USI in the News

USI’s newly released Commercial P&C Insurance Market Outlook Mid-Year Addendum was recently featured in Advisen’s Front Page News. While natural disasters, cyber risks, litigation and changes in the law continue to impact the P&C market, supply chain issues, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues also present significant challenges for insurance buyers. Despite these negative pressures, USI’s mid-year addendum outlines steps organizations can take to significantly improve their quality of risk and better position themselves for favorable outcomes. Download a copy of the mid-year addendum and view Advisen’s recent online coverage.

USI’s National Real Estate Practice Leader, Brian Dove, was recently interviewed by Business Insurance to discuss the current challenges faced by public entities in the commercial property insurance market, such as catastrophe exposures and valuations, which are complicating renewals. During the interview, Dove shared: “High-quality risks see lower rate hikes, with flat to 5% increases. But catastrophe-exposed public entity risks are under stress as the cost of capacity continues to rise. Many of those buyers are purchasing less limit than in the past.” Read more.

John Klecha, national public entities practice leader, Robert Bookhammer, senior commercial lines sales executive, and Matthew Grange, real estate producer, recently caught up with Business Insurance to discuss the ongoing challenges facing the law enforcement liability market. During the interview, Klecha shared: “The market is ‘marginally’ better than it was during most of 2021. While the public entity insurance sector cut some capacity, insurers are being less aggressive regarding rates and terms and conditions, but the risks are still being scrutinized. Rates are increasing about 10% to 30%.” Read more.

USI Insurance Services (“USI”), a world leader in risk management, employee benefit and retirement consulting, today announced the acquisition of Sacramento, California-based employee benefits brokerage and advisory firm, Ames-Grenz Insurance Services, Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Commenting on the announcement, Ames-Grenz CEO, Larrie Grenz, stated: “Over the last 54 years, Ames-Grenz has grown to become one of the leading employee benefits agencies in northern California. Together with USI, we look forward to building on our longstanding reputation for delivering unique employee benefit solutions and advisory services to clients. Additionally, our current clients will continue to work with the same local team of Ames-Grenz experts they’ve come to know and trust.”

USI President, Tim Prichard, stated: “We are excited to welcome Larrie, Rob and the entire team of professionals from Ames-Grenz to the USI family. Together, we look forward to delivering an unmatched level of service and expertise for our current and future clients throughout the northern California region and beyond.”

Ames-Grenz President, Rob Ford, added: “We are thrilled to be joining forces with USI, one of the world’s largest insurance brokerage and consulting firms, as we look to further strengthen the value we bring to clients through USI’s expanded suite of industry-leading tools, solutions and expertise available through the USI ONE Advantage^®, a proprietary approach that delivers innovative risk management and employee benefit solutions with bottom-line financial impact.”

About USI
USI is one of the largest insurance brokerage and consulting firms in the world, delivering property and casualty, employee benefits, personal risk, program and retirement solutions to large risk management clients, middle market companies, smaller firms and individuals. USI connects over 8,000 industry-leading professionals from approximately 200 offices to serve clients’ local, national and international needs. USI has become a premier insurance brokerage and consulting firm by leveraging the USI ONE Advantage^®, an interactive platform that integrates proprietary and innovative client solutions, networked local resources and enterprise-wide collaboration to deliver customized results with positive, bottom-line impact. USI attracts best-in-class industry talent with a long history of deep and continuing investment in our local communities. For more information, visit usi.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

USI’s Head of Industry Verticals and National Construction Practice Leader, Danette Beck, recently spoke with Insurance Business America about some of the most pressing risk management-related issues facing construction contractors today. During the interview, Beck shared: “Some of the challenges currently being watched in the construction industry are the conflict in Ukraine, inflation, rising interest rates, material cost volatility, continued supply chain deterioration and sustained shortages of skilled labor. All of these issues are compounding an already challenging environment for our clients.” Read the full article.

