HRH affiliate acquired

Willis HRH sold its Shelton-based employee benefits group to AmWINS Group Inc., a Charlotte, N.C.-based administrator of employee benefit plans for companies with up to 300 employees. The companies did not immediately reveal what AmWINS paid for the Shelton-based Managing Agency Group Inc., whose corporate parent was formed nearly a year ago in the $2.1 billion merger of Willis and Hilb Rogal & Hobbs Co.

Founded in 1976, Managing Agency Group-Employee Benefits distributes and administers dental, vision and life insurance plans, among others, as well as serving as a brokerage general agency of employee benefit plans for over 30 major carriers.

Willis HRH has its main office in New York City, along with offices in Norwalk and Westport, while parent Willis Group Holdings Ltd. is based in London.

In 2005, HRH agreed to set up a $30 million fund to reimburse policyholders in Connecticut and elsewhere after an investigation by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal into whether the company was surreptitiously steering clients to certain insurers in exchange for hidden commissions.