Gallagher Buys D.C. Financial Firm

Insurance broker Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired Independent Fiduciary Services Inc. (IFS), a Washington-based institutional investment advisory firm.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1986, IFS provides investment consulting and other services to pension, welfare and other institutional investor clients throughout the United States. The firm’s clients span ERISA funds, including both Taft-Hartley and corporate plans, as well as public pension plans and other institutional investors.

Francis Lilly, Samuel Halpern and their staff will continue to operate from their current Washington, D.C., and Newark, New Jersey locations under the direction of Michael J. DiCenso, President of GBS Investment Consulting, LLC, a division of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s employee benefit consulting and insurance brokerage operations.

J. Patrick Gallagher Jr., chairman, president and CEO of Arthur J. Gallagher, called IFS “a terrific complement to our employee benefit operation’s retirement services practice.