Members of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America and the American Insurance Association have approved a merger that takes effect in 2019, and the combined organization is set to have a new name.

The American Property Casualty Insurance Association will begin the new year housing both PCI and AIA members, representing nearly 60 percent of the U.S. property/casualty market.

Merger talks were first disclosed in June. The PCI and AIA announced late afternoon on Dec. 21 that members had voted to approve plans to do so, in a joint statement from Anthony Kuczinski, president and chief executive officer of Munich Reinsurance America, Inc. and chair of the Board of Directors of AIA, and Pete McPartland, chairman of the board, president and CEO of Sentry Insurance, and chair of the Board of Governors of PCI.

“APCI will reflect the broad diversity of the united membership and continue both organizations’ strong support for promoting and improving private competitive insurance market solutions and the U.S. state-based regulatory system through effective public policy engagement,” they said in their combined statement.

Both added that the combined trade association “will represent the full breadth of the industry, creating an even more unified and influential advocacy voice.”

Kuczinski and McPartland said that more work is ahead where the PCI and AIA will hash out merger details. In the interim, they said, both groups will maintain continuity for their members during the transition in terms of member services and “thought leadership.”

Source: PCI, AIA