Brown & Brown Acquires Employee Benefits Company

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Aug 11, 2008 (A. M. Best via COMTEX) -- BRO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Brown & Brown Inc. has continued its recent acquisition activity with the asset acquisition of Burt & Associates Benefit Planning Inc. of Elkhart, Ind.

J. Scott Penny, regional vice president at Brown & Brown, said in a statement that Burt & Associates "has been serving the life, health disability and benefits needs of clients in Indiana and the surrounding region for over 32 years."

Burt & Associates specializes in individual and group employee benefit products, with annual revenues of about $1.2 million. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The company's staff will continue operations from its current location as a freestanding profit center, Brown & Brown said.

Early in August, the broker acquired two benefits firms: Fullerton & Co. of Portland, Ore., and Great Lakes Risk Management Inc. of Toledo, Ohio. Fullerton has annual revenues of about $9.3 million. Great Lakes Risk Management has annual revenues of about $1 million (BestWire, Aug. 4, 2008).

Brown & Brown in July acquired Taylor Benefit Services and Neonatal Consultation Services Inc. of Atlanta (BestWire, July 3, 2008).

Brown & Brown (NYSE: BRO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is the 13th-largest broker based on broker revenue in 2007, according to Best's Review's ranking of top global insurance brokers. It offers insurance and reinsurance products and services, as well as risk management, third-party administration, managed health care and Medicare set-aside services and programs.

Shares of Brown & Brown Inc. were selling at $18.64 in afternoon trading on Aug. 11, up 1.69% from the previous close.

(By Chad Hemenway, associate editor, BestWeek: Chad.Hemenway@ambest.com)

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