Around the P&C insurance industry: June 19, 2019
News from Gamma Iota Sigma, USI, Aspen Insurance, PERIL and more.
Aspen Insurance, the insurance segment of Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited, announced the launch of their cyber risk management platform, SSIMPLETM (SSIMPLE), developed to assist clients in the prevention, detection of and response to privacy and network security incidents. The SSIMPLE platform includes existing components of Aspen Insurance’s Apex insurance policy and incident response capabilities, with added and differentiating pre-incident services at no additional cost to customers.
Insurance fraternity Gamma Iota Sigma (GIS) is hosting its second annual Alumni Week beginning this Sunday, running June 23–29. Alumni Chapters across the country will host events including happy hours, volleyball tournaments, and community service events. GIS’s 5,000 student members, 25,000 alumni and all industry professionals are invited to join. Event details for each chapter can be found on their website.
Registration is also open for Gamma Iota Sigma’s 48th annual International Conference, taking place September 26–28, 2019 in Dallas, Texas. The annual conference brings together students and industry professionals for three days of networking, recruitment and education sessions. Last year, more than 600 on-site interviews took place for jobs and internships. This year, roughly 1,100 students and career professionals are expected to be in attendance, along with 100 Career Fair exhibitors.
GIS’s annual Leadership Symposium is also taking place August 23–25 in Columbus, Ohio, bringing together the top student leaders and diversity officers from each Gamma chapter for networking, chapter management sessions, and more.
The Hong Kong Cruise and Yacht Industry Association (HKCYIA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Voyager Risk Solutions Ltd to support its risk and insurance management services for superyachts, providing support to upcoming initiatives in the development of the yacht and tourism industries in the Greater Bay Area. Voyager will provide professional risk management and insurance consultation services to the HKCYIA in the opening and operation of its upcoming Superyacht Management Services Centre.
USI Insurance Services (USI) announced the acquisition of Buffalo, New York-based Employee Benefit Concepts, Inc. Founded in 2004, Employee Benefit Concepts is an employee benefit consulting and human capital management firm serving western New York. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
PERILS, the independent Zurich-based organization providing catastrophe insurance data, announced that it has acquired Toronto-based Catastrophe Indices & Quantification Inc. (CatIQ). Founded in 2014, catastrophe modeler CatIQ provides analytical and meteorological information on Canadian natural and man-made catastrophes to its customers through its online subscription-based platform.
Great American Insurance Group’s Alternative Markets Division announced its newest national program, offered in conjunction with Cornerstone Insurance, that will provide a primary admitted property and casualty policy and workers’ compensation coverage for Kona Ice Franchise owners across the United States.
Three children of workers who suffered serious workplace injuries were awarded a total of $20,000 in need-based scholarships from The MEMIC Group at its recent Annual Meeting of Policyholders. Dylan Collin of Trenton, Benjamin Ruest of Madawaska and Henry Laurita of Hope, Maine are this year’s MEMIC Harvey Picker Horizon Scholarship recipients. With the 2019 awards, workers’ compensation specialist MEMIC has granted scholarships totaling $190,000 to 36 young scholars.
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AJG) has acquired Rocklin, California-based Abram Interstate Insurance Services, Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Abram Interstate Insurance Services is a property & casualty managing general agency offering a full range of commercial, agri-business and personal insurance products to retail agents and their customers, primarily throughout California. Ron Abram and his associates will remain in their current location under the direction of Joel Cavaness, President of Risk Placement Services, Inc. (RPS), a subsidiary of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
City View Holdings Inc. and Budd Hutt Inc. entered into an agreement to acquire eight pre-license retail cannabis store locations in the Alberta market, supported by a $1.1 million loan agreement by Quinsam Capital with Budd Hunt. Four of the eight stores are already in existence and will undergo a Budd Hutt rebranding. One flagship store will be built in Alberta and the remaining three stores will open at a later time after the first five store locations open.
Eurolife ERB Insurance Group, a Fairfax company, has won the IMPACT BITE (Business IT Excellence) Awards 2019 in the category IT Business Process Improvement, for its AI approach to assess risks and reduce the likelihood of fraud through its FRISS solution for automated fraud prevention. The IMPACT Bite Awards is open to all companies, across industries, who have successfully integrated IT & tech systems and/or have taken initiatives in the domains of IT & Communications infrastructure that support their business goals. Eurolife ERB entered the competition with their successful implementation of the FRISS solution for automated fraud prevention, which lowered their loss ratio, enabled digital transformation and improved their customer experience.