APPEX Deal Offers Agencies Low Interest Loans
NU Online News Service, Jan 18, 11:38 a.m. EST
APPEX, based in Concord, Ohio, said the arrangement with First Insurance Funding Corp. and Lake Forest Bank & Trust will give agencies access to customized premium finance services, loans for agency perpetuation and acquisition, lines of credit for building purchases, construction and equipment purchases, as well as trust, investment and leasing services.
Albert Lloyd, APPEX's executive director, said, "The services offered by LFB&T and First create a lending facility with favorable interest rates and agency fee generating premium finance services, all of which are exclusive benefits only for APPEX Partners.
"Unlike many other lending institutions, LFB&T gives consideration to the intangible value that exists within an insurance agency when evaluating a loan. These services were engineered jointly between APPEX, LFB&T and FIRST to enhance the value of the APPEX Partners."
As wholly-owned subsidiaries of Lake Forest, Ill.-based Wintrust Financial Corp., LFB&T and First are part of a twelve-bank, 49-branch financial services organization with more than $6 billion in assets and a variety of other financial services companies including the Wayne Hummer Companies and West America Mortgage Company.
APPEX said that First, with more than $3 billion in premium volume in 2004, is now the fourth largest premium finance company in the United States. It noted that First services all of its agency customers from its home office in Northbrook, Ill. First has a national sales force and customers in all 50 states.
LFB&T, based in Lake Forest, Ill., has more than $1 billion in assets. Over the last several years, LFB&T has provided loans to agencies across the country for agency acquisition, perpetuation and expansion.
"Lake Forest Bank is one of the few banks that has made a commitment to lend to middle-market agents and brokers," said Kathy Walker-Eich, executive vice president of Lake Forest Bank & Trust.
APPEX Partners, which represents more than $5.6 billion in written premiums and $670 million in revenues, was founded by Marsh, Berry & Company Inc., a management consulting firm for the financial services industry and independent insurance agency owners and brokers.
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