USA Risk Group
Paul Macey, president of USA Risk Group, discusses the company’s recent senior management buyout and says that after a turbulent 18 months the future is bright
In May, the senior management team of independent captive management firm USA Risk Group completed a management buyout from Spencer Capital Holdings, four years after the investment firm acquired the company.
The past 18 months, bookended by the departure of Gary Osborne in December 2017 and last month’s buyout, have been rocky for USA Risk Group, but the completion of the buyout marks an opportunity for the company to move forward in the right direction.
We spoke to Paul Macey, president of USA Risk Group, about the buyout, what it means for the company, and what their clients can expect.
What was the motivation behind the buyout?
The previous owners, Spencer Capital Holdings, were looking for an exit strategy and this provided the existing management team with an opportunity to control their own destiny by taking control of the company through a management buy-out.
Talk us through the timeline of the buyout? Is this something that has been in the pipeline for a while?
The management team has been working on this for about six months once we became aware of Spencer’s desire to exit the business.
As you know we recently completed the purchase after all regulatory approvals for the change of ownership were in place.
We brought the non-US businesses through a stock purchase and we will continue to trade under the USA Risk Group name which is recognised in the industry.
We continue to manage some of the US domiciled clients and others have found new managers after they were given notice that the US operations were being closed down.
We have received approval from a number of US state regulators to be able to provide management services to those clients that wanted to stay with us.
Will you be looking to grow your client base in those US states?
We will be looking to grow our client base across all domiciles.
USA Risk Group has always been a multi-domiciled manager and that will continue although perhaps on a smaller scale than before.
We will look to expand into other domiciles to meet the demand of our clients and prospects.
What impact will the buyout have on USA Risk Group?
We have retained the USA Risk Group name and it will be business as usual as far as our clients are concerned.
The ownership has changed but we will continue to operate with the same team of dedicated staff from the same offices and with the same systems.
We didn’t want any client to be affected by the purchase from an operational perspective and we have achieved that.
We have a very experienced team of managers and our initial focus will be to continue to provide the high level of service to our clients that we are known for.
The company has gone through a number of changes over the last 18 months or so and a period of stabilisation will be welcome to our employees.
The message we want to get out there is that USA Risk Group is still in business despite a difficult 18 months or so and we look forward to the future with renewed optimism.
What impact will the senior management buyout have on your clients?
We don’t think there is any impact. Our account management team is intact in all the domiciles from which we operate, and we continue to use the same systems.
Our name remains the same and the only change is that senior management are now running the business and making the decisions.
We believe this is a positive change that we will allow us to concentrate on what we are good at—servicing clients and looking after their interests. That will be our focus.
What plans do you have for USA Risk Group moving forward?
The industry is facing many challenges especially the non-US domiciles and it is important that insurance managers understand these challenges.
We want to continue to develop our employees and give them the skills necessary to be able to provide the very best service to our clients.
We are looking at all areas of how we provide services to our clients to see how we can improve.
Although it may be somewhat of a cliché our mission is to provide the very best service to our clients that we can and we believe this will stand us in good stead for the future.
