BrickStreet Acquisition of HM's Workers' Comp Business Official

Tuesday, August 2, 2016 | 0

BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co. officially acquired the workers’ compensation block of business from Pittsburgh-based HM Insurance Group on Monday, adding 115 HM employees and moving closer to adding another regional headquarters.

Greg Burton

By the first quarter of 2017, BrickStreet projects it will write workers’ comp policies in 16 states as it continues its regional expansion, CEO Greg Burton told wvmetronews.com.

When the deal was inked last month, Burton would not disclose the purchase price but said the acquisition was worth $120 million in annual premiums. BrickStreet will build a regional headquarters in Pittsburgh to go with regional offices in Napierville, Illinois, and Charlotte, North Carolina; and its Charleston, West Virginia, headquarters.

The West Virginia Legislature created BrickStreet in 2005 as a quasi-private company and jumpstarted it with a $200 million loan. Since privatizing workers’ comp, the state projects total premium savings of $352 million, including a proposed 14.7% reduction in loss cost rates for next year.

Now with 500 employees, BrickStreet does business in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. It has a small footprint in Delaware and New Jersey, and has applied to do business in Georgia, Iowa and Kansas.

“In 2003, the workers’ comp system was losing a $1 million a day” in West Virginia and had a $3 billion unfunded liability, Burton told wvmetronews.com.