Burns & Wilcox Brokerage recently announced its expansion within the Northeast market. With offices in San Francisco, LA, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, Arizona, and New York, the firm has opened a new office in Boston.
Five brokers have been welcomed to the team; Ryan Ascenzo and Alex Arnold joined the New York City team, while Cooper O’Connor, Brian Sullivan and Josh de Lara will be in the Boston office.
“We’re excited to have some quality individuals join our team,” Denis Brady, president of Burns & Wilcox Brokerage told Insurance Business. “There’s always challenges hiring people and finding the right people, but it was pretty seamless. Once they expressed their interest and we told them a little about our story, it flowed naturally.”
With Boston not far away from New York, Burns & Wilcox saw an opportunity to continue expanding into the Northeast. After hiring professional and casualty brokers, Brady explained that the next step is to bring property and transportation expertise to the market.
“We’re in discussions about looking for some underwriters and building out an MGA platform in the area as well,” Brady added. “Boston is very provincial, and people like to do business locally. I think it’s a great opportunity.”
“We, not only at Burns and Wilcox brokerage, but the Kaufman Group, bring a lot of resources to the table,” said Brady. “We have great market access, we’re on the preferred and approved list of most major retailers, and we’re independent which is somewhat unique these days in the world of consolidation.”
Brady noted that over the last 25 years Burns & Wilcox had grown organically without acquisitions.
“Right from the beginning this has always been about the quality of people that we hire, it didn’t matter where we were, we knew from the onset that we wanted to be national, and in every major city and we have accomplished that,” he said.
