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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Broker Hires Industry Insiders

GNW-Evergreen Insurance Services LLC has recruited experienced industry insiders for its new entertainment division which the company hopes will boost its prominence as a major player in the industry. Offering risk management and insurance services for the entertainment industry is nothing new for the Encino-based company that has been around since the 1930s. However, it was only in April that the company created an official division for the industry service sector, said Andrew Forchelli, who has been the company’s president for a year and has been with the company for nearly five years. “Our vision for the firm is to be the pre-eminent independently owned insurance broker in Los Angeles and Southern California,” Forchelli said. “The entertainment community is just such a cornerstone of the economy in Los Angeles that we felt like in order to really fulfill that vision, we needed the absolute best people in the entertainment space as part of our team.” The division was officially formed after the company hired its senior vice president, Peter Tempkins. Tempkins – a veteran of more than 20 years in providing insurance services for live music tours, outdoor festivals and other major events in entertainment – works from his office in Tennessee. Prior to accepting the post, Tempkins served as national practice leader for Momentous Insurance Brokerage, Inc.’s music and touring division. Two other industry insiders have also signed on. Rochelle Brotter and Jo Ann Pierce were hired as the division’s vice presidents. Brotter was recruited in August to manage the division and Pierce was recruited early last month, serving as a lead producer. Both women have extensive experience working with entertainment-related personal and commercial accounts. Brotter, charged with managing the division, particularly has experience in music and touring and has strong connections to business managers who represent high net worth individuals. Pierce has experience working with rental houses, production companies, high net worth individuals and business management clientele. Forchelli said the two top assets the new division leaders bring are their technical expertise and their industry ties. “(It’s) sort of the relationships they bring – relationships to carriers, relationships to business managers and relationships with potential clients,” he said. “There’s a handful of firms around the country that specialize in the entertainment industry the way we do, but it’s a very hard niche to break into because it’s very reputation-driven.” Brotter said extensive knowledge about the industry is necessary for running the division. “With the music and touring, particularly, it has to do with understanding the business from beginning to end,” she said. “And (it has to do) a lot of ways with the business manager too, understanding their business model and what they need. … It’s not cut and dry, it’s not simple and it’s never the same twice.” Company growth Tempkins and Forchelli said the division’s biggest areas of activity are with live music tours, festivals, shell corporations and high net worth individuals. Sports and film insurance policies are seen as possible areas for further growth. The division also specializes in insurances services for video game publishers and developers, a niche market that Forchelli calls unique to the industry. Forchelli expects that the creation and further expansion of the division will contribute to higher revenues for the company that are already growing. “Our organization is growing at 23 percent year-to-date,” he said. “So we’re in a very aggressive growth mode right now, and that’s on top of double-digit growth last year.” GNW-Evergreen Insurance Services has also expanded in other parts of the country in recent years. In 2009, it acquired two operations, focused in group employee benefits and workers’ compensation, from Employers Direct Corporation. GNW-Evergreen also provides services in general commercial, personal, group benefits and professional liability insurance.

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