Zurich Insurance Group subsidiary
Zurich American Insurance Company (ZAIC) announced April 1 that it has fully acquired Rural Community Insurance Agency, Inc. (RCIA), as well as its subsidiary Rural Community Insurance Company (RCIC).
Collectively, both RCIA and RCIC are known as known as Rural Community Insurance Services (RCIS), one of the country’s top crop insurance providers.
Zurich entered into an agreement with Wells Fargo & Company, owner of RCIS, in December 2015 to purchase the crop insurer. RCIS was purchased for $700 million, and the acquisition became effective on March 31.
“As we have worked over the last few months to complete this acquisition, farmers in much of the United States have been preparing for the spring planting season,” said Zurich North America Commercial CEO and regional chairman of North America Mike Foley.
“During this time, we’ve had an opportunity to meet the people that make up RCIS and are proud to welcome them to the Zurich team. They bring a national distribution footprint with highly specialized agents and a strong service reputation, insuring one in six farmers in the U.S. We greatly respect their expertise and look forward to having them as colleagues.”
Following the acquisition, RCIS will operate as a standalone unit within Zurich North America Commercial’s Programs & Direct Markets (P&DM) business unit.
The acquisition of RCIS marks Wells Fargo’s departure from the crop insurance market.
“On behalf of Wells Fargo, we want to recognize the excellent work that went into ensuring the completion of this important transaction,” stated Wells Fargo Insurance head Laura Schupbach. “We thank Zurich for their partnership and look forward to continuing to work together as they remain an important carrier for our brokerage business.”
