Business Moves

AmWINS/Managing Agency

Charlotte, North Carolina-based national wholesale insurance broker AmWINS Group, Inc. has acquired The Managing Agency Group- Employee Benefits, a division of insurance broker Willis HRH.

MAG-EB is a wholesale broker of employee benefit plans for small and mid-sized employer groups of 2 to 300 employees. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Donegal/Southern Mutual

Pennsylvania-based property/casualty insurer Donegal Mutual has agreed to an affiliation that brings Southern Mutual Insurance Co. into Donegal’s insurance pool and gives the Georgia insurer additional products to sell.

According to Donald H. Nikolaus, president of Donegal Mutual Insurance Co., and Allen R. Green, president of Southern Mutual Insurance Co., Donegal Mutual has agreed to provide quota share reinsurance to Southern Mutual for up to 100 percent of its current and future business. Donegal Mutual will include this business in its pooling agreement with Atlantic States Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Donegal Group Inc.

Closing is subject to a number of conditions, including approval by the Georgia Commissioner of Insurance. The firms expect the transaction to close in the fourth quarter.

Donegal Mutual and Atlantic States have participated in a pooling agreement since 1986 under which substantially all of their premiums, losses and expenses are pooled and each company is allocated a given percentage of the combined underwriting results.

The proposed transaction includes other features:

Donegal Mutual would purchase a $2.5 million surplus note of Southern Mutual;

Donegal Mutual would license to Southern its WritePro and WriteBiz technology, which permit agents to underwrite applications and issue policies through the Internet;

Southern Mutual will retain its mutual status, its Georgia domicile and its current office location with the same management, employees and agents;

Donegal Mutual will assist Southern Mutual in offering additional insurance products; and

Designees of Donegal Mutual would become a majority of the members of Southern Mutual’s board of directors.

The Donegal Insurance Group had $1.0 billion in assets and $489 million in surplus at June 30. The Donegal Insurance Group has net written premium of $452.2 million in 2008.

Donegal Mutul arranged a similar pooling agreement with Sheboygan Falls Mutual of Wisconsin in 2007. In 2008, Donegal acquired the insurer.

Southern Mutual ‘s marketing territory is Georgia and South Carolina. Southern Mutual had net written premiums of $12 million in 2008.

Donegal Mutual believes the affiliation will enable both insurers to increase their personal lines business in Georgia and South Carolina and begin to offer commercial lines.

First Horizon/Sandin

First Horizon Insurance Group, Inc., a subsidiary of First Tennessee Bank, the principal subsidiary of First Horizon National Corp., has agreed to acquire the insurance business of Sandlin Insurance Agency located in Germantown, Tennessee.

Truman Sandlin, owner of the agency, will continue to service the accounts on behalf of First Horizon Insurance Group, Inc., according to the firm. Sandlin will be joined by his daughter Lori Sandlin.

With offices in Atlanta, Ga., Nashville, Knoxville, Morristown, Chattanooga and Memphis, First Horizon Insurance offers auto, home, commercial insurance, medical malpractice and employee benefits and bonds to clients throughout the Southeast.

Brown &Brown/Roussel

Florida-based insurance agency Brown & Brown has acquired the group employee benefits division of Roussel & Associates of Brentwood, Tennessee.

The division, which has annualized revenues of $1.7 million, will relocate to Brown & Brown’s existing Nashville operation, under the leadership of Danny Simmerman.

Owner and founder Paul Roussel and the other members of Roussel & Associates’ group benefits team will join the team in Nashville.

Brown & Brown, Inc. is one of the largest independent insurance agencies in the U.S.