McDougall Insurance and Financial (McDougall) recently solidified its merger with Burr Insurance. All Burr Insurance employees will remain with the organization, and their branch will be merging into the McDougall office in Belleville, ON.

Read more: McDougall Insurance merges operations with Burr Insurance

“We’re very bullish on how Burr Insurance will do as part of McDougall - we think the retention on this particular brokerage will be very high, and that’s always what you look for when you make an acquisition,” McDougall Insurance CEO Ross McDougall told Insurance Business.

“The ability to meet face to face with Jim Burr and his staff wasn’t always available during this merger so some of it had to be done remotely, but it really didn’t present much more of a challenge,” McDougall explained.

“For [McDougall] it’s important that the fit of the brokerage matches our culture,” he added. “We are in a lot of smaller cities and rural areas of the province, and we’ll probably stay that way for the foreseeable future.”

Read next: McDougall Insurance lifts lid on aggressive acquisition strategy

Mergers are a regular part of McDougall’s business and it is a strategy the CEO plans to continue following. “We currently have 40 locations and hope to increase that in the fullness of time,” he said.

McDougall Insurance plans to continue the tradition of merging with two to three brokerages per year. Last year was particularly busy with six brokerages being added to its business. This year, the only deal completed has been with Burr Insurance, but McDougall said that there are still possibilities for more mergers by the end of 2021.

“We feel that there is a benefit to being larger,” McDougall said. “It gives us more input with the insurance companies, and it gives us more ability to specialize in certain areas of insurance.”