Higginbotham buys entertainment brokerage

Higginbotham Insurance Group Inc. has acquired Ascend Insurance Brokerage, a Dallas-based firm specializing in placing insurance for the entertainment industry.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Ascend CEO Paul Bassman will become a managing director of Higginbotham and the 13-person unit will operate as Ascend, a Higginbotham Company, Fort Worth-based Higginbotham said in a statement Wednesday.

Higginbotham is the 24th largest broker of U.S. business, according to Business Insurance’s most recent ranking. Last month, it bought another Texas brokerage.