Around the P&C insurance industry: December 23, 2020

The Hilb Group, LLC (THG) acquired Moran, & Dauphin, Inc. (MMDI). The transaction became effective on November 1, 2020. MMDI operates as a full-service agency primarily providing property and casualty insurance products, mostly for personal lines with concentrations in homeowners and personal auto. As a part of the transaction, the MMDI leadership team of Anthony Moran and Ryan Dauphin, along with their associates, will join THG’s Tri-State operations and continue to work out of their existing location in Auburn, N.Y.

The Hilb Group also acquired New Jersey-based William H. Connolly & Co., LLC (WHC). The transaction became effective on December 1, 2020.  WHC operates as an insurance and risk management brokerage, providing primarily property and casualty insurance products to a wide variety of businesses, healthcare organizations, educational institutions, professional firms, not-for-profit and social service agencies, individuals and families. As a part of the transaction, William H. Connolly, Jr. and his associates will join THG’s Tri-State operations, operating as William H. Connolly & Co., and continue to work out of their existing location in Montclair, N.J.

Origami Risk announced it has developed new online solutions for healthcare providers, nursing homes and employers in all sectors to track employee COVID-19 vaccinations as well as to monitor and facilitate reporting of workplace outbreaks of the pandemic. The new online tools enable employers in all sectors to track the vaccination status of their entire employee population and to monitor designated outbreaks at their facilities in all parts of the world for required reporting.

The State of California’s Workers’ Compensation Profile Audit Review exam on insurance companies named the California Insurance  Company / Applied Risk Services, Inc. as the top option for workers’ compensation insurance in the state for 2019. This marks more than a decade with California Insurance Company in the top standing.

Applied  Underwriters, Inc., announced that the company has formed Applied Financial Lines, Ltd., a new enterprise to operate from Paris and Cologne, Germany, to underwrite several specialty lines in the European Union and in the Middle East, including professional indemnity and D&O. Applied Financial Lines will work with an extensive wholesale broker and local retail agent network throughout the EU, Israel and other countries in the region. The announcement follows closely upon the news that Applied Underwriters has acquired the renewal rights to StarStone’s financial lines book of business,  providing a solid basis for the planned expansion and growth.

Azuga launched a product enhancement to its original fleet dashcam, Azuga SafetyCam AI, which is designed to improve road safety by helping to predict and prevent commercial auto accidents. The Azuga SafetyCam AI dashcam addresses these issues through a combination of multi-sensor HD cameras, AI and computer vision technology. The dashcam, which mounts to a vehicle’s dashboard, produces a live stream of the driver while alerting fleet managers to potentially dangerous activity, such as hard braking, sharp turns, distracted driving and rapid acceleration. Facial recognition technology in the dashcam can detect when a driver is distracted or drowsy, whether at night or during the day. The AI neural learning network analyzes each driver-facing video to look for possible distraction events and provides tags to help fleets identify underlying causes of risky events. Video is automatically stored for 30 days, and SafetyCam AI works seamlessly with the Azuga Fleet and Azuga FleetMobile products to provide an integrated solution that reduces risk and improves safety.

Verisk acquired Jornaya, a leading provider of consumer behavioral data and intelligence. The acquisition will add Jornaya’s proprietary view of consumer buying journeys to Verisk’s growing set of marketing solutions for the insurance and financial services markets. Using advanced marketing techniques, customers in the property and casualty, life insurance, and lending industries rely on Jornaya’s behavioral data, lead compliance intelligence, and other solutions to drive return on investment. With this acquisition, Verisk clients will have the intelligence and agility to time and tailor interactions based on actual in-market behaviors — ensuring engagement with customers and prospects at the right time with a relevant message.

Safety National is pleased to award the 2020 Safety First Grant to three policyholders for their creative risk control solutions.

• First Place: The $10,000 matching grant was awarded to Nebraska Medicine to implement an electronic ticketing system in conjunction with their existing environmental, health and safety rounding program.
• Second Place: The $5,000 matching grant was awarded to Virginia Auto Dealers Group Self-Insurance Association to provide tire handling devices to their automobile dealer insureds.
• Third Place: The $2,500 matching grant was awarded to the Kentucky Association of Counties Workers’ Compensation Fund to implement a safe driving curriculum for their law enforcement insureds.

Tinubu^® Square Group acquired the assets of SuretyWave LLC, including its technology and knowledge base, notably the cloud-based surety bond processing system known as SurePath Digital. With the acquisition, Tinubu Square’s end-to-end SaaS platform simplifies processing for an entire value chain that has long struggled with disparate, complex surety bond information. Agents, brokers and carrier partners can now efficiently manage their bond requirements, premiums, commission and other calculations.

Generali Group and Accenture have created a joint venture — Group Operations Service Platform (GOSP) — that will leverage cloud technologies and shared technology platforms to accelerate the insurance group’s innovation and digital strategy. In addition to holding a 5% ownership stake in the venture, Accenture will provide GOSP with a team of 40 professionals with expertise in cloud, AI and big data to drive rapid transformation, innovation and change management at speed and scale. GOSP will develop solutions that accelerate the digitization of Generali Group’s business processes and the adoption of a cloud-centric model. This can facilitate closer collaboration among the insurer’s different business units, including distribution (agencies), account management and internal management systems, which can benefit from the shared infrastructure and expertise.

Everest Insurance^® announced the release of their new Everest Elevation^® Architects and Engineers Professional Liability policy, providing design professionals with pollution and cyber liability coverage.

Trov introduced its new Risk Operations Technology offering, which turns over 70 million data points — including vehicle, driver and road data — into insights that allow fleets to efficiently monitor, manage, and mitigate risk in real-time.

Related: Around the P&C insurance industry: December 16, 2020