Mergers and acquisitions in the employee benefit firm market continued in the last month. On June 20, Digital Benefit Advisors acquired its second Houston-based firm, the Stevenson Group.
The acquisition will help DBA expand its presence in Texas. The firm currently has 35 offices across the country, including one in Houston. Stevenson will join DBA’s existing group and take on the company name. Current Stevenson employees should not see major changes except perhaps a different title.
“We’re always trying to standardize with a core set of titles and trying to find a commonality of titles so it fits across the whole country,” says Mike Sullivan, Digital’s chief growth officer. “People end up doing the same work they’re doing today or they end up moving into bigger jobs within Digital Benefit Advisors.”
Sullivan said that the acquisition would also help bring DBA into the growing market of managing aggregate plans for small businesses. Last year, DBA made an acquisition in Jacksonville for a similar purpose.
Clients won’t see any major differences, but may see an expanded set of capabilities in the future.
“They’re going from a smaller local operation to part of an 800 people team within DBA,” Sullivan says. “Clients should see an expanded set of services because we’re investing the time and additional capabilities.”
USI makes moves
New York-based brokerage and consulting firm USI Insurance Services announced its acquisition of MVB Insurance on July 1, a move that would expand their growing presence in the West Virginia healthcare market.
“We’ve been doing a lot of investment in West Virginia, says Cecile Locurto, the senior manager of communication & media relations at USI. “We’re already the largest brokerage form in West Virginia and it further solidifies our place in that marketplace, and it helps expand the services to the clients of MVB.”
These clients, she says, shouldn’t expect any changes except the availability of more resources, especially on a national level.
HUB acquisition
And Gateway Benefits will now be a division of HUB International, an insurance brokerage based in Chicago, following its acquisition announced on July 5. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Our goal is not to change what Tenth Dot does for their clients but only to improve it,” says Tony Kocis, the president of HUB/HDH. “Advantages are a more of a national presence, expanded technology solutions, property and casualty expertise, expanded data analytics, compliance and wellness resources.”
The two had similar workplace cultures and ethics. Gateway Benefits presence in Utah will help HUB expand into the Western market.
Bloom Health acquired
Empyrean announced its acquisition of Bloom Health on July 6, just one day later. The two companies have done work together over the past couple of years, already serving hundreds of customers before they decided to take the acquisition step. Because of their already intertwined work, the transition should be a seamless one.
"We’re really looking forward to leveraging the technology, and increasingly we’ll be bringing forward more product and give our customers, not only with great services and technology but a great product,” says Richard Wolfe, the CEO and co-founder of Empyrean Benefit Solutions.
