Insurance Veteran Seizes Opportunity in Acquiring Agencies

Robert S. Goldstein, former chairman and CEO of the managing general agency BenefitPort Mid-Atlantic, has come out of retirement to launch Unique Insurance Concepts LLC, a Palm Beach, Fla.-based holding company that aims to acquire surety agencies.

Goldstein, who sold BenefitPort Mid-Atlantic to a unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. three years after buying the firm in 2005 from Marsh & McLennan's MMC Capital, says this is a “marvelous opportunity” for agents interested in selling their agencies.

As the Bush-era tax cuts are expected to end this year, Goldstein says agents should seize the opportunity to sell their agencies now to maximize returns on their years of effort before capital-gains taxes increase.

While Goldstein would not go into detail to NU about his backers or the capital arrangements, the game plan for Unique Insurance Concepts is to create a national network of surety and surety-related P&C insurance agencies through acquisition.

Goldstein says there is a clear vision to put together a company of low-loss-ratio, profitable agencies that provide for customers in a competitive market.

Among Unique Insurance's targets will be agencies that specialize in the surety business or P&C firms “that work well with surety” agencies, Goldstein says, such as an agency that specializes in contractors who need bonds to fulfill construction contracts.

An aspect of the Unique Insurance approach likely to appeal to sellers: It will be offering principals either an opportunity to continue with the firm in a senior-management capacity or to take a buy-out. Sellers will not be obligated to remain with the firm and take an earn-out of future profits the agency may produce as their compensation for the sale.