Around the P&C insurance industry: October 6, 2021

Insurity, a provider of cloud-based software for the property and casualty insurance industry, has completed its acquisition of AuSuM Systems, which offers fully integrated, cloud-based audit and survey management solutions. The acquiring firm reported the deal will further its leadership in the cloud space and aligns with its goal of offering the most configurable, easy-to-use and intuitive analytics software suite for the P&C industry.

Sedgwick acquired Candau, Inc, a full-service claims adjusting firm serving Montana, Wyoming and the surrounding region. With this acquisition, Sedgwick further expands its premier, end-to-end auto claims solutions for clients. In addition to standard automotive appraisals, Candau handles residential and commercial property adjusting, heavy truck and trailer and specialty appraisals.

Arrowhead General Insurance Agency, Inc. announced the expansion of its workers’ compensation program into five new southeastern states: Tennessee, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Alabama. The five states were selected for their growth opportunity. Arrowhead’s uniqueness in the market is due to targeted industry segments, the ability to write 300+ class codes, unique distribution opportunities, and a full-service offering that includes claims handling and loss control services.

Amwins Global Risks launched its underwriting portfolio management unit. John Andrews and Tom Wallace will lead the new team focused on aggregating and creating exclusive capacity across the organization.

The National Association of Professional Insurance Agents named State Auto Insurance Companies as the recipient of its 2021 Company Award of Excellence. The presentation was made on September 23, 2021, during the annual fall meeting of the PIA National Board of Directors held in Detroit, Michigan, and in a hybrid format. Also, during the event, the association named Jencap Group as the recipient of its 2021 Managing General Agency of the Year Award.

BMS Re established BMS Brasil Corretora de Resseguros Ltda, headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Confirmation of BMS Re Brazil’s license was published in the Official Gazette on 27th September.

Buckle Corp. filed its regulation D and disclosed it raised $60 million through a Series B funding round led by Volery Capital Partners with participation from Eldridge, Assurant Ventures, as well as HSCM Bermuda and other insiders. As part of this transaction, Volery Capital Partners will join Buckle’s Board of Directors.

American Modern Insurance Group was named one of America’s Best Insurance Companies for 2022 by Forbes magazine. This is the second year in a row the company has received recognition.

FM Global announced that its eligible policyholders will collectively receive an estimated $600 million in membership credit when they renew their policies between Jan. 1, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2022. In the past 12 months, FM Global’s clients completed over 50,000 of its engineering-driven risk improvement recommendations, resulting in approximately $700 billion of loss exposures mitigated.

Omaha National Group, Inc. announced a $45 million Series B round led by Accomplice. The company plans to use the funds to support its transition to a full-stack carrier, with Omaha National issuing policies on its own paper while distributing through its extensive agency network. The company will also continue the expansion of its advanced proprietary software.

Willis Re launched a new flood model for the Middle East and North Africa region. It is the first of its kind to be developed for the region, enabling reinsurers to quantify their flood risk using a catastrophe model. Currently, the model covers Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with further releases for Oman, Qatar and Egypt during the third and fourth quarter of 2021.

James River Group Holdings, Ltd. announced that two of its principal operating subsidiaries have entered into a loss portfolio transfer reinsurance transaction with Aleka Insurance, Inc., a wholly-owned captive insurer of Uber Technologies, Inc., under which Aleka will reinsure substantially all of James River’s legacy portfolio of commercial auto policies related to Uber’s ridesharing business. Under the terms of the transaction, James River ceded to Aleka approximately $345.1 million of commercial auto liabilities relating to business written for Uber’s ridesharing business in the years 2013-2019.

RIMS, the risk management society, and The Amity University entered into an agreement to present a series of RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional certification prep courses to the institution’s graduate and post-graduate network.

One Call added mobile physical therapy (PT) to its expansive suite of PT offerings, providing injured workers with another convenient and accessible option to care. In partnership with thousands of high-quality providers, the company’s PT solution serves more than 500,000 injured workers each year across multiple specialties, geographical locations and settings.

C3 Risk & Insurance Services partnered with DPH Financial Services to create a brand-new financial services division. The partnership will allow C3 to offer business and individual advance planning services, including life insurance and estate planning, for CEOs and other leaders at organizations of every size.

Crawford Technologies acquired Open Access Technologies (OAT), a document accessibility software and services provider. This acquisition expands the company’s market leadership with the ability to make static digital documents accessible and usable for everyone. Crawford Technologies acquired 100% of OAT, which includes OAT’s document remediation services and the advanced DocMD product. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Outdoorsy announced the partnership of its insurtech business Roamly with Spinnaker Insurance Company, a national property and casualty insurer licensed in 50 states and rated A- by A.M. Best Company. The partnership allows Roamly to offer RV owners year-round protection through their proprietary suite of insurance products.

Ascot Group acquired specialty workers’ compensation carrier and third-party administrator AmFed National Insurance Company and its subsidiaries and affiliates. AmFed, based in Ridgeland, Mississippi, is a leader in the Mississippi workers’ compensation industry with licenses in 15 Southeastern and Midwestern states. The acquisition represents Ascot’s entry into the U.S. workers’ compensation market and the first step in a targeted expansion strategy in select regions across the country.

Origami Risk packaged its popular online workers’ compensation claims administration solutions into a standard offering to help insurance carriers, third-party administrators, risk pools and managing general agents leverage built-in best practices, accelerate implementation timelines, and reduce related costs.

Verisk leveraged artificial intelligence and image analytics to generate insights from more than 200 million reviews on Yelp. Verisk is using AI to analyze unstructured data in Yelp reviews, including images that might indicate how a business has evolved. Insurers can use these insights to inform discussions about coverage with potential customers, see how employees are mitigating risks and make underwriting decisions with greater speed and precision.

Morse Insurance Agency, Inc., merged with the Habig & Magoon Insurance Agency on October 1, 2021.

Neptune Flood acquired Jumpstart Insurance Solutions, the parametric Insurtech, adding parametric earthquake to its portfolio of technology-based insurance products.

Swiss Re estimated its preliminary claims burden from Hurricane Ida at approximately USD 750 million. On an industry level, Swiss Re estimated total insured market losses to be in the range of USD 28–30 billion.

Related: Around the P&C insurance industry: September 29, 2021