Business Moves

Edgewood Partners, Wholesale Trading

Edgewood Partners Insurance Center (EPIC), its co-founder John Hahn and industry investor Jeff Cappel have formed Wholesale Trading Co-Op Insurance Services (WTC), a boutique wholesale brokerage firm that will serve approximately 30 large, privately held retail insurance brokers in the United States.

The firm will be owned jointly by its retail insurance broker members, WTC executives, its sponsors and select financial partners, including Islington Holdings, the investment firm managed by Cappel. WTC will begin placing business by the end of 2010 with five to seven retail insurance broker members.

WTC will work directly with its retail insurance broker members to develop a placement strategy to serve clients, increase transparency between the retailer broker and specialty insurance markets, reduce frictional costs, and develop exclusive programs and binding authority facilities for its owner members, the company said. Initially offices will be located in San Francisco, New York and Atlanta.

Old Greenwich Consulting, A.J. Gallagher

Insurance broker Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired New York-based Old Greenwich Consulting Group for an undisclosed sum.

Old Greenwich offers employee benefit consulting and brokerage services, including life insurance and group benefits, for middle-market clients in the eastern United States.

The firm’s staff will continue to operate in New York City under the direction of David Ziegler, eastern regional executive vice president of Gallagher’s employee benefit consulting and brokerage operations.

William Gallagher, Paradigm Associates

Boston-based broker William Gallagher Associates has acquired Paradigm Associates, a health and welfare benefit plan consulting group headquartered in Braintree, Massachusetts, for an undisclosed sum.

Paradigm Associates had $3.4 milllion in revenue last year, has a client base of 85 organizations with particular expertise in health care, technology and financial services.

Philip J. Edmundson, chairman and CEO of William Gallagher Associates, said the merger “reinforces our continued belief” that Massachusetts “remains the best place to anchor a business whose strategy focuses on growth companies involved in… High Tech, Life Sciences, Health Care and Renewable Energy.”

Sword Insurance

Sword Insurance, which provides policy administration and related services, has relocated it headquarters to Sleeper Street in Boston. The move brings all of its Boston staff into a single location to better accommodate growth plans, Sword said.

Russell Bond

Upstate New York-based wholesaler Russell Bond & Co. has opened a branch office in Massachusetts. The new office, located in Westfield, is headed by Barbara Simpson.