Under one roof, APCI will speak fornearly 60% of the U.S. property-casualty market. It has 160employees as a result of the merger and an operating budget of $53million per year. It will have member companies domiciledin 49 states with Alaska being the exception.

2018 was a major year for insurance agency mergersand acquisitions, and 2019 is starting off to a similarbeat.

The respective memberships of the American InsuranceAssociation (AIA) and the Property Casualty Insurers Association ofAmerica (PCI) have approved a merger. As of Jan. 1, 2019, theAmerican Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCI) will housethe combined organizations.

AIA and PCI formally indicated that the possibility of a merger could happen in June2018, but David A. Sampson, president and CEO of APCI,revealed that the idea was first proposed in July2017. (He held the same title with PCI prior to its mergerwith AIA.) He added that both organizations' boards recommended thetransaction, and it was overwhelmingly approved by bothorganizations' members.

A compelling case for members was the accretive value the mergerwould entail. Sampson says members will benefit through an"unparalleled footprint" that will "represent themembership at the state and federal level, and even ininternational regulatory venues."

Related: PCI elects new officers to its Board ofGovernors

APCI's new beginnings

As a result of the merger, the initial board of directors willbe a combination of AIA and PCI's board. The current AIAboard chair, Anthony J. Kusczinski, president and CEO of MunichReinsurance America Inc., will serve as the new APCI board chair.He will be followed by Pete McPartland, chairman of the board,president and CEO of Sentry Insurance, and chair of the board ofgovernors of PCI.

APCI's first board meeting will occur later this month. Itslegislative agenda is still being harmonized, but Sampsonanticipates the following will be key priorities in 2019:

• The tort and legal environment around the country;
• Preserving risk-based pricing;
• Long-term reauthorization of the National FloodInsurance Program (NFIP);
• Cultivating greater space and opportunity for private floodmarkets; and
• Reauthorization of the Terrorism Risk InsuranceAct (TRIA)

Under one roof, APCI will speak for nearly 60% of the U.S.property-casualty market. It has 160 employees as a result of themerger, an operating budget of $53 million per year and will havemember companies domiciled in 49 states with Alaska being theexception.

Sampson believes the association will come to policy decisionsmuch more quickly now and proactively shape the debate on theissues with a "united industry voice."

"The focus was really on how can we combine the best of theseorganizations so that the industry is much better prepared to shapethe future discussions of how the industry responds to all of theseissues," says Sampson. "I think it's a real testament tothe vision of both board leaderships to focus on what's[the] best positioning for the industry and the futuregiven how rapidly the industry is changing with technologyand innovation, as well as the emerging threats to the industrywith increased natural disasters and catastropheswe've seen in recent years."

Related: Taking the mystery out of insurance agencyM&As