Haylor, Freyer & Coon is sold to national insurance firm

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Haylor, Freyer & Coon, Inc., a 94-year-old Syracuse–based insurance agency, has been sold to Alera Group, an independent national insurance and wealth services firm based in suburban Chicago.

Alera Group acquired all the assets of Haylor, Freyer & Coon in a stock deal that closed on Oct. 1, James D. Freyer, Jr., CEO of the Syracuse firm, tells CNYBJ in an interview. The companies are not disclosing the purchase price or other financial terms of the transaction.

All 200 Haylor, Freyer & Coon employees have joined Alera Group, which has 3,500 employees across 150 offices and $1.1 billion in revenue. All Haylor, Freyer & Coon offices across New York state will remain open, Freyer says. “We’re maintaining our name, which has a very significant presence in upstate and Central New York and across the country,” he says.

Before the sale, Haylor, Freyer & Coon was a 100 percent employee-owned firm with 45 percent of the stock held by an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) and 55 percent held by 23 shareholders who are all employees of the firm, including Freyer and other senior managers. The shareholders and the independent trustee representing the ESOP unanimously approved the sale to Alera, Freyer says.

“When we looked for a business partner, our employees were critically important. What’s important to us is the culture of our company and the culture of Alera and there’s definitely a very proactive, collaborative fit there. And we’re going to stay who we are — our people,” Freyer says.

Alera is a company that “takes the national scope but wants the local services,” he adds. “It’s made up of many insurance agencies across the country who have that local presence.”

Haylor, Freyer & Coon chose Alera Group from among five suitors who were finalists to acquire the Syracuse–based firm.

“We drove this. This was not someone coming to us. This was us looking for what was best for all our employees, for our business model, and how we could get to that next level of expertise,” Freyer tells CNYBJ. “So we made these decisions; we controlled it and we’re happy to say we made a great decision.”

For nearly 18 months, Haylor, Freyer & Coon worked with MarshBerry, a Woodmere, Ohio–based consulting and financial advisory firm specializing in mergers and acquisitions, as well as strategic and succession planning for independent insurance agencies.

Founded in 1928, Haylor, Freyer & Coon has dedicated business divisions focused on offering property and casualty insurance to businesses, municipalities, individuals, employee-benefit plans, and personalized insurance solutions for college students. Besides its headquarters at the One Park Place building in downtown Syracuse, Haylor, Freyer & Coon operates offices in Johnson City, Auburn, Watertown, Rochester, and Schenectady, per its website.

“The Haylor, Freyer & Coon, Inc. team provides insurance and risk management solutions with distinctive and exceptional service,” Alan Levitz, CEO of Alera Group, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to welcome the team to the Alera Group family, as we share both client first values and a collaborative working environment.”

Alera Group is a Deerfield, Illinois–based firm offering comprehensive employee benefits, property and casualty insurance, retirement-plan services, and wealth-planning services to clients nationwide. The firm was created and continues to grow through the merger of independent insurance agencies across the U.S. Before its latest deal, Alera already had upstate New York offices in Rochester, Watertown, and Albany, according to its website.