About Us
Since 1987 you may have known us as AIA, or American Insurance Administrators, or as one of our three core divisions: AIA Property & Casualty (P&C), Benefits Resource Group (BRG), or as Benefits Broker Solutions (BBS). You may have heard something about us becoming part of Alera Group in 2017. But we are all one company, and now we are aligning our name, our brand, our new look, and our new website to reflect that strong one-company story.
Work With Us
We are passionate about collaboration and growth. Enjoy working in a highly collaborative culture? Looking for an exciting environment that is constantly growing and improving? If you care about providing outstanding client service while serving local communities, then we may be looking for you.
Meet Our Team
Julie Cave
Regional Sales Leader, Employee Benefits & Property & Casualty, MidAtlantic
Julie serves as Regional Sales Leader for Employee Benefits and Property & Casualty in the Mid-Atlantic region.
She leads regional growth by aligning strategy to behavior, turning vision into repeatable sales rhythms, disciplined pipelines, and coaching systems that help producers do their best work. Julie believes strong results are built where accountability and psychological safety meet, and she designs environments where both can thrive.
With more than 15+ years of experience across Employee Benefits, P&C, HR technology, compliance, and complex group solutions, Julie stands out not just for what she knows, but how she applies it, leveraging data, innovative AI tools, and modern sales enablement to remove friction, sharpen focus, and elevate decision making.
A natural connector, Julie builds trusted partnerships with carriers, vendors, and internal leaders to deliver integrated, client first solutions while fostering cross practice collaboration that drives regional growth.
At her core, she is a people centric, results driven leader passionate about developing producers, modernizing sales organizations, and proving that disciplined execution and innovation are advantages, not trade offs.
Erica Hain
Branch President, Employee Benefits - Central PA & Lehigh Valley
Erica Hain is a seasoned employee benefits leader with over 30 years of experience in the insurance and employee benefits industry. Throughout her career, she has led high-performing teams and driven strategic growth in a variety of organizational settings. Most recently, Erica served as the Practice Leader, Employee Benefits at Capstone Group. Her leadership journey also includes pivotal roles at Johnson, Kendall & Johnson, Geisinger Health Plan, Keystone Insurers Group, and Emerson Reid & Company.
Beyond her professional achievements, Erica has been deeply engaged in industry leadership through the National Association of Benefits and Insurance Professionals (NABIP). She served as Vice President of Region 2 on the NABIP Board of Trustees and has held numerous leadership positions across the local, state, and national levels. Her long-standing commitment to the industry has earned her multiple accolades, including the NAHU Presidential Service Award and the Region of Excellence Award.
Erica is recognized not only for her deep industry knowledge and strategic insight but also for her passion for mentorship, advocacy, and building collaborative partnerships that deliver lasting impact.
Erica is graduate of Lycoming College, Williamsport PA. She resides in Orwigsburg, PA with her husband and two dogs.
Chris Wert
Managing Partner
Chris is Managing Partner of the Alera Group, Harrisburg office and is a specialist in Risk Management and Property & Casualty insurance. In this role, he works closely with business owners and non-profit leaders to create and operate sustainable risk management and insurance programs. Working with clients of all sizes and classes, Chris is able to incorporate best practices from multiple industry segments for the benefit of his customers.
Chris joined the team as a Producer in 2011. Prior to coming to the agency he worked for Penn National Insurance as a Commercial Underwriter. This experience allows Chris to provide unique insight to his customers as to how insurance carriers process, analyze, evaluate, and compete for an organization’s insurance work. By anticipating carrier concerns and working with both carrier and customer to partner with one another for a common goal, he has come up with creative solutions for difficult and complex placements.
Chris earned his B.S. in Marketing from Penn State’s Smeal College of Business and holds the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation as well as an Associate in Risk Management with a Focus on Enterprise Risk Management (ARM-E).
In his free time Chris enjoys spending time with his fiancé Laura, is an avid skier, a devoted Penn State Football and Wrestling Fan, as well as a (very) novice but enthusiastic fly-fisherman.
Kristen Allardyce
Client Advocate, Property & Casualty
Kristen Allardyce is a Client Advocate in Alera Group’s Property & Casualty Division. She joined the agency in June 2024 and brings over 10 years of industry experience, primarily in Workers’ Compensation. Prior to joining Alera Group, Kristen served as a Client Advocate with Encova Insurance, where she specialized in managing Workers’ Comp claims and deploying safety and loss control resources to mitigate risk.
At Alera Group, Kristen serves as a key liaison between clients and insurance carriers. She coordinates, prepares, and presents account reviews, providing data-driven insights on loss trends and opportunities for improvement across all lines of coverage. Kristen is passionate about delivering outstanding customer service and supporting clients with tailored risk management strategies.
She holds a Property & Casualty Insurance License and is a 2007 graduate of Bloomsburg University. Outside of work, Kristen enjoys spending quality time with her family.
Kristen typically works with clients in the $25,000+ premium range and supports producers across all sectors.
EXPERT EDUCATION
Events and Webinars
Employee Benefits
Network Performance Strategy: Why Any Provider Costs More — and How to Steer to Value Without Disruption
A steering strategy that improves outcomes and total cost of care.
April 21, 2026 at 01:00 pm CT | Virtual
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Employee Benefits
The Compliance Pathway Q2
Alera Group's quarterly employee benefits compliance roundup will help you stay current on the latest national regulatory developments impacting employers.
May 14, 2026 at 01:00 pm CT | Virtual
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Employee Benefits
Benchmarking That Drives Decisions: Why Averages Mislead — and What Best-in-Class Data Reveals
A clear, data-driven view of the 2026 employee benefits landscape grounded in benchmarking results.
June 16, 2026 at 01:00 pm CT | Virtual
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THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Insights
Property and Casualty
AI Isn’t Liable for the Mistake. You Are.
Artificial intelligence is powerful. It’s also wrong more often than people want to admit.
If you use AI to support or deliver professional services, any mistake it makes is still your responsibility. Not the software’s. Not the vendor’s. Yours.
April 1, 2026
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Property and Casualty
Identity hijacking is surging. Here’s what leaders need to know.
Cyber incidents across our client base have been sharper, faster and more costly this year. Even organizations with strong controls are being hit in ways that look very different from past attacks.
March 13, 2026
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Legal Alert: RxDC Reporting Due June 1st
Reminder: RxDC Reporting Due June 1st
February 26, 2026
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Property and Casualty
AI-Powered Cyber Attacks, Why Yesterday’s Defenses Aren’t Enough.
The widespread availability of AI technology, combined with the ease of manipulating video calls, makes phone and Zoom calls susceptible to exploitation by threat actors.
February 2, 2026
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