In a recent interview with Business Insurance, USI’s National Claims Counsel, Kristine D’Amato, and National Claims Practice Leader, Joni Mason, discussed the emergency, high-stakes nature of cyber claims, and the speed with which the process often unfolds in comparison to more traditional P&C claims. In the article, D’Amato shares, “Every cyber incident is an emergency situation. You have a policyholder facing something it has never faced before who oftentimes feels they don’t know exactly what’s happened. Every minute can cost companies if their operations are shut down.” Read the full article.

For the third consecutive year, USI has been recognized as a ‘Best of the Best’ insurance employer by Black Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE) Journal, a leading African American business and career publication. The ‘Best of the Best’ program recognizes leading insurance companies and their efforts to promote the advancement of African Americans in all aspects of business and employment to ensure equal opportunity. Each year, Black EOE Journal polls hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies for its ‘Best of the Best’ evaluations, providing non-biased results that are valuable resources for job-seekers, business owners, students, consumers, senior management, business associations, employment agencies and consumer groups. Read more.

USI’s National Cyber Practice Advisor, David Hallstrom, will join a panel of cyber security and cyber insurance experts at the upcoming NetDiligence Cyber Risk Summit in Philadelphia, June 1-3, to discuss how small and medium-sized businesses can prepare for cyber incidents. Hallstrom’s session, entitled “Small Business, Big Security: How Small and Medium Size Businesses Can Prepare for Incidents,” will review defensive and offensive tactics, building resilience, and the role of the managed service provider. Learn more.

USI was recently recognized as a ‘Best of the Best’ insurance employer for Hispanics by Hispanic Network Magazine (HNM), a leading publication dedicated to supporting the advancement of Hispanics in all aspects of business and employment. Each year, HNM polls hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies for its ‘Best of the Best’ evaluations, providing non-biased results that are valuable resources for job-seekers, business owners, students, consumers, senior management, business associations, employment agencies and consumer groups. Read more.

USI Insurance Services (“USI”), a world leader in risk management, employee benefit and retirement consulting, today announced the acquisition of Vincennes, Indiana-based employee benefits brokerage and advisory firm, Benefits 7, Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Commenting on the announcement, Benefits 7 Partner, James Franklin, stated: “This exciting partnership with USI further strengthens our ability to help employers optimize their benefit plans by offering access to USI’s expanded suite of industry-leading solutions and expertise.”

“Since our company’s founding in 1987, Benefits 7 has grown to become one of the leading employee benefit advisory firms in Indiana,” stated Benefits 7 Partner, Guy Henry. “By joining forces with USI, one of the world’s largest insurance brokerage and consulting firms, our clients will benefit from USI’s ONE Advantage^® platform, offering detailed analytics and exceptional insights aimed at enhancing benefits, improving employee health and reducing costs.”

William Henry, Benefits 7 Partner, added: “Together, Benefits 7 and USI will offer a distinctive suite of employee benefit, property and casualty, personal risk and retirement solutions to our valued clients, who will continue to work with the same team of local professionals they’ve come to know and trust.”

Thomas Cassady, USI’s regional CEO, stated: “We are thrilled to welcome the talented professionals from Benefits 7 to the USI family. Together, we look forward to building on their strong reputation and delivering an unmatched level of service and expertise for our current and future clients throughout Indiana and the Midwest region.”

About USI
USI is one of the largest insurance brokerage and consulting firms in the world, delivering property and casualty, employee benefits, personal risk, program and retirement solutions to large risk management clients, middle market companies, smaller firms and individuals. USI connects over 8,000 industry-leading professionals from approximately 200 offices to serve clients’ local, national and international needs. USI has become a premier insurance brokerage and consulting firm by leveraging the USI ONE Advantage^®, an interactive platform that integrates proprietary and innovative client solutions, networked local resources and enterprise-wide collaboration to deliver customized results with positive, bottom line impact. USI attracts best-in-class industry talent with a long history of deep and continuing investment in our local communities. For more information, visit usi.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

USI Affinity today announced the launch of a new travel protection plan, Road Trip Insure, offered through its Travel Insurance Services division. The new Road Trip Insure plan contains travel insurance that is underwritten by United States Fire Insurance Company, part of the Crum & Forster group of companies, and is custom-tailored to meet the growing needs of U.S. residents traveling domestically or internationally by vehicle, including recreational vehicles.

