Business Moves

Auto Club Insurance, MEEMIC

Auto Club Insurance Association, a Dearborn, Michigan-based insurer, reported it has agreed to acquire MEEMIC Insurance Co. and its insurance agency affiliate, MEEMIC Insurance Services Corp.

ACIA is the second largest provider of auto insurance in Michigan based on net premiums written. It offers personal lines insurance products through 725 captive agents and about 1,000 independent agents located throughout the Midwest. ACIA is an affiliate of AAA Auto Club Group, which provides membership, travel, and financial services to 4 million members in eight Midwest states.

Formerly known as Michigan Educational Employees Mutual Insurance Co., MEEMIC is headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan and provides personal and umbrella insurance to employees of educational institutions. It is owned by GMAC Financial Services.

MEEMIC’s workforce includes 70 captive agents in Michigan.

Following the closing, MEEMIC will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of ACIA. It will be managed separately from ACIA’s existing insurance operations and continue to operate under the MEEMIC name. The transaction is expected to close early in the second quarter.

BrickStreet Mutual

Workers’ compensation insurer BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co. wants to expand into Kentucky, Virginia, Alabama, Pennsylvania and Illinois.

President and Chief Executive Officer Greg Burton says the West Virginia-based company plans to apply in those states over the next couple of months to offer workers’ compensation coverage. He says the coverage initially would be for West Virginia-based energy companies that operate in those states.

BrickStreet was spun off from a state agency in 2006 and had a monopoly on workers’ compensation in West Virginia until July 2008.

Zurich Integrated Products

Zurich North America Commercial will begin accepting new business in 11 South Central and Southeastern states through its new Zurich Integrated Products unit, which services commercial customers in between the small-to-middle market segments.

Agents and brokers can submit new business from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

Zurich launched the Zurich Integrated Products unit in fall 2008 for businesses generating between $5 million and $25 million in annual revenues.

Zurich Integrated Products initially launched in the Midwest and North Central regions of the country last fall. The unit will continue to expand its reach until it is accessible nationwide in the third quarter of 2009.

Ascension, Bartlett Agency

Kansas City-headquartered Ascension Insurance, Inc. has acquired Dennis Bartlett agency of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The Bartlett agency specializes in medical malpractice coverage and will join Employers Mutual, Inc., a member of the Ascension group of companies based in Stuart, Florida.

Ascension offers insurance and employee benefits products and programs, as well as brokerage and risk management services to middle-market companies nationwide. Ascension is led by president and CEO Leonard P. Kline, Jr. The Ascension insurance agency has 20 locations nationwide. Together with its private equity partners, Parthenon Capital and Century Capital Management, Ascension said it expects to grow to $200 million in revenue over the next four years.

AmWINS

Charlotte, North Carolina-based insurance wholesale brokerage AmWINS Group, Inc. has acquired three medical stop loss wholesalers. The firms acquired are American Stop Loss Insurance of Worcester, Mass.; Brokerage Services, Health Benefit Solutions of Benicia, Calif.; and Insurance and National Insurance Wholesalers of Houston, Texas.

The acquisitions create the nation’s largest wholesale broker of medical stop loss insurance, according to AmWINS. Terms were not disclosed.

The current management teams will continue to lead day-to-day activities for their companies – Gerry Gates and Walter Coolidge for ASL, Rebecca Bocek for HBS and Elizabeth Ogletree for NIW. Mark McGuire, the founder of NIW, will lead the combined operations.

Guy Carpenter, Collins

Guy Carpenter Co., a leading risk and reinsurance specialist, has agreed to acquire John B. Collins Associates, Inc., a privately-held company and the seventh largest reinsurance intermediary in the world.