Mizel Expands Insurance Firm : Mr. 'Acquirer' Strikes Again in San Ramon

Barney Mizel, a serial insurance brokerage entrepreneur who's built three big national networks, is at it again, this time from a perch in San Ramon.

It's not clear if the Mizel magic that helped turn Albert M. Bender Co. Inc., American Business Insurance Brokers (now part of Wells Fargo Insurance Services) and USI Holdings Corp. into brokerage behemoths can work in the current economic environment. And, to be fair, Mizel, the company's chairman, has more modest short-term goals in mind with San Ramon-based CCI Financial & Insurance Services.

At age 72, the aging brokerage warrior who calls himself "Mr. Acquirer," no longer travels extensively, and is preparing the way for younger executives to follow in his footsteps at CCI. But growth is still a big part of his agenda.

In late October, CCI brought on former Mizel partner and Wells Fargo Insurance Services executive Richard Metcalfe to run its new San Rafael office as vice president of sales. And it expects to acquire an unspecified financial services administration firm by Jan. 1. Mizel told the Business Times: "Our intention is to grow this pretty aggressively both in Marin and the North Bay."

Along with Mizel and Metcalfe, other senior executives in the 39-year-old firm include Jim Vawter, President and DEO; Chief Operating Officer Valli Bowman and Executive Vice President Michael Vawter. Mizel has had a quiet connection with CCI since investing in the firm in April 2003, according to Jim Vawter. The 37-person firm, which ranked 25th on the Business Time's recent List of the largest insurance brokerages in the Bay Area — with $45 million in 2007 premium volume — will approach $60 million in 2008 volume, for the fiscal year ending March 31, Mizel said.

That will translate into revenue of about $5.5 million, which should jump to $7 million after the January merger, he said, and plans call to build CCI's revenue to $25 million within three or more years.

The plan, this time around , is to use the firm's own capital to merge with other firms, making their principals partners in the enterprise, Mizel said, rather than his previous habit of buying out  owners of other firms.

"We want to find companies with an interest in growing and building with us," he said, "and we're funding growth ourselves, using our own money."

Given the tough times in the private equity and financial markets, that's probably a wise short-term strategy, but Mizel seems open to other options after CCI gets large enough to attract big investors' attention.

Will Mizel's strategy work a fourth time, this time with a twist? It's hard to say, but several high-ranking industry sources are skeptical. They note that it has been a number of years since his last big success, with USI, and that several other projects in recent years haven't got off the ground or at least haven't gained a lot of traction. Those include Mizel's interests in Walnut Creek's Portal Insurance Agency, Inc., his plans in the spring of 2004 to make an East Bay company called SingleSource Insurance and Financial Services into a $100 million venture within a short time, and talks with investors early in the decade about the project that ultimately became Edgewood Partners Insurance Center, commonly known as EPIC.

Mizel is still on Portal's board of directors, but his primary focus has shifted to CCI.

As for EPIC — launched in mid-2007 by former ABD chief executive Dan Francis and Tri-City Brokerage founder John Hahn — an industry insider said Mizel was interested enough that its business plan was known at one point by the code name "Project Rubble," a reference to the shared first name of Mizel and Flinstones' character Barney Rubble. But that potential partnership fell apart, and Mizel now says he barely remembers the flirtation.

As for SingleSource, the employee benefits administration/human resources software platform developed is now central to CCI's approach, according to Mizel and CEO Vawter.

Said Vawter: "We're bringing what (big brokerages like Marsh, Aon and Wells Fargo) are doing to the middle market."

crauber@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4946