Business Moves – Southeast
Digital, Strategic Benefit Solutions
Employee benefits agency Digital Insurance in Atlanta has acquired Strategic Benefit Solutions of Raleigh, N.C., and merged it with its local office of Digital Benefit Advisors (DBA). Strategic Benefit Solutions President Henry D. Stewart joins the DBA team in Raleigh. Strategic Benefit Solutions was founded in 2007 and serves a variety of small to medium-sized businesses. Stewart specializes in providing benefits to clients in the engineering, architectural and construction industries.
Fidelity National, Wright Flood
Flood insurance company Fidelity National Indemnity Insurance Co. is being renamed Wright National Flood Insurance Co. The name change must be approved by the Texas Department of Insurance.
Wright National Flood is a member of The Wright Insurance Group, owned by Aquiline Capital Partners. It was known as WRM America when it bought Fidelity National Indemnity’s flood insurance business in 2011. The name change is part of a corporate-wide initiative to unify the brands of The Wright Insurance Group and will have no effect on customer service, according to Henry Neal Connolly, president of Wright Flood.
Wright Flood has 650,000 flood insurance customers and writes business with 17,000 independent agents. Wright Flood is based in St. Petersburg, Fla., while the parent, The Wright Insurance Group, is in Uniondale, N.Y.
AmWINS, Mew MGU
North Carolina-based insurance wholesaler AmWINS Group Inc. has partnered with two insurance industry executives, Terry Younghanz and Richard Parks, to form a new managing general underwriter (MGU) focused on specialty insurance products. Based in Kansas City, the MGU will primarily underwrite specialty commercial property and casualty exposures.
Younghanz is the former president and chief executive officer of Rockhill Insurance Group, which he founded in 2005 and sold to State Automobile Mutual Insurance Co. in February 2009. Prior to founding Rockhill, Younghanz was with St. Paul Surplus Lines Insurance Co., RLI Insurance Group and GE Insurance Solutions.
Parks, former president of Rockhill’s Specialty Insurance Division, held responsibility for the underwriting divisions including construction, healthcare, environmental, umbrella and professional lines. Parks also served on several executive committees at Rockhill including risk, strategic planning, information technology and mergers/acquisitions.
AssuredPartners, Moore & Johnson
AssuredPartners is making its first foray into North Carolina by purchasing the Moore & Johnson Agency. The Raleigh, North Carolina-based Moore & Johnson is owned by Bingham & Ervin Inc., and is one of the state’s largest independent insurance agencies. AssuredPartners acquired the agency through its subsidiary, Dawson Companies. The Lake Mary, Fla.-based AssuredPartners is a portfolio company of the GTCR private equity fund.
Hub, Carrión, Laffitte & Casellas
Chicago-based Hub International Limited has agreed to acquire Carrión, Laffitte & Casellas, Inc. (CLC), an insurance brokerage firm in San Juan, Puerto Rico. CLC will become a new regional platform, doing business as Hub International CLC (Hub CLC). Jose Carrión, president of CLC, his management team and other CLC employees will join Hub at the San Juan office and at Hub’s in Miami.