UIM Holding Group and its subsidiary, Universal Fire & Casualty Company (UFCIC) have merged with Shield Indemnity to form a new property and casualty-focused holding company, Universal Shield Insurance Group (USIG).
“Under the umbrella of Universal Shield, UFCIC and Shield Indemnity will serve the commercial P&C marketplace as a multi-line, multi-product, multi-market brand embracing strong, highly responsive distribution partners, customer service portals, innovative technologies, unique product positioning, and advanced analytics leveraging AI and big data resources,” said Christopher Timm (pictured above), formerly CEO of UFCIC and now also CEO of USIG.
UFCIC is an admitted insurer and insurtech with a strategic product and technology focus and a specialization in underwriting commercial P&C and specialty surety. Shield Indemnity, which historically focused on general liability, was restructured as a surplus lines company. The merger will allow the companies to offer a broad range of products and deploy combined capital through an intercompany pooling arrangement.
The combined enterprise will be managed by UFCIC’s existing executive leadership team, including: Timm as CEO, Richard Klimaszewski as president and chief operating officer, John Lucker as executive vice president and chief strategy/analytics officer, Travis Harrison as senior vice president and chief financial officer, Brian Lietzke as senior vice president of specialty surety, Steven Jokerst as senior vice president and chief actuary, Sandra Nance as vice president and chief underwriting officer, Tim Ellis as vice president and chief information officer, and John Catrabone as vice president and chief distribution officer.
In addition, Anthony Modd joins from Shield as executive vice president and executive counsel, and UIM chairman Thomas Parker will serve as chairman of USIG.
“Commercial lines P&C insurance is intensely competitive,” Timm said. “By leveraging our admitted and surplus lines expertise and capabilities, Universal Shield will continue to operate at the forefront of the insurance and insurtech marketplace.”