Road Trip Insure offers travelers several benefits that few travel protection plans include, such as Automobile Deductible Reimbursement, Vehicle Breakdown, Vehicle Return, Travel Inconvenience, Pet & Service Animal Return and Pet & Service Animal Travel Medical Expense. Additionally, unlike many travel protection plans, Road Trip Insure is priced per reservation rather than per person and covers all individuals in a vehicle for a single price (up to 10 individuals per plan).

Commenting on the announcement, USI Affinity’s Travel Insurance Division Leader, Daria Porreca, stated: “The market for travel by personal vehicle, in particular recreational vehicles, has been growing for years and has soared since the onset of the pandemic. Road trips allow people to travel in a more socially distant fashion and appeal to a changing demographic of travelers who seek to escape, experience the natural world or work remotely. USI Affinity Travel Insurance Services is pleased to meet the travel protection needs of this growing market with a travel protection plan that is custom-tailored for this unique form of travel.”

The new plan also offers standard travel insurance benefits travelers have come to expect from a travel protection plan, such as Trip Cancellation, Trip Interruption, Travel Delay, Emergency Accident & Sickness Medical Expense, Emergency Medical Evacuation & Repatriation of Remains. Additionally, the plan includes 24/7 access to non-insurance emergency assistance provided through On Call International. Travelers can also upgrade their travel protection plan with additional coverage options like Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) and Interruption for Any Reason (IFAR).

For additional information on Road Trip Insure, offered through USI Affinity Travel Insurance Services, visit my.travelinsure.com/roadtripinsure.

About USI Affinity
For over 75 years, USI Affinity has developed, marketed, and administered programs to deliver unique advantages in insurance coverage, price and service. USI Affinity markets and administers insurance programs for over 440 organizations nationwide, representing more than 22 million association, union and alumni members. USI Affinity is a division of USI Insurance Services. For more information about USI Affinity, please visit www.usiaffinity.com.

USI’s National Executive & Professional Risk Solutions Claims Practice Leader, Joni Mason, recently discussed the latest Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) with Insurance Journal. During the interview, Mason reviews the insurance market’s response and how employers are adapting to new EPL-related exposures. Mason shared: “In the last year or two, we’ve seen new claims, but what we are seeing from carriers is more granular scrutiny during the underwriting process. That means supplemental questionnaires around newer workplace issues, such as vaccine mandates, return to work policies and protocols, and diversity, equity and inclusion culture.” Read the full article.

Telematics hardware, such as sensors, cameras and other data collection devices, merges telecommunications and informatics and enables information to be shared wirelessly, and is becoming a more central part of commercial vehicle fleet risk management. However, while it can help lower incident frequencies, it can also raise repair and replacement costs for companies. USI’s National Transportation Vertical Leader, Nicole McMurtry, recently caught up with Business Insurance to discuss how organizations can best manage this emerging technology and balance the costs. Read the article.

USI Affinity today announced that its travel insurance division, USI Affinity Travel Insurance Services, has been named to Forbes Advisor’s annual list of the Best Travel Insurance Companies for the third year in a row. USI Affinity received a top ranking on this year’s list based on policy benefits and available coverage options most important to travelers. In its evaluation, Forbes Advisor scored 46 policies to identify the best travel insurance plans using data provided by Squaremouth, a travel insurance comparison provider.

The 2022 rankings were based on each plan’s score for benefits and average prices for various trips and traveler profiles. The benefits that were scored included medical expenses, medical evacuation, Covid coverage, pre-existing condition exclusion waivers, “cancel for any reason” coverage, trip interruption, travel delay time requirements, baggage delay time requirements, baggage reimbursement, hurricane and weather coverage requirements, and financial default of a travel supplier.

