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Arbella Insurance Group opens dedicated Commercial Lines office in New Hampshire. New office bolsters greater New England presence, signals Arbella's commitment to the state's independent agents. QUINCY, Mass., August 27, 2026 - The Arbella Insurance Group ("Arbella") today announced the opening of its Bedford, New Hampshire commercial lines office, marked by a ribbon-cutting ceremony that took place on Tuesday, August 4th, 2026. The Bedford office gives Arbella its first official commercial lines presence in the state, reflecting the company's growing New Hampshire business and its long-term commitment to the agents and customers it serves there. New Hampshire has become an increasingly important growth market for Arbella's commercial lines business, fueled by expanded agency appointments and deeper engagement from the company's dedicated underwriting and marketing teams in the state. The new office builds on that momentum, establishing a local, dedicated team to serve New Hampshire's independent agents. "Our growth in New Hampshire has been building steadily, and the time is right to establish roots in the state," said Bill Hughes, Senior Vice President and Executive Officer, Commercial Lines at Arbella Insurance Group. "Being close to our agents allows us to build stronger relationships, respond faster, and truly understand the needs of the businesses and communities we serve." Arbella chose Bedford for its central location and proximity to its local agent and company partners across New Hampshire. There are many industries central to Arbella's commercial lines expertise, including contractors, habitational, commercial auto, restaurants, and manufacturing and processing risks. The Bedford office is staffed by a dedicated team of underwriting, marketing, and loss control professionals, with continued plans to grow in New Hampshire. "The commercial insurance market is evolving and becoming more complex, and that makes strong local partnerships more important than ever. Agents want to partner with a carrier that is accessible, responsive, and invested in their success. That is the reputation that we have built across New England," Hughes said. "And that's what we're building in New Hampshire." About the Arbella Insurance Group Established in 1988, the Arbella Insurance Group (www.arbella.com) has an AM Best Financial strength rating of A "excellent" and more than $1 billion in revenue and over $2 billion in assets. Headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts, Arbella is a customer-focused, regional property and casualty insurance company, providing commercial insurance products in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, and personal insurance products in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Recognized as one of the Boston Business Journal's "Best Places to Work" for 17 consecutive years, Arbella is deeply committed to maintaining high levels of employee satisfaction and supporting a positive and inclusive workplace culture. Arbella attributes its success to their dedicated employees, strong agent partnerships, and community focus. Christine Williamson Greenough Communications Insurance for new englanders. Arbella sells insurance through local independent agents and Arbella Insurance Group work with some of the best in the area. They live and work where you do, and their expert advice given with a personal touch can make all the difference in getting you the insurance you really need.

Insurance moves: Willis, Ames & Gough, Acturion, Arbella and FutureProof. FutureProof is moving from MGA to full-stack carrier - and the man running that build scaled Slide Insurance to more than $1 billion in premium in three years. Several insurance organizations announced leadership changes this week, spanning brokerage business development, MGA strategy, board governance and finance leadership. Willis adds a financial institutions specialist in Chicago. Willis, a WTW business, has appointed Paul Haas (pictured, left) as senior director of business development, based in Chicago, where he will lead new business development across the Midwest with a focus on financial institutions risk at the intersection of banking and digital assets. Haas joined Willis on August 10 after 15 years in the industry, most recently as vice president at Marsh McLennan advising banking and finance clients, and previously at Lockton working on complex financial institutions exposures including digital assets. Ryan Pischke, Willis's managing director and regional growth leader for the Midwest, tied the hire directly to how quickly that market is evolving. "We're excited to welcome Paul to Willis at a time when financial institutions are navigating significant change, particularly as banking and digital assets continue to converge," Pischke said. Financial institutions risk sitting at the banking and digital assets intersection is a genuinely underdeveloped specialty, most large brokerages still treat crypto and digital asset custody risk as an emerging line rather than a core financial institutions offering. Haas's background across two major competing brokerages before joining Willis suggests this remains a talent pool small enough that specific individuals, rather than institutional playbooks, are driving how quickly carriers and brokers build capability here. Ames & Gough promotes three in its Washington, DC design firm practice. Ames & Gough has promoted Tracy Benson, Christine Gibboni (pictured, center) and Baynard Stanchina (pictured, right) to assistant vice president in its Washington, DC office, all specializing in risk management and