The specialty property, casualty insurer and reinsurer, Markel has fully acquired the amateur athletics MGA, Allsport Insurance Marketing.

Brokers will now have access to broader, merged policies with wider coverages because the two companies will no longer worry about their products competing with each other in overlapping coverages according to Gina Bennett, president of Allsport Insurance Marketing.

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Markel formerly owned half of Allsport and underwrote all of its policies. Now Allsport as a company will be dissolved but its branding will remain and all of its staff will be retained.

“With this merger, it puts our combined strengths into a winning proposition for our brokers and policyholders,” Bennett said. “It will allow the Allsport brand to have a presence in the Eastern and Atlantic regions. I’m going to train a few existing Markel sports underwriters in each region (of Canada) to handle the Allsport style. So that’s another win for brokers.

“We’re in Vancouver. Under the separate organization, I was the sole business development person so I would travel the country to visit brokers. I’d meet with them and come up with some program plans. Now there will be underwriter presence throughout each region. So they’ll (brokers) have better access to the Allsport products.”

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Markel’s systems will become accessible to brokers using Allsport policies, Bennett said, describing the former MGA’s fate as “we’ll remain the same, but better.”

“The Allsport brand will have access to Markel’s coding portals and raters which will be available to the brokers,” Bennett said.

“All of the full staff compliment will remain. I had multi-skilled employees, I had an underwriter who did our accounting - that person will become solely an underwriter.  I, as the president, handled the claims and did all the payroll and benefits. Now I’m moving into being the vice-president for the western region of Markel, so my role will completely change.”  


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