NAUGATUCK — Ion Insurance Corp. of Naugatuck has acquired Drescher Insurance Agency in Cheshire, the firms announced.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Ion Insurance has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Drescher, at 92 Main St. in Cheshire, in a deal which went into effect Sept. 1, David Rotatori, chief financial officer of Ion Bank, said in a news release.
Rotatori has served as president of the bank’s sister insurance company for the past six months, but the acquisition will bring in its new president and chief executive officer. David Drescher, owner and founder of the Cheshire agency, became president and CEO of Ion Insurance as of Sept. 1.
Drescher is a 28-year insurance industry veteran who began his career with the New England Insurance Agency of Cheshire in 1986. He served as a regional manager for CNA Warranty, Specialty Underwriters Inc. for two years, before spending three years as a senior vice president in the bank distribution division of Webster Insurance.
Drescher Insurance was founded in 2003. All seven of its employees will join Ion Insurance, increasing Ion’s staff to about 20, Mary Kay Andrews, vice president of Ion Insurance, said in the release.
Andrews said the deal will be seamless and won’t affect customers of either agency.
“This is just one more step down the road of bringing better service and a wider and deeper variety of products to our customers,” she said in the release.
The deal will increase the number of insurance carriers customers can access, and will strengthen and solidify the agency’s relationship with those carriers, Rotatori said in the release.
“There is always an advantage to having greater size,” he said.
Because the Drescher agency is technologically sophisticated, the acquisition will also help Ion Insurance introduce technological enhancements and improvements to its operation, Rotatori said.
The acquisition comes just over a week after Ion Insurance announced plans to relocate its operation to a new, 5,000-square-foot headquarters at 24 Cherry St. in Naugatuck. The company, which is affiliated with Ion Bank, said previously that the new headquarters will give it a larger and more visible location. The move is expected to be completed by Oct. 23, Rotatori said.
