Two insurance firms with different specialties have formed a referral alliance aimed at private business owners whose coverage needs span both commercial lines and life insurance planning.
Afore Insurance Services, an Alpharetta, Georgia-based brokerage with more than 20 offices nationwide, and Ascent Insurance Advisors, a Fort Mitchell, Kentucky-based life insurance and wealth transfer planning firm, announced the arrangement. Under the alliance, each firm refers clients to the other. Neither compensates the other for referrals, and both continue to operate independently.
Business owners typically carry two distinct categories of insurance risk. One renews annually: commercial property and liability, employee health and benefits programs, and personal lines coverage. The other plays out over decades: life insurance for a buy-sell agreement, estate liquidity, and key-person protection. These two sides of the picture are almost never handled by the same firm.
Afore's book runs across commercial property and casualty, personal lines, and group employee benefits, including health, group life, and voluntary coverage. Ascent designs and places high-end life insurance for estate planning, business succession, and family protection, working alongside clients' attorneys, accountants, and trust officers. The alliance gives each firm's clients a direct path to the other's specialty, without either firm building that capability in-house.
"Insurance planning works better when someone is looking at the whole picture," said Kenny Kinman, managing partner of Ascent Insurance Advisors. "A client's risks don't sort themselves into neat categories."
Afore has grown through acquisition. It entered Kentucky in February 2026 through the purchase of Myron K. Hobbs & Co., putting it in Ascent's home market. Since late 2024, it has completed at least five confirmed acquisitions across Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Kentucky. It has also secured a senior credit facility from Crestline Investors in September 2024 to support continued growth.
For an Afore advisor whose employer client also owns a business, the alliance creates a referral path to buy-sell planning, key-person coverage, and estate liquidity work. Afore's local advisors are already inside those employer relationships through group benefits and employee benefits programs.
The same referral logic runs the other direction: Ascent clients who need commercial property, personal lines, or group benefits now have a connection to Afore. Ascent is affiliated with Valmark Financial Group, a national network supporting independent life insurance and wealth planning practices.
"Our clients look to us to help protect what they've built, their property, their business, and their people," said Joe Guercio, president and chief operating officer of Afore Insurance Services. "This relationship with Ascent extends that."
The alliance is aimed at private business owners, where commercial, personal, and life insurance needs converge. An owner needs commercial liability and employee benefits for the business, and personal lines for the family. The same owner may need life insurance to fund a buy-sell agreement, key-person coverage, or liquidity to cover estate tax obligations.
