areas into three: the Americas, Asia and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).

“This simplified structure will permit closer coordination of the regions with the commercial and consumer teams, and it will allow us to put greater emphasis on growth economy nations by aligning them under our top regional executives,” said Peter Hancock, CEO of Chartis. “Profitable growth in developing countries is an essential component of our strategic plans to create greater value for all of Chartis’ stakeholders,” he said. “As Chartis continues to evolve as a company, we are deploying our global resources in a manner that will create a more efficient regional framework to improve delivery of our insurance solutions and add value for our customers.”

Separately, two AIG units — Chartis U.S. Accident and Health, and American General Life Companies — are merging their group benefits businesses. The consolidated unit, called AIG Benefit Solutions, will market insurance and benefits products for employees, employers and affinity groups. It will be composed of Chartis Corporate Benefits and American General Benefit Solutions.

ACE Risk Management

ACE Risk Management has created a national transportation industry segment to offer customized primary casualty coverage for this class. The coverage offered through ACE Risk Management’s specialty transportation segment will serve fleets in excess of 1,000 units, including self-insureds that administer their own claims and have retentions of at least $500,000.

Key Risk

Key Risk, a workers’ comp insurer and a member company of W. R. Berkley Corp., is expanding operations to Pennsylvania and is opening a new office in Harrisburg. Key Risk focuses solely on providing workers’ comp insurance and third-party administrative services to employers. The company said it is in the process of recruiting associates to provide insurance services to agents and clients in the state. The new office in Harrisburg expands the Mid-Atlantic regional footprint for Key Risk.

BMS Group

The U.K.-based broker BMS Group has opened an office in New York City. The firm said the Park Avenue office in Manhattan will be the base of Group CEO Carl Beardmore, who will now be spending the majority of his time in the United States. Larry Cantwell, executive vice president, will be the lead producer. The New York office is part of BMS’s effort to further strengthen its position in North America where it continues to grow its reinsurance business. BMS says that over the past 18 months it has appointed a number of personnel both in the U.K. and U.S., particularly in its modeling and analytics offering. BMS is also in the process of moving the servicing of all reinsurance accounts from London to Minneapolis.

Topics AIG