P/C Insurer Trade Groups AIA and PCI Agree on Merger, New Name Starting Jan. 1

Members of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America and the American Insurance Association have approved a merger that takes effect Jan. 1, 2019.

The combined organization is set to have a new name, the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, with a membership representing 60 percent of the property/casualty insurance market.

PCI and AIA first disclosed they were discussing a merger in June. On Dec. 21 they announced that members had voted to approve plans to go ahead.

“APCI will reflect the broad diversity of the united membership and continue both organizations’ strong support for promoting and improving private competitive insurance market solutions and the U.S. state-based regulatory system through effective public policy engagement,” they said in a combined statement from Anthony Kuczinski, president and chief executive officer of Munich Reinsurance America, and chair of the board of directors of AIA, and Pete McPartland, chairman of the board, president and CEO of Sentry Insurance, and chair of the board of governors of PCI.

Both added that the combined trade association “will represent the full breadth of the industry, creating an even more unified and influential advocacy voice.”

Kuczinski and McPartland said that there is more work is ahead to work out merger details. In the interim, they said, both groups will maintain continuity for their members during the transition in terms of member services and “thought leadership.”

PCI alone has 350 member company groups (or 1,000 member companies) that write $220 billion in annual premium, or 37 percent of the nation’s home, auto, and business insurance market. David A. Sampson has been president and CEO of PCI since 2007.

AIA’s 330 companies write more than $134 billion in premiums each year. John Degnan, former long-time Chubb official, is AIA’s president and CEO. Leigh Ann Pusey stepped down in June 2017 as president and CEO after leading the organization since 2009.

Both groups lobby in Washington and the states, offer research and publications, and host conferences for members.

The merger will leave only two national groups representing primary property/casualty insurers on the national stage and in state legislatures: the new merged group and the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC). NAMIC represents more than 1,400-member companies that write $253 billion in annual premiums, or 40 percent of the market.

PCI was itself created in 2004 with the merger of two groups, the Alliance of American Insurers and the National Association of Independent Insurers.

This will be the second recent joining of national P/C insurance trade organizations. In August 2017, the American Association of Managing General Agents (AAMGA) and the National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices (NAPSLO) merged to create the new Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association (WSIA).

In 2018, the Financial Services Roundtable (FSR) and The Clearing House (TCH) announced plans to merge their association activities. FSR members include many of the same large banks that belong to TCH as well as insurance, asset management, finance and credit card companies.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Carriers Excess Surplus Market Property Casualty