Business Moves

Cook Maran & Associates, one of New York and New Jersey’s largest insurance brokers, will acquire Gundermann & Gundermann, a third-generation, family owned company that’s grown into a top 25 New York insurer since it was founded in 1937.

Both agencies offer commercial, personal and employee benefit policies to individual and business clients.

Gundermann specializes in insurance for franchised car dealers, and through its continuing partnership with Direct Dealer Services, provides finance and insurance products to dealer clients.

This is Cook Maran’s second recent partnership with an area agency, having acquired New Jersey-based Mintz, Girgan & Brightly (MGB) in January. Similar to that deal, Gundermann & Gundermann will continue to do business under the Gundermann name, with existing management and staff in their current roles.

Customers will work with familiar faces in the agency’s Huntington, N.Y., office, with the added expertise of the combined agencies’ professionals at six offices across the tri-state area. In merging with Cook Maran, Gundermann also joins the national platform of Prime Risk Partners (PRP).

Maximum, an independent, Chicago-based excess and surplus lines wholesaler, has acquired Philadelphia-based transportation specialist Starpoint General Agency.

In business since 1998, Maximum is a national and surplus lines wholesale broker of specialty products and services. It is a full-service brokerage firm specializing in property, casualty, transportation, DIC, builders risk and professional lines coverage.

Kevin Long will manage the Philadelphia office and has more than two decades of insurance and risk management experience.

With Long’s leadership, the Philadelphia team will work to extend its reach eastward and use a full range of property and casualty capabilities, according to Maximum President and CEO Joe Messina.

Auto-Owners Insurance and Concord General Mutual Insurance have announced that their affiliation has been approved, effective April 1, 2017, by policyholders and all regulatory bodies.

Auto-Owners is a Lansing, Michigan-based A.M. Best A++ (Superior) rated multiline property and casualty insurer, operating solely through independent agencies in 26 states. Auto-Owners also owns a life company and an excess and surplus lines company.

Concord General Mutual Insurance is a Concord, N.H.-based property and casualty insurance provider through independent agencies in Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

“The combining of capabilities will allow us to expand our product and premium base and help support the Concord name in the [New England] region,” said Concord President and CEO Linda Day.

Risk Strategies Company, a privately held, national insurance brokerage and risk management firm, has acquired Mosse & Mosse Associates LLC’s commercial benefits and consulting operations. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

As a boutique brokerage and consulting firm founded in 1989 and based in Lynnfield, Mass., Mosse & Mosse provides both employee benefits and retirement plan consulting.

Mosse & Mosse’s clients span 37 states domestically as well as several foreign countries, competing in industries including automotive, farm equipment, printing and marketing, HVAC, insurance, industrial products, auto dealerships, power systems and food processing, among others.

Its plan types include defined contribution, defined benefit and non-qualified plans, and its retirement plan consulting services cover investment consulting, plan design and operational analysis, as well as regulatory and compliance consulting support.

In October 2016, Risk Strategies announced its purchase of TSG Financial, a Long Island, N.Y.-based firm with similar specialties in employee benefits, wealth management and retirement planning. That acquisition marked Risk Strategies’ first formal entry into retirement and financial planning consultancy.

Mosse & Mosse School and Municipality Insurance Services was not included in the acquisition of Mosse & Mosse Associates LLC.

TDC Risk Management, a Maumee, Ohio-based independent property and casualty insurance agency and risk management firm announced a partnership with California’s Highline Insurance.

Highline Insurance is an independent property/casualty insurance agency based in Carlsbad, Calif.