People

S.S. Nesbitt, a Southeastern insurance agency and division of EBSCO Industries Inc., has appointed Senior Vice President L. Dickerson (Dick) Fountain as market executive in Huntsville, Ala.

Over the past year, S.S. Nesbitt’s Huntsville office has aggressively expanded both its Property and Casualty and Employee Benefits group practices. The agency expects that growth to continue.

Prior to joining S.S. Nesbitt in 2014, Fountain was a founding partner of FPH Benefits, LLC and Fountain Parker Harbarger & Associates, LLC, serving as agency president for many years.

As an independent insurance agent in the Huntsville area for more than 30 years, Fountain said he has “a deeply rooted love for this area and for serving businesses with their employee benefits and property and casualty needs.”

Fountain has served as president of Huntsville Independent Agents, chairman of Alabama Independent Young Agents Committee and is a former board member of AIIA.

S.S. Nesbitt is an independent insurance agency based in Birmingham, Ala., with multiple locations in the southeastern U.S.

Atlanta-based INSUREtrust has added Amanda Lancaster as a Professional Lines broker on the brokering team of Executive Vice President Christiaan Durdaller.

Lancaster brings with her 15 years’ experience in all lines of property & casualty insurance with expertise in miscellaneous professional liability, architects and engineers professional liability, technology and cyber liability as well as management liability.

Prior to joining INSUREtrust, she assisted in setting up a start-up wholesale brokerage specializing in these coverage lines.

INSUREtrust is a national insurance wholesaler primarily focused on technology and cyber liability insurance.

Metro Atlanta-based InsuranceHub has promoted industry veteran Ed Hemmer to the role of associate vice president in charge of the tech-driven insurance agency’s commercial transportation division.

InsuranceHub launched the division in October 2017 to be solely devoted to the provision of commercial transportation insurance and advisement.

Hemmer came on board when InsuranceHub joined forces with CoverYou in April of last year. The team that Hemmer will soon oversee consists of seven commercial producers, who develop relationships with potential clients, and four account managers, who provide customer service to existing clients. The seven producers will advise clients on coverage options and pricing. The service team will be there to assist with any insurance needs or changes that businesses run into – including adding trucks to a policy, adding or removing drivers, and more.

Hemmer said the team will seek to assist its trucking and towing insurance clients by advising them about their potential risks and help clients manage those risks.

InsuranceHub is a technology-driven insurance agency that serves over 15,000 clients across the United States.

Alliant has added Georgia benefits veteran Josh Segars to its team in the Southeast.

As senior vice president within the company’s Employee Benefits Group, Segars will design and deploy customized employee benefits programs for Alliant’s growing regional client base.

Segars joins Alliant with 22-years’ experience in customized employee benefits options. Prior to joining Alliant, Segars was senior vice president with a national insurance and employee benefits consulting firm where he serviced a diverse base of clients with regional and national operations.

Segars will be based in the Alpharetta, Ga., office of Alliant.

Headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif., Alliant Insurance Services, Inc. provides property and casualty, workers’ compensation, employee benefits, surety, and financial products and services to clients nationwide, including public entities, tribal nations, healthcare, energy, law firms, real estate, construction, and other industry groups.

Reliance Partners, a commercial insurance agency headquartered in Chattanooga, Tenn., has promoted Laura Ann Howell to the position of chief operating officer.

Prior to the promotion, Howell began her career with Reliance Partners in 2015 as vice president, overseeing HR and finance.

She was promoted in 2017 to senior vice president overseeing operations.

Howell previously served as vice president for Thompson Appalachian Hardwoods where she co-founded a trucking company and freight brokerage.

Reliance Partners focuses on the transportation and logistics insurance space.