Acordia Inc., a Chicago-based Wells Fargo subsidiary, has bought the Spokane branch assets of global insurance giant Marsh, says Mark Neupert, who had been an executive with Marsh here and now is senior vice president and branch manager for Acordia.


As of last week, the Spokane operation became part of Seattle-based Acordia Northwest Inc., a regional affiliate of the parent company, Neupert says. He says he doesnt expect the ownership change to have any tangible impact on clients.


The ownership change doesnt affect a closely affiliated Mercer Health & Benefits LLC operation here that until last fall had been part of Marsh, he says.


The Acordia office, which occupies the 14th floor of the Washington Mutual Financial Center, at 601 W. Main, offers property-and-casualty insurance and currently employs 31 people.


Well look forward to grow in the next yearconservatively, (adding) 10 employeesas we expand the personal lines, Neupert says.


Acordia Inc. claims to be the worlds fifth largest insurance broker and the largest bank-owned insurance brokerage in the U.S., with more than 150 offices in 38 states.


Marsh employees here were informed a couple of months ago that the Spokane office would be sold shortly. Acordia was rumored then to be a potential buyer of the operation here because it recently had acquired the assets of Marshs office in Yakima.


The change in ownership follows several recent transitions involving Marshs Spokane office, which just a few years ago had employed 125 people here but since then had seen its work force shrink steadily.


Last fall, as part of a broad corporate restructuring, the office split into separate, but affiliated entities following a partial merger involving Marsh and Mercer Human Resource Consulting, both of which are units of New York-based Marsh & McLennan Cos. That merger, affecting roughly one-third of the about 60 employees still working in the Marsh office here in October, combined the two companies health-care and group-benefits businesses into a new company called Mercer Health & Benefits.


Also, Curtis Taylor resigned Nov. 1 as the companys Spokane-based regional manager for Eastern Washington and Idaho operations to open a Spokane office for New York City-based Willis Group Holdings Ltd. Willis is one of the worlds largest insurance brokerages and a direct competitor with Marsh.


Marshs Spokane operation was founded here as McGovern Carroll more than 80 years ago. In 1998, after a series of ownership changes, Marsh & McLennan took over and began operating here as Marsh Inc., Marsh & McLennans insurance brokerage arm. It later shortened that name to just Marsh.


Contact Kim Crompton at (509) 344-1263 or via e-mail at kimc@spokanejournal.com.