Ill. Judge Orders Aon Benfield to Pay Insurer $744,402 ‘Annual Fee’

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge has ordered reinsurance broker Aon Benfield Inc. (NYSE: AON) to pay an insurer a $744,402 “annual fee,” even though Aon was replaced by another broker at the end of the parties’ agreement year.

On March 29, Judge Harry D. Leinenweber of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois found that under the 2009 contract’s one-year revenue sharing agreement, the fee was payable to Homeowners at the end of the contract term regardless of whom it chose as its broker of record in 2010.

In 2007, Homeowners Choice Property and Casualty Insurance …