Mid York Associates merges with Alpha Associates [Business Journal, The (Central New York)]

Large groups often have advantages, even for independent insurance agencies.

An association of independent agencies in Central New York and the Southern Tier will try to lap into some of those advantages at the beginning of 2012 by merging with a band of agencies to their west.

Mid York Associates, Inc., a cluster of six independent insurance agencies in locations south of Syracuse and the Finger Lakes, is merging with Alpha Associates, Inc., a collection of 13 independent agencies with offices in Western New York and Western Pennsylvania.

The combination will help agency owners share management strategies and network. It will also give member agencies access to group discounts when purchasing from vendors, according to Alpha President Julius Aebly, Jr.

"Think about it from the perspective of competing against the huge behemoth brokerage firms that are out there," says Aebly, who is also principal of the West Seneca-based insurance firm The Walsh Group.

"It enables a smaller to medium-sized agency to be able to come to a client and have tools and markets and carriers and abilities that they wouldn't normally have on their own," Aebly says. "That helps the client out, first and foremost. That helps the agent out. That's good for the carrier."

The merged cluster will keep the name Alpha Associates, Inc. It will have 19 members in 30 locations throughout New York and Pennsylvania.

Alpha operates on a one-member, one-vote concept according to Aebly. Individuals who own more than one agency count as one Alpha member only.

The two groups have been considering a merger for several years and examined each other in-depth before deciding to combine, Aebly says. Their vetting process included examining carrier reports and interviewing carrier representatives.

"It was a very involved and a very long process," Aebly says. "What we saw was two clusters that looked and felt and operated identically."

Members voted to approve the union July 12. It will be effective Jan. 1.

The merged group does not have plans to rent any space for an Alpha Associates, Inc. office. That keeps with the practices of both Mid York and Alpha, neither of which had a physical location. Instead, the cluster will hold bimonthly meetings in Batavia.

"Batavia seems to be the most central location," Aebly says. "Pretty much everybody's going to drive a couple hours to get to the meeting."

Before the merger, Alpha met in Arcade (Wyoming County), while Mid York rotated the location of its meetings between its members offices, Aebly says.

Once the merger is complete, Alpha will start working to add new support services for its members, according to Aebly. Those services include cost-effective advertising, website assistance, and serial-media help.

The merger will also give some duster members access to new insurance carriers. Members will have access to about 10 new carriers, he says.

The enlarged Alpha will be made up of members who employ more than 140 people and represent more than 35 insurance carriers. Its property and casualty and life and health premium volume will total more than $100 million.

Before merging, Alpha's premium volume was about $65 million, according to Aebly. Mid York generated premiums totaling approximately $40 million, he says

No agencies split from merging clusters because of the combination Aebly will remain as president of Alpha, while Andy Sprague, whose agency had been a member of Mid York, will be vice president.

Sprague is president of Corning-based Sprague Insurance. The other Mid York companies joining Alpha include Watkins Glen-based David L. Sidle Agency, Inc; Tully-based Hayes Agency Inc.; and Cortland-based Tanner-Ibbotson, Inc.

George B. Bailey Agency, Inc., which has offices in Dryden and Cortland, is another Mid York Agency joining Alpha. So is Robert C. Dempsey Agency, which has offices in Groton, Auburn, and Moravia.