ONEIDA — The recently closed acquisition of an insurance agency in Schenectady gives Oneida Financial Corp.’s insurance unit a stronger foothold in the greater Albany market.

McMahon, Fenaroli and White, which does business as Schenectady Insuring Agency (SIA), was merged into Bailey, Haskell & LaLonde (BHL), a subsidiary of Oneida Financial (NASDAQ: ONFC), on Dec. 31. Financial terms were not disclosed.

All 12 SIA employees came aboard and continue to operate from the agency’s leased office at 155 Erie Blvd. in Schenectady, says John E. Haskell, CEO of Bailey & Haskell Associates, Inc., which does business as BHL.

Haskell explains in an interview that the acquisition of 100-year-old SIA made strategic sense for a number of reasons.

First, BHL had already been writing policies in the Capital District. In fact, BHL’s director of risk-management services, Paul Coderre, lives in the region.

“We do business in that area, but this is our first brick and mortar location we’ve had there,” says Haskell.

Getting an office in Schenectady also makes geographic sense for BHL. “It’s in between Long Island and Central New York. It’s kind of a natural for us,” Haskell says, noting that BHL has one office on Long Island and five locations in Central New York.

Specifically, BHL has offices in Oneida (headquarters), North Syracuse, Cazenovia, Chittenango, New Hartford, and Malverne (Long Island). It also has a location near Buffalo as well as one in South Carolina, just outside Charlotte, N.C.

The agency has consistently pursued acquisitions to grow over the last decade. “We’ve probably done 6, 7, 8 [insurance agency] acquisitions in the last 10 years in an around upstate New York,” says Haskell.

When deciding which acquisitions to pursue, Oneida Financial and BHL have focused on identifying agencies with highly qualified people in new or adjacent markets.

“We’re looking to acquire talented, quality people. We’re looking for certain geographic and market segments where we can expand our business, and where it makes sense,” Haskell says.

He adds that SIA fits the bill because, “they’re an agency that’s been around a long time. They’re very talented people, well known in the area. We’re looking forward to have them working for us.”

When asked if BHL might pursue additional acquisitions in the Albany market in the future, Haskell says, “We’re always looking…”

BHL generates between $150 million and $200 million in annual insurance-premium sales, according to Haskell. The agency offers personal, property and casualty, business, and cyber liability insurance, and a host of other products and services.

BHL now has about 160 employees total, including Benefit Consulting Group (BCG), another Oneida Financial subsidiary that provides employee-benefits consulting and retirement-plan administration services. Together, the two units have been a strong driver of sales growth at the parent company in recent quarters and years. Through the first nine months of 2012, Oneida Financial’s commissions and fees on sales of non-banking products increased nearly 12 percent to almost $4.8 million from nearly $4.3 million in the year-earlier period.

Oneida Financial reported total assets of $677 million as of Sept. 30. It’s the holding company for Oneida Savings Bank, State Bank of Chittenango, BHL, BCG, and Workplace Health Solutions, a risk-management firm specializing in workplace-injury claims management. 

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com