HAMILTON, Bermuda—Marsh Inc. said Friday that it acquired independent captive manager International Advisory Services Ltd. in a deal that will further strengthen Marsh's position as the largest captive manager in Bermuda.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

In 2008, Marsh Captive Services (Bermuda) managed 295 captives, with premium volume of $7.5 billion, while IAS had 190 captives under management with $6.1 billion in premium volume.

IAS' roughly 100 employees, including founder and Chief Executive Officer David Ezekiel and Executive Vp and Chief Operating Officer David Pickering, are expected to join Marsh.

“When we are looking to invest in our core businesses, we really do it from the perspective of identifying and strengthening our ability to serve our clients,” said Michael Cormier, managing director and chief executive officer of Marsh's Global Captive Solutions Practice in New York.

The addition of IAS makes Marsh bigger, “but we were already big enough in Bermuda….Additional size here wasn't what we were looking for,” he said. “This gives us a chance to attract some of the best talent in the industry. If you look at the impact that Bermuda has had on our global business, we have office heads around the world who started their careers with us in Bermuda, got to know the industry and have become good practitioners from being in that diverse and dynamic market. Now this gives our new colleagues at IAS the same opportunities to expand their careers around our global network as well.”

In terms of capabilities, Mr. Cormier noted that IAS has an “exceptional reputation” in providing services to start-up insurance companies in Bermuda in addition to traditional captive management services.

“As an independent, one of the real appeals here is Marsh's strength in terms of offering not only a global capability for our captives, but on the insurance side a much wider range of solutions,” said Mr. Ezekiel, who was named chairman and managing director of Marsh Captive Services (Bermuda). Because much of IAS' business comes from independent brokers, it was equally important that Marsh's business was structured in a way that the captive operations are completely separate from the brokerage operations, Mr. Ezekiel said.

Mr. Cormier noted that 50% of Marsh's global captive clients come from outside Marsh's retail brokerage network.

Jill Husbands remains responsible for the day-to-day operations of Marsh Captive Services (Bermuda), while IAS' Mr. Pickering has been named COO of Marsh's Global Captive Solutions practice based in Bermuda.