Orlando-based Hatcher Insurance Group, part of Unison Risk Advisors for almost a year,
has expanded its employee benefits practice with the acquisition of Level 3 Benefit Advisors
The Level 3 firm, founded in 2021, is based in Winter Park. Founder Tom McGaffic will join Hatcher and will lead Hatcher’s benefits practice and additional acquisitions, the company said in a news release.
Hatcher also announced it is moving its headquarters from College Park to the new Dr. Phillips Charities building in the Packing District of Orlando. The 10,000-
square-foot office will accommodate Hatcher’s planned growth to more than 60 employees later this year, the company noted.
Hatcher, a brokerage for personal and commercial lines and benefits, has continued to expand in recent years through acquisitions and organic growth. In 2025, th
e firm acquired Jamerson-McLean Corp. agency that serves propane dealers and energy companies on the East Coast..
Insurance industry trade associations are applauding a decision to change the homeowners insurance required by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the trades said will lower costs for homeowners and buyers.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week announced the quasi-governmental corporations that buy mortgages from lenders will not require properties with a
federally backed mortgage to have full replacement cost value homeowners insurance, reversing a change made in February 2024.
“Limiting consumers to only the most expensive coverage just made buying a home that much more difficult, and created real harm for the homeowners market,” said Neil Alldredge, president and CEO of the National Association of Mut
ual Insurance Companies. “The vast majority of mortgages are backed by the (government-sponsored enterprises), and so keeping costs needlessly high probably prevented some consumers from becoming homebuyers.”
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Full replacement cost insurance typically comes with a higher cost, which “worked as a de facto regulation” to prevent other more affordable options that consider depreciation, NAMIC explained.
“Giving consumers more options to fit their needs and budgets will bring with it greater competition in the marketplace and help bring costs down,” Alldredge said.
NAMIC said it opposed the change and helped earned a pause in the requirements in May 2024, but the organization said mortgage lenders continued to reference the change while denying consumers and would-be homebuye
rs alternative options. Dozens of members of Congress, led by Reps. Mike Flood, R-Neb., and Addison McDowell, R-N.C., as well as Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo. voiced co
ncerns throughout the debate, citing limits on consumer choice and affordability. McDowell said a le
tter cosigned by 45 Republicans in the House urged the FHFA to bring back the option for actual cash value insurance policies for Fannie- and Freddie-backed mortgages.
“We should be doing everything in our power to make homeownership attainable – especially in rural towns,” McDowell said. “I commend [FHFA Director W
illiam J. Pulte] and the Trump Administration’s action in restoring common-sense consumer choice to the housing market.”
