Inner-City Group
Inner-City Underwriting Agency Inc.
Inner-City Underwriting Agency Inc is an insurance brokerage that has been transformed into a business consulting company.
We believe effective risk management and community wide economic growth are connected. We started Inner-City Underwriting Agency by helping senior managers in the insurance industry see a connection between urban blithe and the inequitable access to quality insurance and financial services. We explained that a good portion of urban decay occurred because people in some neighborhoods could not acquire quality comprehensive insurance coverage that would allow them to rebuild or repair their homes after an insurable loss.
The urban market program we created became a national model, duplicated in every major city. Our work was highlighted in industry and national newspapers and magazines. (link to News articles) Today, insurance companies that were once being sued for red Lining are now actively writing insurance in every Chicago neighborhood.
Building on the success of our urban market insurance program, we developed new programs and services that improve distribution of insurance and risk management in underserved communities. For the past ten years we have focused on insurance, surety and risk management for the construction industry.
Construction is a trillion-dollar industry that can provide transformative wealth, economic development and jobs to the communities we serve. Unfortunately, a significant percentage of urban based and minority owned construction companies identify access to insurance and surety as major barriers to participation in the large commercial construction projects.
In 2014, we created the small contractor Bridge and Surety Bond Program (link to information about program) to provide insurance, project-based financing, risk management and surety to small diverse construction companies.
In 2016, we started our business consulting practice with a small contract to provide technical assistance to contractors working on the McCormick Center arena and hotel (link to Information about McCormick Center). We expanded our consulting services with a contract to provide these services and much more for the IL Tollway Construction Technical Assistance program in 2017.
Introducing Inner-City Wrap, division of Inner-City Underwriting Agency Inc.
In 2018, we became frustrated trying to help contractors meet the requirements to bid on and participate in large construction projects that were insured using a wrap-Up insurance program. The insurance brokers and administrators for these programs did not appear to have any sensitivity to the challenges and barriers they were creating for small diverse contractors. We logged hours upon hours of work making adjustments to insurance programs for contractors so they could not lose the opportunity to participate in these lucrative projects.
We created Inner-City Wrap to offer large construction project owner and General Contractors an alternative that can help them accomplish risk management objectives inherent in a wrap up insurance program while also removing barriers to participation by small\MBE\WBE\DBE contractors.
It is this unique combination of insurance and risk management expertise and technical assistance and training of small diverse contractors that led Turner Construction Company to select us to serve as Wrap-Up Services Administrator for the building of the Obama Presidential Center.(link to Obama Presidential Center Website on construction Project)
Community Insurance Center NA, Inc.
February 2015, Inner-City Underwriting Agency acquired the name and book of business from Community Insurance Center Inc. Milton E. Moses, president and owner of Community Insurance Center Inc, at the time handed the baton of leadership for his company to Matthew H. Cooper, president and owner of Inner-City Underwriting Agency because of the values and commitment both men share. In describing the transition, both men saw the purchase by Inner-City Underwriting Agency more like a reunion than a business acquisition.
In 1995, Milton Moses and Matthew Cooper worked together to create Inner-City Underwriting Agency and its urban market program that helped several national insurance companies expand services (link to news articles about the company) in the city to every neighborhood. The Inner-City Urban Market program was so successful, that within 5 years, the firm had helped more than 20 diverse insurance agencies throughout the city earn direct agency appointments with the nation’s largest insurance companies at the time. That success required a new business model and led to the spin-off of Inner-City from Community in 1999.
Community Insurance Center, Inc., was founded in 1962 by the late Olympian and Congressman, Ralph H. Metcalfe. As an Olympian, Mr. Metcalfe won four medals and was regarded as the world’s fastest human in 1934 and 1935. In the famous 1936 Berlin Olympics, Ralph Metcalfe and teammate Jesse Owens lead the US relay team to a gold metal defeating Hitler’s team by a wide margin in the 4 X 100 meter relay. (link to race)
After the Olympics, Mr. Metcalfe returned to Chicago to begin a distinguish career in business and public service. He started Community Center Insurance Agency, Inc., later changed to Community Insurance Center Inc. to fill a void on Chicago’s South side for a business capable of providing quality insurance and financial protection to residents and businesses.
In 1963, Milton E Moses joined the firm as operations manager, then promoted to president and ultimately the baton of ownership was passed to him when Mr. Metcalfe was elected to serve the first of 8 terms in congress for IL 2nd Congressional District.
Under the leadership of Milton Moses, Community Insurance Center grew into one of the largest African-American owned insurance agencies in the country.
The new company formed out this reunion operated under the name of Community Insurance Center, a division of Inner-City Underwriting Agency Inc. until 2019 when business from both companies was merged into one company that now operates under the name, Community Insurance Center, N.A. Inc.
The N.A. in the name stands for North America to highlight the company object to expand nationally. At present the Community Insurance Center is in Chicago, St. Louis and Minneapolis.
Inner-City Cubes, Inc.
All companies in the Inner-City Group have a risk management focus. We started Inner-City Cubes Inc to help our clients manage technology risk inherent in the business operations, specifically navigating the challenges of moving core administrative operations to the cloud.
We provide core, common sense consulting, training and business support to companies and organizations who want and need help with Microsoft cloud technologies.
Inner-City Cubes only works with partners, affiliates and companies within the Inner-City group and their clients. It is a Microsoft authorized reseller and partner to Sherweb for Office 365 and Stratos for Dynamics for Business Accounting software.
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