COVER UPDATE: Partnership Power

After three decades of working in the employee benefits field, Skip Kitchner isn't normally at a loss for words when predicting industry trends.

But Kitchner has never faced anything as unpredictable as the federal health care reform bill that was weaving its way through Congress in late November. “One hour it's one thing,” Kitchner says, “the next hour it's something else.”

That unpredictability is one of the main reasons Kitchner, founder and co-owner of Bradenton-based Kitchner & Pierro, sought an unusual partnership in the summer of 2009. That's when Kitchner & Pierro teamed up to form a cross-business partnership with Sarasota-based Al Purmort Insurance, a leading independent property and casualty agency in the Sarasota-Bradenton market.