Midwest Agencies – North Risk Partners, Bearence Management Group – Merge

Minnesota’s North Risk Partners has merged with Bearence Management Group, another independent insurance brokerage firm with over 80 employees spread across three Midwest locations – Mendota Heights, Minn., Des Moines, Iowa, and Omaha, Neb – and a mix of product and service offerings similar to North Risk’s.

This new partnership grows the merged group to over $50 million in revenue, 265 employees, and 21 locations across three states.

North Risk Partners CEO Chris Meidt remains CEO of the merged company and Bearence’s managing partners, Dan Seemuth and Stan Hamann, have joined North Risk’s executive leadership team.

Seemuth and Hamann have maintained their equity in the company and have also taken on division president roles for their respective offices; Seemuth is overseeing the Des Moines and Omaha locations, and Hamann is responsible for Mendota Heights.

For the last three years, North Risk and Bearence have been majority owned by the same capital investment group, BroadStreet Partners, a firm headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.

BroadStreet’s model allows its business partners to operate autonomously and maintain local ownership while it provides financial and legal support to drive growth through acquisitions and organic sales. BroadStreet has partnerships with 20 other independent insurance brokerages across the country, making North Risk Partners-Bearence part of a top five network of brokers in the U.S.

During his first years with the company, Meidt led strategic and functional alignment of North Risk’s administrative departments, including accounting, communication, technology, and operations, with a focus on building an infrastructure that would drive profitability and be scalable for fast-paced growth. He also implemented a unified sales program across the company’s geographically diverse locations to drive business development and solidify a common brand identity.

Since 2014, the firm has completed nine acquisitions, and North Risk Partners itself is a product of three independent agencies – St. Cloud, Minn.-based Apollo Insurance, Rochester-based C.O. Brown Insurance, and Johnson McCann in St. Paul – merging in 2012.

Meidt is working on finalizing several more acquisitions this summer and anticipates the company growing to over 300 employees by the end of 2018.

Bearence has become a division of North Risk Partners, adopting the North Risk Partners brand as its own effective immediately.

Source: North Risk Partners

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Agencies