LIFE INSURANCE
Mercury Insurance | November 19, 2021
Beginning January 3rd, 2022, Mercury Insurance (NYSE: MCY) is rolling out Mercury's My Workplace, a new business model that will allow team members to choose where they want to work. It will give many of the company's team members the freedom to work from home, which may be anywhere in the United States, from the office, or a hybrid combination of both.
"Mercury Insurance has learned a lot about how our team members work and how they have taken care of our policyholders, themselves and their families during the past two years," said Heidi Sullivan Lopez, Mercury Insurance Vice President and Chief Human Capital Officer. "We want to empower them to be their best selves while also providing our customers with the best possible customer service, and we've learned that doesn't have to be from a corporate office."
Mercury team members quickly adapted to telecommuting during the COVID-19 pandemic, while still maintaining the company's high service standards.
"The world has changed and we're changing with it to meet the needs of our team members, customers and agents," said Sullivan Lopez. "This move will strengthen team member experiences and help us attract top talent while we continue to build an incredibly diverse workforce.
Mercury's My Workplace focuses on four areas that will make remote employment possible:
Strengthening Our Culture: Leadership will participate in learning sessions that will improve employee engagement in a digital environment.
Reimagining Our Spaces: Our offices will be transformed into collaboration spaces. Team members, whether at home or in office, will be supported with resources and equipment to further engage with fellow team members.
Communication and Collaboration: We will continue to develop resources and provide tips to enhance connections between fellow team members and customers.
Focusing on Wellbeing: Work-life balance will remain a core emphasis by helping team members achieve equity between personal and professional responsibilities.
About Mercury Insurance
Mercury Insurance (NYSE: MCY) is a multiple-line insurance carrier predominantly offering personal auto, homeowners, renters and commercial insurance through a network of independent agents in Arizona, California, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia, as well as auto insurance in Florida. Mercury writes other lines of insurance in various states, including business owners and business auto, landlord, home-sharing, ride-hailing and mechanical protection insurance.
Since 1962, Mercury has provided customers with tremendous value for their insurance dollar by pairing ultracompetitive rates with excellent customer service. Mercury has earned "A" ratings from A.M. Best and Fitch, as well as ranking highest in the J.D. Power 2021 U.S.
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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Fathom Realty | February 16, 2022
Fathom Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: FTHM), a national, technology-driven, end-to-end real estate services platform integrating residential brokerage, mortgage, title, insurance, and SaaS offerings for brokerages and agents, today announced that its subsidiary, Encompass Lending Group, has acquired Washington, D.C.-based Cornerstone First Financial, a residential mortgage lender. The acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive. Other terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Cornerstone First Financial provides a full range of residential lending solutions to individuals and families, offering mortgages for home purchase, debt consolidation and refinancing, as well as home loans for veterans and first-time home buyers. An equal housing lender, Cornerstone First Financial operates in multiple key markets including California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
"I'm excited to welcome Cornerstone to our Fathom family. Mark Livingstone and his team bring a unique expertise to Encompass Lending, and once implemented across many of our markets, could significantly bring more mortgage business to our loan officers, I look forward to fulfilling new lead generation strategies that benefit each of our mortgage, real estate, title and insurance businesses, and as we integrate mortgage lending deeper into our technology platform, we believe we can take this opportunity to an even greater level. When we acquired Encompass Lending in April 2021, I stated that I believed the acquisition could help us attract additional successful mortgage teams and smaller lending operations to our company. I am pleased to prove that statement true through this acquisition of Cornerstone First Financial."
-Josh Harley, Fathom Holdings' founder and CEO.
Recognized by Washingtonian Magazine as one of the top mortgage professionals in Washington, D.C., and a popular radio and podcast personality, Mark Livingstone founded Cornerstone First Financial in 2001 based on ethics-driven principles and an ongoing commitment of providing value and service to clients through education and awareness.
"We are thrilled to add Cornerstone First Financial to the Encompass Lending family, The acquisition enhances our lending platform and adds to our already growing footprint. We are excited to expand the Cornerstone First Financial model beyond being 'the voice' of mortgage lending in Washington, D.C. to being the voice of mortgage lending in the United States."
-Sean Varin, president, Encompass Lending Group.
About Fathom Holdings Inc.
Fathom Holdings Inc. is a national, technology-driven, real estate services platform integrating residential brokerage, mortgage, title, insurance, and SaaS offerings to brokerages and agents by leveraging its proprietary cloud-based software, intelliAgent. The Company's brands include Fathom Realty, Dagley Insurance, Encompass Lending, intelliAgent, LiveBy, Real Results, and Verus Title.
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INSURANCE TECHNOLOGY
Ascend | March 31, 2022
Today, modern insurtech infrastructure companies, Ascend and Stere, announced an anchor partnership. The two companies will be teaming up to provide existing brokers, MGAs, and carriers with the best-in-class digital experiences.
Ascend is the first modern insurance payments platform that provides automated all-in-one financing, collections, and payables. Stere is a one-stop-shop for businesses to find capacity and access digital tools to launch, improve and grow insurance programs. Both companies work to digitize key aspects of the insurance value chain and will be combining forces in a first-of-its-kind anchor partnership to further fuel their customers' growth.
We're incredibly excited to be collaborating with Stere as we enter the next phase of providing the best possible product/service for our customers, They've built an incredible ecosystem that connects "capacity seekers" such as MGAs, insurtechs, or embedded insurance partners, with "capacity providers" like carriers and reinsurers. Stere's capacity marketplace will support our customers' capacity needs and becoming a part of that ecosystem, benefits both ours and their customers."
Ascend Co-Founder & Co-CEO Andrew Wynn.
Stere allows interested parties to easily launch new insurance programs and products, and Ascend makes it easy to handle all aspects of payments for those new programs.
Working with Ascend further expands and strengthens the roster of network vendor partners our clients have easy access to via our digital ecosystem, Our mission is to be a go-to capacity marketplace for MGAs, reinsurers, and carriers as well as offer them a secure platform where they can launch and grow insurance programs with ease. By restructuring and modernizing insurance payments infrastructure, something that is long overdue, Ascend addresses a long-standing industry pain point and empowers our clients to increase their process efficiencies."
Stere CEO and Founder Dogan Kaleli.
This is the first of many partnerships Ascend will be investing in to deepen its relationships with other insurtechs, MGAs, AMS, and other embedded insurance carriers to complement the strategic ambitions of companies in the insurance market.
About Ascend
Ascend is the modern insurance payments platform that provides automated all-in-one financing, collections, and payables. Founded by two-time insurtech entrepreneurs Andrew Wynn and Praveen Chekuri, Ascend helps distributors sell more by eliminating labor-intensive, expensive processes while providing customers with the great online checkout and financing experience they've come to expect.
About Stere
Stere is a digital ecosystem for insurance programs. With Stere, program leaders source insurance capacity and access digital tools to launch sooner and grow smarter. Stere clients are MGAs, insurtech MGAs, and embedded insurance programs, and their ecosystem partners such as carriers, fronting carriers, reinsurers, brokers, program consultants, and technology providers.
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