USI buys Ohio-based middle-market insurance brokerage

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio—USI Insurance Services L.L.C. has substantially finalized its acquisition of First Place Insurance Agency Ltd. from Warren, Ohio-based First Place Financial Corp., the companies announced Wednesday.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

First Place Insurance, a middle-market insurance brokerage based in Youngstown, Ohio, is expected to add approximately $3.6 million in annual revenue to USI. In 2010, Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.-based USI Holdings Corp. had $632.3 million in brokerage revenue, making it the eighth-largest largest U.S. broker in the 2011 Business Insurance’s ranking.

“First Place Insurance is a great complement to our existing office in Youngstown,” USI President and CEO Michael Sicard said Wednesday in a statement. “By combining the two offices…we believe we will become the pre-eminent middle-market insurance brokerage in the Youngstown/Warren area.”

First Place Insurance specializes in property/casualty and employee benefits coverage for middle-market businesses, among other insurance offerings.

USI and First Place Financial also entered into a joint marketing agreement, “to provide expanded insurance and related products and services to their respective clients,” according to the companies’ statement.

Steven R. Lewis, First Place Financial’s president and CEO, called USI “an exceptional fit for First Place Insurance clients and employees.”