Sixty-five insurance industry companies are being recognized in this year's Business Insurance Best Places to Work in Insurance program, tying a record set last year.

Best Places to Work is a joint effort of Business Insurance and the Harrisburg, Pa.-based Best Companies Group.

The competition, which involves months of in-depth evaluation, is open to all publicly or privately held property/casualty insurers, group life/health insurers, retail agents and brokers, wholesale brokers/managing general agents, reinsurers, reinsurance brokers, benefits brokers and advisers, and claims managers with at least 25 employees in the United States and serving the commercial insurance market.

This is the fifth year for the Best Places to Work in Insurance program. Companies recognized this year range in size from 28 to 8,399 employees.

The 65 companies recognized this year have created high-quality workplaces in which employees can thrive and enjoy doing so. Companies recognized this year offer traditional and nontraditional benefits to their employees.

Best Companies Group, an independent workplace excellence research firm that manages other industry and regional programs in the United States and Canada, managed the registration process, conducted the surveys, evaluated the data and selected the firms chosen as Best Places to Work in Insurance.

The assessment involved a two-part process. One part, responsible for 75% of a company's score, involved a confidential employee engagement and satisfaction survey, which was used to evaluate employees' workplace experience and the company's culture. The other part, which was responsible for the remaining 25% of the score, consisted of an employer questionnaire, which collected information about each company's benefit programs, policies practices and other general information.

The Best Companies Group experts use the data to conduct an in-depth analysis of the strengths and opportunities at each company. Each company has to demonstrate a minimum standard of excellence to earn a spot on the list of Best Places to Work in Insurance. No company automatically receives recognition. Even if a company is the only one registered in its category, it still must meet the criteria.

Business Insurance will reveal how the companies ranked and take a closer look at the 65 companies honored in a special report in the Oct. 21 issue.

Business Insurance also will recognize the companies and celebrate their achievement at an Oct. 15 awards luncheon in Chicago.

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Participation in the program was free, although participating companies can buy the BCG Employee Feedback Report that summarizes data collected in the employee survey process.

In addition, the report includes transcribed employee written comments, as well as the industry benchmarking data — which compares companies of similar size — from the participating companies.

The 2013 honorees are:

• Accident Fund Insurance Co. of America, Lansing, Mich.

• AdvoCare Group, Cleveland

• AH&T Insurance, Leesburg, Va.

• Alltrust Insurance Inc., Palm Harbor, Fla.

• Amerisure Mutual Insurance Co., Farmington Hills, Mich.

• ARAG Insurance Co., Des Moines, Iowa

• Associated Agencies Inc., Rolling Meadows, Ill.

• Assurance Agency Ltd., Schaumburg, Ill.

• Avalon Risk Management, Elk Grove Village, Ill.

• Benefits Resource L.L.C., Aliso Viejo, Calif.

• Berkley Mid-Atlantic Group L.L.C., Glen Allen, Va.

• Berkley North Pacific, Meridian, Idaho

• BMS Intermediaries Inc./JHIS, Edina, Minn.

• Burnham Benefits Insurance Service, Irvine, Calif.

• Business Benefits Group, Fairfax, Va.

• Cambridge Consulting Group, Troy, Mich.

• Fred C. Church Insurance Inc., Lowell, Mass.

• Comp West Insurance Co., San Francisco

• Discovery Benefits Inc., Fargo N.D.

• Dubraski & Associates Insurance Services L.L.C., San Diego

• Eastern Insurance Holdings Inc., Lancaster, Pa.

• Edgewood Partners Insurance Center, San Francisco

• Energi Insurance Services Inc., Peabody, Mass.

• Falvey Insurance Group Ltd., North Kingstown, R.I.

• First Person Inc., Indianapolis

• GFI Insurance Services Inc., New York

• Gilsbar Inc., Covington, La.

• GNW-Evergreen Insurance Services L.L.C., Encino, Calif.

• Great American Insurance Group, Cincinnati

• Gunn Mowery L.L.C., Lemoyne, Pa.

• HNI Risk Services Inc., New Berlin, Wis.

• Higginbotham & Associates, Fort Worth, Texas

• Hoffman Brown Co., Sherman Oaks, Calif.

• Holmes Murphy & Associates, West Des Moines, Iowa

• Hylant Group Inc., Toledo, Ohio

• The Insurance Exchange Inc., Rockville, Md.

• Insurance Program Managers Group IPMG, St. Charles, Ill.

• Kapnick Insurance Group, Adrian, Mich.

• Liazon Corp., New York

• Lockton Cos. L.L.C., Kansas City, Mo.

• M3 Insurance Solutions Inc., Madison, Wis.

• Maiden Reinsurance Co., Mount Laurel, N.J.

• MarketScout, Dallas

• McGraw Wentworth, Troy, Mich.

• The MGIS Cos. Inc., Salt Lake City

• myMatrixx L.L.C., Tampa, Fla.

• The Odell Studner Group, Radnor, Pa.

• Partners Rx Management L.L.C., Scottsdale, Ariz.

• Penn National Insurance, Harrisburg, Pa.

• Philadelphia Insurance Cos., Bala Cynwyd, Pa.

• The Plexus Groupe L.L.C., Deer Park, Ill.

• Poms & Associates Insurance Brokers Inc., Woodland Hills, Calif.

• Precept Insurance Solutions L.L.C., Irvine, Calif.

• Pritchard & Jerden Inc., Atlanta

• Ross & Yerger Insurance Inc., Jackson, Miss.

• Safety National Casualty Corp., St. Louis

• Scirocco Group, Hasbrouck Heights, N.J.

• Seubert & Associates Inc., Pittsburgh

• SilverStone Group, Omaha, Neb.

• J. Smith Lanier & Co., West Point, Ga.

• Swingle Collins & Associates, Dallas

• United Heartland, New Berlin, Wis.

• Unum Group, Chattanooga, Tenn.

• West Bend Mutual Insurance Co., West Bend, Wis.

• Wortham Insurance & Risk Management, Houston