WARSAW, N.Y. — Financial Institutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISI), the parent company of Five Star Bank, has sold the assets of its wholly owned subsidiary SDN Insurance Agency, LLC to NFP Property & Casualty Services, Inc.
The buyer is a subsidiary of New York City–based NFP Corp. and a property and casualty broker and benefits consultant, Financial Institutions said in its April 1 announcement.
As part of the transaction, the SDN team joins NFP, including its president, William Gallagher.
“In the nearly 10 years since we entered the insurance space, it has proven to be a valuable line of business that supported revenue diversification. This transaction allows us to capture strong value premium in this business at an important time, strengthen our capital position and support our continued focus on driving earnings in our core banking business,” Martin Birmingham, president and CEO of both Financial Institutions and Five Star Bank, said in the announcement. “Since 2014, we enhanced SDN’s capabilities and scale through two additional in-market acquisitions and as a result, it has grown into a leading insurance agency in our Western New York market with national reach. We are extremely confident in NFP as the right company to steward SDN’s continued growth for the benefit of its employees and our shared customers.”
Financial Institutions is based in Warsaw in Wyoming County in Western New York. Five Star Bank has about 50 retail branches located throughout Western and Central New York. Its CNY branches include offices in Auburn, Waterloo, Geneva, Ovid, Horseheads, and Elmira.
Five Star Bank in February 2023 announced its expansion into the Syracuse market with a new commercial-loan production office at 115 Solar St. in the city’s Franklin Square area.
Established in 1999, NFP has more than 8,000 employees in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and Ireland — serving a diverse set of clients, industries and communities through its global capabilities, specialized expertise, and customized products across property and casualty insurance, and benefits, per the announcement.
SDN is an insurance agency serving business and personal-insurance customers. In addition to traditional business-insurance policies, its team has grown in recent years to specialize in the areas of property and casualty coverage, surety bonding, and employee benefits.
“In its 100-year history, SDN has established itself as a well-respected partner to commercial and personal insurance customers throughout Western New York,” Gallagher said. “We are excited to partner with NFP’s global network of insurance and employee benefits professionals and benefit from its robust and sophisticated solutions. We also look forward to continuing to partner with Five Star Bank, which we have found to be an exceptional and supportive partner in our decade of shared history.”