Business Moves

Arthur J. Gallagher, Joseph James & Associates

Illinois-based insurance brokerage and risk management services firm, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., has acquired Joseph James & Associates of Dublin, Ohio. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Established in 1989, Joseph James & Associates offers a wide range of employee benefit consultation and brokerage services, which includes all lines of group benefits and short and long term disability services.

The firm also specializes in plan design and development, alternative funding and risk analysis, health care utilization and trend analysis, and dedicated account management and claim resolution services.

Fritz Neuhart and his associates will continue to operate in Dublin, Ohio, under the direction of William Ziebell, north central regional executive vice president of Gallagher’s employee benefit consulting and brokerage operations.

Arthur J. Gallagher; Bowen, Miclette & Merry

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. also has acquired the operations of Bowen, Miclette, Britt & Merry of Arkansas Inc. in Fort Smith, Ark., from Bowen, Miclette & Britt Insurance Agency LLC in Houston, Texas, and Philip H. Merry Jr.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Bowen, Miclette, Britt & Merry of Arkansas is a retail insurance broker offering risk management and insurance products and services to their clients primarily in Arkansas and Oklahoma. The firm specializes in the healthcare, manufacturing, retail and poultry processing industries.

Philip H. Merry Jr. and his staff will continue to operate in their current location under the direction of Mitchel Brashier, Southeastern Regional manager of Gallagher’s retail property/casualty brokerage operations.

Third Coast Underwriters

Accident Fund Holdings Inc. has created Third Coast Underwriters – a new, Chicago-based, specialty markets operation that will offer workers’ compensation insurance for underserved markets that have complex risks.

Third Coast Underwriters will offer policies written on the paper of one of the Accident Fund Holdings Inc. workers’ compensation insurance companies, with a $150,000 minimum premium for specialty markets such as construction, emerging markets (i.e. clean energy and green jobs), non-trucking transportation (i.e. garbage haulers and bus drivers) and mergers and acquisitions.

Marguerite Dixen is the president of Third Coast Underwriters. The company is appointing agents located in Illinois and Missouri with plans to grow regionally and nationally.

Dixen has 25 years of experience in the property/casualty insurance industry. Before starting Third Coast Underwriters, Dixen was senior vice president for the construction division at SeaBright Insurance Co. in Chicago. Dixen is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter, as well as an Associate in Risk Management.

Third Coast Underwriters is backed by Accident Fund Holdings Inc., which is headquartered in Lansing, Mich.

Smart Choice Agents Program

The North Carolina-based Smart Choice Agents Program, which says it currently provides personal and commercial lines markets for some 3,000 independent agencies in 32 states, is expanding into six additional states. The program is moving into Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New York, Washington and West Virginia.

The Smart Choice Agents Program, founded in 1994, provides access to personal and commercial lines property and casualty markets for agents who cannot meet the production requirements of those companies.

The Smart Choice Agents Program is a wholly-owned program of Worldwide Insurance Network Inc., headquartered in High Point, N.C. It currently operates in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Old Republic, PMA Capital

Chicago-based Old Republic International Corp. acquired PMA Capital Corp., headquartered in Pennsylvania, in a stock-swap transaction valued at around $365 million. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter, pending approval by PMA’s shareholders, and regulators.

PMA Capital Corp. is the holding company for several subsidiaries that specialize in workers’ compensation and other lines of property/casualty insurance as well as third-party administrator and other fee-based services.

Chicago-based Old Republic is an insurance holding company with subsidiaries that market, underwrite and provide risk management services for a wide variety of coverage, principally in the property and liability, mortgage guaranty and title insurance fields.

Following the closing, the PMA Capital will continue to do business as the PMA Cos. and will maintain its corporate headquarters in Blue Bell, Penn.

Medical Mutual of Ohio

A non profit entity, Medical Mutual of Ohio, has been selected to operate the state’s temporary high risk pool program, created through the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the healthcare reform package passed by the U.S. Congress in March. The pool’s mission is to provide uninsured people with pre-existing conditions the opportunity to purchase more affordable health insurance.

Approximately $152 million of federal money is coming to Ohio through the Act, according to Ohio Department of Insurance Director Mary Jo Hudson. Medical Mutual estimated that with the available funding they could cover more than 5,000 Ohioans through the duration of the program, with individuals paying a standard rate premium for their coverage. No state funds will be used to provide this coverage.

Topics Ohio Virginia Illinois A.J. Gallagher Arkansas