Business Moves

PURE Risk Management

PURE Risk Management LLC, based in White Plains, N.Y., is expanding its Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange (PURE), a member-owned reciprocal insurer, to offer comprehensive, customized property and casualty insurance coverage to responsible owners of well-built, high-value homes in Texas. The company will offer its multiple policy lines – home, automobile, jewelry and art, personal excess liability and watercraft – as a comprehensive coverage solution for qualified individuals and families. In Texas, PURE’s high value homeowners policy includes $50,000 of coverage for lost, misplaced or stolen jewelry at up to $25,000 per item.

In addition to Texas, PURE recently began offering coverage in Maryland and Washington, D.C. PURE also serves members in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Florida and South Carolina, and has obtained licenses in Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina and Georgia.

Builder Agent Network

Builder Agent Network (BAN), a Dallas-based provider of insurance programs for home builders, has been endorsed by the Texas Association of Builders (TAB) as its preferred member service provider for property and liability insurance products.

Builder Agent Network is a managing general agent for several insurance companies and distributes insurance products through a network of approved agents that have met stringent requirement guidelines and have extensive knowledge and experience of the building industry.

BAN’s property and liability insurance products are available to Texas home builders and light commercial general contractors through this network of experienced agents.

BAN was founded in 2008. Qualifications for the group include years of experience with the residential and commercial building trade and a commitment to the industry. Founding members include Capitol City Insurance Agency, Austin, Texas; David Tate Insurance LLP, Lubbock, Texas; Hotchkiss Insurance Agency, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston, Texas; JDW Insurance, El Paso, Texas; Swantner Gordon Insurance, Corpus Christi, Texas; and Whitaker Insurance, San Antonio, Texas.

TWFG, Vela Insurance

The Woodlands, Texas-based The Woodlands Financial Group Inc. (TWFG) has acquired the Vela Insurance Agency Inc. of Pearland, Texas, which was formerly owned by Jerri Vela.

TWFG is a retail and managing general agency specializing in property/casualty and life/health insurance, and financial planning, and is on Insurance Journal’s list of Top 100 Property and Casualty agencies in the nation.

Caliber Collision

Caliber Collision Centers, an Irvine, Calif.-based operator of collision repair facilities in California and Texas, has acquired Auto Body Experience located in El Paso, Texas.The new Caliber Collision El Paso location, situated on Gateway Boulevard on the east side of the city, has been operating as a collision repair shop for approximately four years. The location is Caliber Collision’s first in El Paso.

ISU, Tom Stewart

San Francisco, Calif.-based agency network ISU International has expanded into Texas with the addition of ISU Tom Stewart Insurance located in Katy, Texas. As a member of the ISU Network, ISU Tom Stewart Insurance Agency gains the marketing tools, carrier access, and preferred underwriting advantages of a national brokerage organization, while maintaining independent ownership and its local community ties.

The ISU Network, founded in 1979, consists of more than 100 independently owned and operated offices from coast to coast and ranks number four in Insurance Journal’s 2009 list of Top 100 Independent Agencies with more than $1 billion of written premiums.