Alliant Insurance Service

May 18, 2023

New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! Aon this week filed a lawsuit against rival Alliant Insurance Services for an alleged “unlawful raid” of senior leaders and other employees of Aon’s facultative reinsurance group. Aon claims Alliant took 26 of its employees, reinsurance business, and confidential information as Alliant looked to get into the reinsurance market and “jumpstart the launch of Alliant Re, Alliant’s own reinsurance division and a new Aon competitor in the facultative reinsurance broking industry.” Alliant Insurance Services announced on April 25 the launch of Alliant Re, its reinsurance brokerage division. Aon alleges the “premeditated” poaching of 32% of its reinsurance group’s employees, including the entire team in Chicago, began on April 19. The group that headed to Alliant included Nicholas Ambriano, the former leader of Aon’s U.S. facultative reinsurance group. “The former employees misused their positions at Aon to, with Alliant’s encouragement and direction, covertly orchestrate the raiding of 26 Aon employees, Aon’s top U.S. facultative reinsurance clients, and Aon’s confidential and trade secret information to form a new competing business – Alliant Re,” the suit says. “Defendants did so in deliberate disregard of the former employees’ contractual duties and fiduciary obligations to Aon and with an intent to interfere with Aon’s business.” “Alliant Re would not exist but for defendants’ theft of Aon’s employees, clients, and information that Aon developed over decades,” according to Aon. This is not the first time Alliant has been sued by a competitor for allegedly stealing employees. Arthur J. Gallagher last year in a suit against Alliant said Alliant faced more than 40 lawsuits in dozens of jurisdictions from the likes of Aon, Lockton, Willis, and NFP, using its “playbook” for alleged employee poaching. Aon’s lawsuit cites many other lawsuits against Alliant from brokers.