Jencap adds Special Risk and MJ Kelly to new MGA platform Jencap Insurance Services

Private equity-owned wholesale program management and binding authority specialist Jencap Group has pulled together its Special Risks Facilities, MJ Kelly and Genesee General subsidiaries and rebranded them Jencap Insurance Services Inc (JCIS).

In early June, New York-based Jencap revealed that Genesee General would be operating under a new name and brand identity - JCIS. Jencap had first acquired Alpharetta, Georgia based Genesee General in January 2018.

And now Jencap has announced that Springfield, Missouri MJ Kelly, which was acquired in September 2016, and Sterling Heights, Michigan-sited Special Risks, bought in July 2017, will also now operate under the JCIS banner.

“In light of the substantial growth of our national distribution platform, Jencap is consolidating some of its operating entities in 2021 and rebranding them to bear the Jencap name,” said Mark Maher, president of Jencap.

“These rebranding efforts and enhanced divisional structure are part of a larger Jencap strategic plan that positions us for continued significant marketplace growth.”

Taras Shalay, president of Special Risks, said rebranding to Jencap gives his business access to an expanded suite of services, specialty programs, brokerage markets and niche underwriting expertise across the US.

Jencap was formed in March 2016 by private equity giant The Carlyle Group and Jencap management as a platform to consolidate specialty insurance businesses, including MGAs, program managers and transactional wholesale brokers.

Since then, the company has emerged as the fifth largest wholesaler in the US, with over 700 staff in some 45 offices across the country.

It operates two divisions: JCIS, an MGA platform that specialises in wholesale brokerage and binding authority underwriting, and Jencap Program Administrators which is a full-service program underwriter, MGA and underwriter.

Last year private equity firms Oak Hill Capital and The Carlyle Group combined their respective investments in retail broker Epic Insurance Brokers & Consultants and Jencap under a new entity called Galway Insurance Holdings, in a move first revealed by The Insurer.

In December 2020 private equity firm Harvest Partners agreed to take a majority interest in Galway, in a transaction that also saw Oak Hill and The Carlyle Group reinvest alongside the intermediaries’ management team and employee shareholders.