“USI Affinity is proud to once again be recognized by Forbes Advisor this year. During the last two years, the travel insurance industry has been greatly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, like so many other industries,” stated USI Affinity’s Travel Insurance Division Leader, Daria Porreca. “Throughout this time, we have worked diligently to adapt and respond to changing regulations while meeting the evolving needs of travelers. In addition, our longstanding relationships with our carrier partners have allowed us to develop a suite of products that can benefit a variety of different traveler profiles. We look forward to continued growth, strong partnerships and opportunities to serve both our loyal and new customers as travel continues to rebound in 2022.”

USI Affinity Travel Insurance Services also had plans featured on four other 2022 Best-Of lists by Forbes Advisor: Best Covid-19 Travel Insurance, Best Cancel for Any Reason Travel Insurance, Best Senior Travel Insurance and Best Cruise Insurance.

Forbes Advisor is a trusted destination for unbiased money and business advice, news and reviews, dedicated to helping consumers make smart decisions and choose the right products with ease. To view Forbes Advisor’s complete list of the Best Travel Insurance Companies of 2022, visit their rankings page.

About USI Affinity
For over 75 years, USI Affinity has developed, marketed and administered programs to deliver unique advantages in insurance coverage, price and service. USI Affinity markets and administers insurance programs for over 440 organizations nationwide, representing more than 22 million association, union and alumni members. USI Affinity is a division of USI Insurance Services. For more information about USI Affinity, please visit www.usiaffinity.com.

For the fourth year in a row, USI has been named a ‘Best of the Best’ employer for multicultural women in the insurance industry by Professional WOMAN’s Magazine (PWM). USI was once again the only insurance brokerage and consulting firm recognized on this year’s list! PWM’s annual ‘Best of the Best’ program is designed to recognize leading U.S. organizations actively engaged in the advancement of multicultural women in all aspects of business and employment to ensure equal opportunity. Read more. 

USI is proud to sponsor this year’s Women Construction Owners and Executives (WCOE) annual meeting in Washington, DC, April 24-26. In addition to sponsoring this year’s meeting, USI’s National Cyber Practice Adviser, Nadia Hoyte, will be speaking at the conference on cyber insurance and the latest exposures for construction contractors. Learn more and register for the conference today.

USI’s National Aviation Practice Leader, James Van Meter, was recently interviewed by Business Insurance on the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the general aviation industry, along with the insurance industry’s response. In the article, Van Meter shared: “We started to see general aviation, after the first few months of the pandemic, really start to recover faster than the airlines. The speedier recovery then led to an uptick in general aviation activity as a whole.” Read the full article.

USI’s Douglas O’Brien, national practice division manager for casualty & alternative risk solutions, and Andrew Doherty, national executive and professional risk solutions practice leader, recently sat down with Insurance Business America as part of their IB Talk podcast to discuss what’s in store for casualty lines, cyber, and directors & officers insurance after multiple years of hard market conditions. Listen to the interview on SoundCloud, or search for the IB Talk podcast program on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

USI’s National Personal Risk Practice Leader, James Kane, recently joined The Insurbreak Podcast, a program focused on covering the latest trends and innovations in insurance, to discuss a wide range of personal risk management-related topics. During the discussion, James discusses the rapid acceleration of technology to support a renewed focus on customer experience and personalization and how insurance buyer habits and behaviors are changing in the digital world, combining a human-first approach and data analytics. Listen to the podcast.

USI’s National Cyber Practice Adviser, Nadia Hoyte, recently participated in an expert cyber risk panel discussion hosted by Insurance Business TV to discuss the latest cyber trends that have emerged since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the interview, panelists discussed the continued growth in demand for cyber insurance amid an evolving risk landscape, the latest cyber risk exposures brokers are reviewing with clients, and more. View the video.

