Collins Expanding Its Services to Europe

Collins, whose growth in recent years has resulted in a dramatic
increase in its broad clientele of U.S. insurance company clients, is
expanding its services as a reinsurance intermediary to Europe,
President and Chief Executive Officer Pat Denzer announced today.

Denzer said Michel Fernandez, a native of Paris, France who has
worked for 15 years as a reinsurance broker serving European clients,
has been appointed managing director of Collins´ European initiative
and will develop Collins´ platform for doing business with European
clients.

"We see potential opportunities for a range of European insurance
companies to benefit from the strengths and expertise of Collins,"
Denzer explained. "With our broad capabilities in traditional
reinsurance as well as in the capital markets, we can deliver highly
customized programs to a wide range of clients.

"We believe this approach will resonate with companies in Europe,
and we´re very excited about our prospects with European companies,"
Denzer said. "With the addition of Michel Fernandez, we have a
European specialist with the background and experience to help deliver
Collins´ services at all levels of the Continent´s insurance
industry."

M. Fernandez began his reinsurance broking career in 1993 with Guy
Carpenter and Co. in Paris, where his clients included French
insurers. After 10 years in Paris, he worked in Guy Carpenter´s New
York office handling accounts for insurance companies in several
European countries.

M. Fernandez holds a bachelor´s degree in International Business
from St. Cloud (Minn., USA) State University, and also attended
l´Institut Superieur de Reassurance at the Ecole Nationale
d´Assurances in Paris.

Collins, established in 1987, serves clients in the
property-casualty, life, and accident & health insurance markets.
Headquartered in Minneapolis, it has offices across the United States
as well as in London and in Bermuda. It has recorded a compound annual
growth rate of more than 20 percent since 1995.

The privately-held company provides reinsurance brokerage
services, risk transfer advice and analytical services to insurers,
reinsurers, managing general agents and others in the insurance
marketplace. Those services include catastrophe modeling, actuarial
analysis, dynamic reinsurance modeling and financial consulting.
Additional information is available at the company´s website,
www.collins.com.