Arthur J. Gallagher & Company announced that it has acquired Trinder & Norwood, Inc., of White Plains, New York. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Trinder & Norwood, Inc., was founded in 1953 and specialized in marine insurance. Today the firm offers all lines of commercial property/casualty and risk management insurance services with special emphasis on the transportation industry. In addition, they provide a full range of benefit products. Their current staff of 15 employees will continue to operate as Trinder & Norwood, Inc., under the direction of Robert J. Casella, area president.
J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., president and chief executive officer, stated, "The addition of Trinder & Norwood, Inc., further strengthens Gallagher's sales and service capabilities on the East Coast."
Arthur J. Gallagher & Company, an international insurance brokerage and risk management services firm, is headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, and has offices in seven countries and does business in 72 additional countries through corespondent brokers.
Maine
State Farm adjusts homeowners rates
State Farm homeowners rates went up slightly in Maine as the result of a rate change approved by the state Department of Insurance. The rate change was effective May 15 for new business and July 15 for renewals.
The increase amounts will vary significantly by locations, amount of coverage and type of policy. The statewide average will be a 1.7% increase.
According to State Farm, it has 10,500 homeowners policies in Maine, accounting for about 9% of the state's homeowners market.
New Hampshire
State Farm adjusts automobile rates
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company adjusted its New Hampshire rates effective July 1. In addition to reducing its overall rate level by one-tenth of 1%, the company also is introducing a new discount.
On average, prices for comprehensive coverage and collision coverage will drop. Premiums for the medical payments and liability coverages will rise, on average.
The company is introducing a multiple line discount in New Hampshire: a 5% discount on some auto insurance coverages for State Farm Mutual customers who also have State Farm homeowners, health or life insurance.
State Farm Mutual's last auto insurance rate change in New Hampshire was a decrease of two-tenths of 1% on September 1, 1995. The company also returned $11.2 million in dividends to its New Hampshire auto insurance customers between 1991 and 1994.
Overall changes in premiums for individual motorists will vary, depending on the coverages they carry, where they live, the kind of car insured, who drives it and how much it is driven.
New Jersey
PIANJ supports FAIR Plan retention level
Professional Insurance Agents of New Jersey, Inc. (PIANJ), President Carl Radespiel recently wrote to Assistant Commissioner of Insurance Donald Bryan in support of the proposed amendment to the New Jersey Insurance Underwriting Association (FAIR Plan) that would set the participating companies' retention level at $35 million to ensure rate adequacy in the FAIR Plan.
The new regulation, Radespiel said, should enable insurers to make better business decisions knowing their liability limit for the property insurance residual market. PIANJ also encouraged the Department of Banking and Insurance (DOBI) to seek additional measures to enable rate adequacy and to prevent the need for routine assessments. PIANJ suggested the DOBI perform a review of FAIR Plan rates in light of the significant deficits the plan has run in the past two years.
"The FAIR Plan is a residual market," Radespiel said. "As such, its rates should be set at a level sufficient to avoid competing directly with the voluntary market," he continued. "Moreover, FAIR Plan rates should be fully adequate to support a book of business which has been judged to be more hazardous than the norm."
The FAIR Plan provides basic property insurance to those who cannot obtain it in the voluntary market. If the FAIR Plan sustains losses in excess of its income from premiums, those losses are assessed on the member insurers of the FAIR Plan up to the retention level. Losses above the retention level are made up by the Insurance Development Fund.
IIANJ elects officers
Newly elected officers of the Independent Insurance Agents of New Jersey (IIANJ) were installed at the annual convention which celebrated the organization's 104th anniversary.
The new officers are:
President--W. Thomas Harper, Jr., AIA, of New Brunswick
President-elect--William I. Slapin of Basking Ridge
Vice president--Gary C. Rygiel, CIC, CPCU, ARM, of Colts Neck
Chairman--Michael A. Smith, AAI, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
State national director--Jeanne Heisler, CPCU, CIC, CLU, CPIW, of Toms River. *