Aegis Celebrates 20 Years of Partnering with Clients
- Posted on December 3, 2012
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The early days of Aegis: (l-r) Dave Bisek, Karen Flynn, Vance Forrest, Bob Wurtz and John Dirkse
December 1, 2012 Marks 20-Year Anniversary
On December 1, 2012, Aegis Corporation marked their 20th year in business. The company, which works closely with local governments, school districts and businesses for their insurance and risk management needs, began back in 1992 with just four employees.
Incredibly, these four original employees, Robert Wurtz, President; John Dirkse, Executive Vice President; David Bisek, Senior Vice President of Claims & Litigation Management and Karen Flynn, Senior Vice President of Underwriting, are still leading the company today.
Before the bricks and mortar of Aegis Corporation existed, Bob Wurtz and John Dirkse were hard at work creating the foundation of their company by being integral players in the creation of the Wisconsin County Mutual Insurance Corporation (County Mutual).
Back in 1984, when a small group of county officials were first gathering to discuss their options in a failing insurance marketplace, Bob and John, who at the time were with Frank B. Hall & Company, were working from the very beginning to bring together counties and ultimately, help create the company. (Read an article that appeared in the June 2012 "Wisconsin Counties" magazine which highlighted the start of the company and the role of Bob Wurtz and John Dirkse in its creation here.)
“Our goal early on was to end the roller coaster treatment of counties from the insurance industry and bring stability to the marketplace,” said Bob Wurtz. “We have been able to accomplish this and today our rates have been the same since 1989.”
In addition to serving as the general administrator of the Wisconsin County Mutual Insurance Corporation since its inception, Aegis also serves in this role for Community Insurance Corporation and provides administrative and marketing services for the WCA Group Health Trust.
Today, the company has 35 employees and in addition to their general administration services, Aegis specializes in association risk management, alternative risk financing programs, claims and litigation management, risk management services and safety training, underwriting/program design, financial and structural program remediation, insurance brokerage services and excess surplus lines.
“Since our beginning, education has been our approach to business,” said Bob Wurtz. “We never wanted to be a traditional insurance risk management and brokerage firm and our unique approach emphasizes the importance of extensive risk management services and aggressive claims and litigation management. After 20 years, this still separates us from others in the industry.”
Aegis is proud to have developed into an industry leader both in Wisconsin and around the country in providing broad-based and client focused insurance programs and services. They specialize in the development and implementation of association and alternative risk financing programs as well as providing a full-line of business insurance coverages.
“I believe that while we have incredible strength in virtually every type of risk management service, our greatest asset has always been our ability to combine these programs and services to provide our clients with the greatest flexibility for meeting their needs,” said John Dirkse.
“The past 20 years have gone by so quickly and we here at Aegis Corporation have had the honor of working with some of the best our state has to offer - the dedicated individuals who represent local governments,” said John Dirkse. “We've been lucky to work with so many incredible people and organizations and we look forward to the next 20 years and beyond.”
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