cale is important to HUB International Limited. Ranked as the world’s fifth-largest insurance broker, HUB’s more than 16,000 employees and 530 offices across North America attest to that fact—including five offices throughout Alaska.
Created in 1998 when eleven Canadian brokers merged, the company entered the US market a year later with Chicago as its corporate headquarters and has continued to evolve as spokes in a wheel.
Steve Wagner is the executive vice president of HUB’s Alaska operations, encompassing offices in Anchorage, Palmer, Fairbanks, Soldotna and, most recently, Juneau. Based out of HUB’s Northwest Region in Bothell, Washington, Wagner is a routine visitor to HUB’s five locations.
“I enjoy coming to Alaska,” says Wagner. “I love the state. I love the people. I love what we do.”
HUB is an “all lines” insurance broker, providing property and casualty insurance, employee benefits, personal lines, and wealth and retirement planning services. HUB’s insurance agents act as the middleman between carrier and client, and that’s where size matters.
“We make sure our clients have the right coverages to suit their business needs, and being big allows for us to negotiate better terms and conditions with the carrier for coverage, prices, and other terms and conditions,” Wagner explains. “It also allows us to bring other tools to the party; by tools I mean resources such as loss control services, claims advocacy, and direct access to wholesale markets.”
That’s important for RSA Engineering, Inc. President Roger Weese.
HUB supplies brokerage for the Anchorage-based company’s health insurance, property, casualty, and professional liability needs.
“They’re a resource for any liability or health insurance question and always happy to help us,” Weese says. “I get approached by other companies and I would never consider switching because HUB provides great customer service and they answer every question we ever had with a well-considered response. Because they are a larger organization, they can pull in a variety of experts.”
“I don’t think HUB got anything out of that,” says Weese. “They just connected us with that company because they knew that’s what we really needed.”
Taylor Fire Protection Services Chief Financial Officer Jeff Taylor echoed a similar response.
Based in Palmer but serving locations statewide, HUB handles the company’s business insurance, including general liability, automobile and professional liability, according to Taylor.
“They’re incredibly personable and treat us well,” says Taylor. “I highly recommend them. They’ve done a good job for us.”
“We acquire local agencies where the owner of the firm hasn’t provided for their own perpetuation needs and they’re looking for a way to capitalize on their hard work over the years,” Wagner says.
Anchorage’s Patterson Insurance Brokers and Gwaltney & Associates joined forces with HUB in 2016 to become the head of the company’s Alaskan Regional Practice.
HUB’s latest acquisition—but the oldest insurance agency acquired—is Shattuck & Grummett Insurance in Juneau, which opened its doors in 1898. Brown Agency and 1st Alaska Insurance had been doing business on the Kenai Peninsula for more than fifty years before being acquired by HUB. And the three agencies in Fairbanks that joined the HUB team came to the firm with more than 150 years of combined experience.
The largest employer of insurance professionals in the state, HUB strives to remain local.
“Some big companies like HUB would like to acquire a firm, say in Soldotna, and move all the business to Anchorage,” says Wagner. “That’s not our approach. We want it to be, when you see someone in Carrs while buying groceries and that’s your insurance broker, you can go up and say hello.”
Today, HUB is the largest insurance broker in Canada, providing a broad array of products and services, including personal insurance, property and casualty, life and health, employee benefits, risk management, and in-house claims services.
“We’re brokers who like to work with contractors and we do a great job for them both in insurance and surety bonding,” Wagner says. “AGC is a valuable resource for the community and it’s a great platform for us to reach out to the community to show our direct involvement and our commitment to the industry and to the state.”