Broker News & Notes

Gallagher Sues

Reinsurance: Casualty (08/01/11)
Reinsurance: Facultative (08/01/11)
Cutting Edge Mixed With History (09/01/11)
Reinsurance: Analytics (08/01/11)
For Whose Merger the Bell Tolls? (06/07/11)

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has filed a lawsuit charging former rival Palmer & Cay Holdings Inc. with wrongfully hiring away the head of Gallagher's St. Louis health-care brokerage operation in 2003. Gallagher accuses Palmer & Cay, acquired by Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia Insurance Services Inc. last year, of improperly inducing Jeffrey Combs to leave Gallagher in 2003 and to solicit his former clients and Gallagher co-workers to move.

Aon Buys Unit

Aon Corp. subsidiary Affinity Insurance Services Inc. has acquired a 50-person division of JLT Services Corp. for an undisclosed sum, the Chicago-based brokerage announced. The JLT division, with offices in Chicago and Latham, N.Y., specializes in program administration for association-sponsored insurance programs. Most of the 50 people making up the division will join the Aon operation, the company said.

Beecher Purchase

Beecher Carlson has acquired Eugene, Ore.-based Cramer & Giles Insurance Inc. and merged it with its Portland, Ore., operation, JBL&K Risk Services. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Beecher Carlson operates as JBL&K Risk Services in the Pacific Northwest, following its merger with the company in May 2005. The agency will continue to conduct business as Cramer & Giles. Dan Romain, president of JBL&K, will assume responsibilities for integration and ongoing operations of Cramer & Giles.

Claims Product

Guy Carpenter & Co. Inc. has announced that it is formally launching its Electronic Claims File initiative for reinsurers in the London market. ECF improves the current, antiquated London claims process, which requires reinsurance brokers to ship paper documents from regional offices to London and then distribute them by hand for review and agreement by underwriters.

Renewals Report

Willis Group Holdings has released its reinsurance review of the marketplace for the April 1, 2006, renewals. According to the report, the pressure on retrocession, marine, energy and the U.S. property markets shows no sign of abating and may be potentially worsening as some reinsurers hold back their remaining limited capacity for the July 1 renewals. Outside of these key distress areas, market capacity remains adequate with mute price movements and strong balance sheets enabling primary companies to retain more risk.

Merger Announced

Beecher Carlson and Gulfport, Miss.-based SawyerFoster Insurance Group, have announced that the two companies have successfully joined forces. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The agency will conduct business as SawyerFoster Insurance Services and operate from its existing office in Gulfport.

Willis Wins Deal

Willis Group Holdings Ltd. has been awarded new construction and marine cargo business with the Fujian Refining and Ethylene Project. A $4 billion equity joint venture by Fujian Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (a company jointly owned by the China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.--the so-called Sinopec Corp.--and the Fujian provincial government), Aramco Overseas Co. BV, and ExxonMobil (China) Petroleum & Petrochemical Co. Ltd. The Fujian Refining and Ethylene Project is the largest, world-class foreign refining and petrochemicals project in China, to date.

--Complied by staff from news and company releases.

July 1, 2006

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