Brooks Insurance merges with USI

March 30--The Brooks Insurance Agency has been sold to a major New York insurance firm, though the company's president said the downtown Toledo office will continue to operate more-or-less independently from its new corporate parent.

Dennis Johnson, Brooks' longtime president, said the deal came about after he approached USI Insurance Services about a potential merger. USI, based just outside New York City, is one of the country's largest insurance brokers, with 150 offices across the United States.

"For us to grow and evolve we needed to merge with a larger firm that provided more financial certainty for our people, and brought more resources to us to provide better service to our customers and prospects," Mr. Johnson said.

Though the sale has not yet been publicly announced, most of Brooks' clients have been briefed on the deal.

Mr. Johnson, who is staying on as president, said little will change for clients as result of the sale.

"This won't affect their insurance programs. The people they've dealt with, they will continue to deal with," he said. "What they will begin to see as we make the change and integration is our ability to show them new and different things."

Brooks, founded in 1922, works predominantly with privately held, middle-market businesses, offering property and casualty insurance, employee benefit plans, and contractor bonding. Brooks does offer individual consumer insurance, though it's not a large part of the firm's business. The company employs 75 people.

As it stands now, most of Brooks' clients are in the greater Toledo area. As a subsidiary of USI, Mr. Johnson said, Brooks will have widened opportunities across Ohio and into Michigan.

A call to USI's corporate office wasn't returned Tuesday. Terms of the deal were not released.

Mr. Johnson said Brooks' business has been good in recent years, and the deal with USI should only help them accelerate their growth.

One thing that absolutely won't change, Mr. Johnson said, is Brooks' community support.

"That won't go away. We were recognized last week as the company for caring by the United Way. Those activities are going to continue," he said.

Brooks will maintain its office and headquarters at 1120 Madison Ave. as well as a small satellite office in Bowling Green. The company is keeping the Brooks name. Mr. Johnson said the firm will be known as Brooks Insurance, a subsidiary of USI Insurance Services.

Contact Tyrel Linkhorn at [email protected] or 419-724-6134.

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