USI’s National Practice Division Manager for Casualty and Alternative Risk Solutions, Douglas O’Brien, was recently interviewed by Captive Review, on the broker-captive manager relationship. In the article, O’Brien shared: “At USI, we are client-centric and very focused on adding value by educating our client base as to the entire range of risk financing options. Our first objective is to differentiate between the type of captives that are currently available in the market, which is mainly how group captives differ from single-parent captives. Many brokers incorrectly commingle these concepts, which is a big mistake because they are two very different captive risk financing approaches with some similarities, but also mainly very different objectives.” Learn more by reading the full article.

USI’s National Environmental Practice Leader, Glynis Priester, recently spoke to Insurance Business America about the latest trends in the environmental insurance market and what insurance buyers can expect in 2022. During the interview, Priester shared: “Environmental insurance has always been an outlier. I like to say we are always in a hard market – not because we’re overly competitive, but because there’s just so much technical expertise and rigor behind it. We’re now in a place where 80% of environmental risks are quite easy to find good solutions for if you go to the right market, and there’s lots of competition.” Read the full article.

USI Insurance Services (“USI”), a world leader in risk management, employee benefit and retirement consulting, today announced the acquisition of Longview, Texas-based D&H Risk Services LLC. Founded in 1936, D&H Risk Services is an independent risk management and employee benefits agency serving businesses and individuals throughout Texas. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Commenting on the new partnership, Trace Shappell, president, D&H Risk Services, stated: “For more than 80 years, the D&H team has taken pride in delivering quality service and local expertise to our valued clients. By joining forces with USI, we are excited to continue this tradition by offering our clients expanded access to USI’s best-in-class resources and solutions, including the USI ONE Advantage^®, a unique platform that delivers innovative risk management and employee benefit solutions with bottom-line financial impact.”

John Collado, USI’s regional CEO, stated: “We are thrilled to expand USI’s presence in Texas by welcoming the team of professionals from D&H Risk Services to the USI family. Working together, we look forward to leveraging our combined strengths to advance D&H Risk Services’ longstanding focus on building long-term client relationships through an expanded suite of innovative risk management and employee benefit solutions.”

About USI
USI is one of the largest insurance brokerage and consulting firms in the world, delivering property and casualty, employee benefits, personal risk, program and retirement solutions to large risk management clients, middle market companies, smaller firms and individuals. USI connects over 8,000 industry-leading professionals from approximately 200 offices to serve clients’ local, national and international needs. USI has become a premier insurance brokerage and consulting firm by leveraging the USI ONE Advantage^®, an interactive platform that integrates proprietary and innovative client solutions, networked local resources and enterprise-wide collaboration to deliver customized results with positive, bottom line impact. USI attracts best-in-class industry talent with a long history of deep and continuing investment in our local communities. For more information, visit usi.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

USI’s Senior Vice President and Employee Benefits National Practice Leader, Arthur Hall, was recently interviewed by PLANSPONSOR as a follow up to USI’s 2022 Employee Benefits Market Outlook Report and to discuss some of the challenges employers are facing in relation to health benefits budgeting. In the article, Hall shares: “The challenging developments with the virus are creating a challenge for health benefits budgeting. Employers that have set their budgets for 2022 now don’t know what the Omicron variant will do. If there’s a high incidence of infection but low severity, the budgets may be fine. It also depends on how many employees in an employer’s workforce are vaccinated.” Read more.

Key findings from USI’s newly released 2022 Employee Benefits Market Outlook Report were recently profiled in a new BenefitsPro article. The report addresses current and upcoming trends in healthcare, compliance and benefits, and provides practical solutions for employers to negotiate these challenges in the year ahead. Read the full article.

Key insights from USI’s annual Commercial Property & Casualty Market Outlook Report were recently profiled in Advisen Front Page News. This year’s report once again provides insights on the most impactful market trends impacting P&C insurance buyers and discusses upcoming challenges and opportunities for buyers in the new year. Read the article.