Delaware Business Insurance Update , Nationwide /Harleysville Merger Settled, Now What?

A few years ago Nationwide bought Harleysville Mutual Insurance company. The deal which gave current shareholders a nice gain , was said to have dealt some unfair cards to the mutal policholders whose only prize was to become Nationwide policy holders. Well as you can guess, a class action law suit was filed. Today it was announced that Nationwide settled the suit for 28 million. They stated the settlement was not an admission of doing anything wrong, but was to avoid costly litigation. What now?  Does the law suit stifle future mergers or aquisitions of stock companies buying smaller mutual companies? Will mutual policy holders have a stronger voice in these deals with a fresh case precedent in the books. Does this create a marketplace ripple which has been an increasing shrinking of the insurance company landscape?  My thoughts on this is , "no". No matter the law suits that may come, my prediction is an increasing activities of bigger stock companies buying the customer and policy holder base of smaller mutual companies. This trend will ultimately define what commercial and business insurance looks like in the future. Until next time be careful out there and know your risks. K
G. Kevin Nemith, Small Business and Business Insurance Specialists, Enterprise Risk Management,  serving, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. www.cncinsurance.com   www.bizinsurancetv.org 

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