Private medical insurance adviser-consolidator Chase Templeton has confirmed its purchase of Debbie Kleiner-Gaines' Best Health business for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition of the Bristol-based intermediary brings a further £1.35m in annual premium income (API) to Chase Templeton, over two-thirds of which is generated by SME clients.
Best Health was founded in 2001 by Debbie Kleiner-Gaines (pictured), who spent three years as treasurer of The Association of Medical Insurers & Intermediaries.
Having sold the company she is taking on a new role within the wider regulated and non-regulated employee benefits field.
Kleiner-Gaines said: "Having previously undergone a particularly smooth transaction when selling Best Health's individual client book to Chase Templeton a couple of years ago the company was a natural choice. They have the necessary resources and expertise to ensure the client base I nurtured over the years will be well looked after going forward. That was important."
Jeff Tate, director of mergers & acquisitions at Chase Templeton said that the deal will further bolster the company's position in the company medical insurance sector.
He said: "Debbie has built up an excellent SME book which accounts for over £1m of the API acquired and as such has provided a significant boost to our already sizeable corporate medical insurance operation."
He added: "This is but the first of a number of acquisitions we expect to confirm in 2015 as we already have a healthy pipeline of potential targets lined up.
Last year Chase Templeton secured 26 deals, including the December purchases of Ludlow Wealth Management Group, Private Medical Insurance Advisors and JVA Healthcare Services.
The firm said 2015 will also see a greater emphasis on organic growth with Chase Templeton "ready to commit significant resources to its sales and marketing operations."
Warren Dickson, chief executive of Chase Templeton said: "We will be investing heavily in developing the sales function, becoming much more pro-active. We also recognise the need to build our brand presence and that necessarily means committing significant funds to our marketing programme."
The firm is implementing this with a new in-house outbound sales team created and six new members of staff recruited to cope with growing administrative and sales demands.
