Crump

News & Press

Crump Group Licenses New RMS RiskBrowser® Platform

Crump Group has signed a contract to license the new RMS Wholesale Broker RiskBrowser® platform. The system, launched at the end of last year, will provide them with access to industry-leading catastrophe models in a format specifically tailored to their requirements and resources.

“The RiskBrowser platform gives us access to the same catastrophe risk models that are used throughout the insurance transaction, but these are tailored to our needs, profit margins, and resources,” commented John Jennings, president and CEO of Crump’s commercial division, Crump Insurance Services. “To stay ahead of the market, we are consistently looking for ways to enhance our partnerships with retail brokers. By allowing us to provide them with a deeper insight into their catastrophe risk exposure, this platform will give us a new edge in this business segment.”

Risk Management Solutions (RMS) is the world’s leading provider of products and services for catastrophe risk management. More than 400 leading insurers, reinsurers, trading companies, and other financial institutions rely on RMS models to quantify, manage, and transfer risk. Founded at Stanford University in 1988, RMS serves clients today from offices in the U.S., Bermuda, the U.K., France, Switzerland, India, and Japan.

View the .pdf of the RMS press release.

Anne Bridges, Crump Atlanta, is Honored

Congratulations Anne, on being chosen to receive the George Clark Broker of the Year Award by Coastal Plains Insurance Agency. This is a premier insurance agency that can bolster our future production efforts and it is her personal efforts that have made this possible.

George Clark enjoyed a long, successful career with various surplus lines entities including AIG, The London Agency, London Brokers Ltd., Crump and Swett & Crawford before passing away last year. His close partnership with Coastal followed him throughout his career and we’re sure yours will do the same.

Our group is very proud that you were chosen to receive this honor! Well done!

Crump Ranked #1 by Business Insurance Magazine

Business Insurance ranks Crump the largest wholesaler in America - but we say, "So What?!" The addition of industry leaders Tri-City Brokerage and BISYS Specialty Programs to the Crump team means we have a wealth of talent and products that are unmatched in the industry. But being numero uno doesn't mean much without our relentless focus on using these resources to help our clients succeed.

View the .pdf rankings here.

2007 NAPSLO Annual Convention
New Orleans, LA

This year’s NAPSLO convention proved to be a huge success. The focus this year was our celebration of merging Crump, Tri-City Brokerage and BISYS Specialty Programs. Each day of NAPSLO was filled with meetings emphasizing the strengths of our combined organizations and the direction we intend to pursue. We are confident this marriage places us in a unique and elite spot that will allow us to continue as the wholesaler of choice.

We also had a terrific turnout for our annual cocktail party, and of course the big hit of the night – The Brokers – Crump’s very own band! We think our guests were pleasantly surprised at the level these guys (and gal) perform. They’ve worked hard and it shows!

Crump Wholesale Brokerage Jumps to Number One

May 3, 2007
By Mark E. Ruquet
NU Online News Service

The acquisition of BISYS wholesale units by Crump will mean the Dallas-based wholesale broker will become the number one U.S. wholesale brokerage much quicker than it expected, the firm’s chief executive said.

Yesterday, Citi and BISYS announced that Citi financial services was acquiring New York-based BISYS services and J.C. Flowers, the private equity firm that owns Crump, would purchase BISYS wholesale units and its retirement business from Citi.

The BISYS deal is worth $1.47 billion and Flowers’ end of the deal will be approximately $800 million. The acquisition of the BISYS units by Crump will occur at the same time the Citi transaction is completed.

“This is a huge deal for us,” said Glenn Hargrove, chief executive officer and president of Crump. “It’s a fabulous mix. There is little overlap and complements what we already do. This allows us all kinds of opportunity in the future.”

The purchase will double the size of Crump on the property-casualty side of the business to about 1,000 employees. As a whole, the ranks of Crump will swell from 460 employees to 2,700 after the deal is complete.

Besides the p-c business, BISYS-Tri-City also has a sizeable life wholesale and retirement services business, neither of which Crump has any experience in. The life business will account for 1,200 employees and the retirement business 700 employees, Mr. Hargrove said.

In terms of dollars, while he did not have retirement business numbers, he said the combined p-c and life wholesale businesses would amount to around $4 billion in premium.

Once the deal is complete, the headquarter operations will remain in Dallas, but the three entities—p-c, life and retirement—will operate as independent units, he said.

Both life wholesale and retirement business will remain housed in New York, while integration takes place on the p-c side.

Mr. Hargrove anticipates the two entities should integrate well. Crump is well established in Texas and the Southeast, while BISYS-Tri-City is well established with offices in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, but not the South. Crump is not well established in New York or Chicago and should be able to mix operations easily, he said.

“There is a lot of work to do, but I think it is going to go together really, really well,” Mr. Hargrove said, adding that the more they get to know one another, the more they are finding similarities instead of differences.

There will be no pressure to imprint a Crump stamp on the BISYS units, and he said it will be up to management to determine what marketing value the Crump name will have—but that is an issue for later.

“We are anxious for them to keep their identity and build on it,” he commented.

He said there is no interest to “carve out” BISYS business for Crump, and that any overlap issues are minor. He added Crump will be happy to have all of BISYS’ broker and production people find a home within Crump.

As for cross selling, Mr. Hargrove said it would not be a key objective and understanding the possible synergies would be discussed later.

He noted that Crump’s move continues a trend of consolidation in the industry, adding that the involvement of private equity money will help fuel that growth. He added that if Crump remained with Marsh it probably would never have this opportunity. Flowers, a private equity firm, purchased Crump from Marsh in 2005.

Crump intends to grow and continues to look at some small deals, but Mr. Hargrove confessed he never envisioned the company would have an opportunity to see such growth in one shot.