insurance for the firm's design professional clients. Benson joined in 2014 after a decade at USI and holds the CIC, CISR and CLCS designations; Gibboni joined in 2015 with 16 years of industry experience serving Midwest design firm clients; and Stanchina joined in 2024 after serving as a lead underwriter for design firm professional liability coverage, holding the RPLU designation. Tom Marchetti, the firm's president overseeing DC operations, credited all three with consistently delivering results for clients in an increasingly complex risk environment. This is the second Ames & Gough promotion round covered in recent weeks, suggesting the firm is moving through a broader, multi-office round of internal advancement for its design firm specialists rather than a one-off recognition. Acturion names a CFO/COO with three decades in life and annuity finance. Acturion Group has appointed Tamara Kravec as chief financial officer and chief operating officer, overseeing finance, treasury, risk and operations across the platform. Kravec joins from M Financial Group, where she served as chief financial and risk officer, and previously held senior finance roles at American Equity Investment Life and Nationwide, along with equity research positions covering life insurance at Banc of America Securities, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston. Stephan Muecke, Acturion's CEO, said her combination of operating and investor-side experience was distinctive and well suited to the company's growth phase. Acturion positions itself as an insurance and retirement solutions platform spanning insurance, reinsurance, asset management and annuities; a CFO/COO with reinsurance operating experience specifically (from her time overseeing M Financial Re) suggests the company may be building toward more structured reinsurance capacity arrangements, relevant context for brokers and MGAs placing life and annuity business through Acturion-affiliated carriers. Arbella adds technology and agency distribution expertise to its board. Arbella Insurance Group has appointed Martina Conlon and Bob Bizak to its board of directors. Conlon spent more than 30 years in insurance technology, most recently leading the insurance practice at Datos Insights, and previously worked at Arbella itself as director of enterprise technology from 2004 to 2009. Bizak spent 18 years as a partner at Rogers & Gray Insurance before joining Arbella in 2019, where he built extensive relationships with the company's independent agent network. John Donohue, Arbella's board chairman, said Conlon's expertise would help guide the company's digital transformation while Bizak would keep the agent perspective central to board decisions. For Arbella's independent agency partners specifically, Bizak's board seat is a direct, structural channel for agent concerns to reach board-level decisions, a distinction chief executives don't always build in explicitly. Combined with Conlon's technology mandate, the two appointments suggest Arbella is deliberately pairing its digital investment decisions with agent-network input rather than treating them as separate tracks. FutureProof hires a Slide Insurance operations veteran to help build its own carrier. FutureProof Technologies, an AI-native property insurance MGA, has named Jonathan Mertz chief business officer, where he will lead business development, partnerships and go-to-market strategy as the company works to launch its own full-stack property insurance carrier. Mertz joins from Slide Insurance, where as senior vice president of operations he helped scale the company from inception to more than $1 billion in premium revenue in three years and supported its June 2025 IPO, which achieved a valuation exceeding $2 billion on the Nasdaq under the ticker SLDE. Alisa Valderrama, FutureProof's co-CEO, said Mertz's experience building platforms from the ground up through a public market debut was rare. "We have spent the past few years proving out our AI-enabled pricing technology in wildfire and hurricane-exposed markets. Next, we will be standing up our own carrier, which builds on our existing pricing, underwriting and portfolio management technology to include policy administration, distribution, and claims," Valderrama said. This hire signals FutureProof's ambitions have moved well beyond its current MGA and agency model. Slide itself grew rapidly by taking over Citizens policies and acquiring blocks of business exiting carriers in catastrophe-exposed Florida and South Carolina markets. Mertz's specific experience scaling claims and contact center operations during that growth suggests FutureProof may be preparing to pursue a similar rapid-scale strategy in wildfire and hurricane-exposed markets once its own carrier launches, relevant for wholesale brokers and agents currently placing business through FutureProof's existing MGA who may see the company's role in their placements shift from MGA partner to direct carrier.

Arbella Insurance Group has appointed Martina Conlon and Bob Bizak to its board of directors. Conlon brings over 30 years of insurance technology experience, most recently leading the insurance practice at Datos Insights. She previously served as Arbella's director of enterprise technology from 2004 to 2009. Bizak has more than 40 years of insurance industry experience and joined Arbella in 2019 as head of sales and marketing after 18 years as a partner at Rogers & Gray Insurance. The Massachusetts-based insurer, established in 1988, has over $1 billion in revenue and $2 billion in assets. It provides commercial and personal insurance products across Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.