POCATELLO — Farm Bureau Insurance Company of Idaho has acquired Mountain West Farm Bureau Insurance Company and its affiliates following a closing date of Sept. 1, expanding the Pocatello-based insurer into a multistate company.

The combined company will be headquartered in Pocatello. Mountain West's longtime base in Laramie, Wyoming, will continue as a service center. The acquisition will also provide a financial lifeline to the Wyoming-based company following a difficult 2024.

Todd Argall, president and CEO of Farm Bureau Insurance Company of Idaho, said Mountain West policyholders will see little change on the surface. The Mountain West name will stay in Wyoming and Montana, where it is now used, and its agents and employees will remain in those states.

Mountain West began looking for a partner in 2025. Inflation drove up costs in 2024, and years of severe weather strained property insurers across the industry, Argall said. Mountain West operated in several states, but its territory was relatively narrow, so repeated bad weather in the same region hit it especially hard. Its profit problems centered on homeowners and personal insurance lines, and FBIC of Idaho plans "corrective action" to restore its competitive position.

Mountain West ultimately chose the Idaho company. Both are Farm Bureau insurers, they operate in neighboring markets, and they had already worked together on technology and employee programs.

The deal was possible because Farm Bureau Insurance Company of Idaho reorganized several years ago at its board's direction. It changed its name from Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company and adopted a holding company structure. That gave the company legal and regulatory room to buy other insurers and keep their brand names.

As part of the deal, the Idaho company has "recapitalized" Mountain West, meaning it put in new money to rebuild the company's finances. The goal is to make sure Mountain West can pay claims when customers need it, whether after a car accident or a widespread hailstorm.

The larger footprint should also make the companies more resilient. Insurers pay claims out of premiums collected from many customers, so a company concentrated in one region can be strained when a single hailstorm or wildfire season generates many claims at once.

Idaho carries significant wildfire exposure, while Mountain West's territory has tended to see more losses from hail and wind, and the two "complement one another," Argall said. A wider territory lets an insurer draw on premiums from areas that were not hit, though big events remain unpredictable.

The company will keep its underwriting standards in place, including limits on how much business it holds in any one small geographic area. Underwriting is the process of deciding which risks to insure and at what price.

The combined company also expects to save money on reinsurance, which is insurance that insurers buy to protect themselves against catastrophic losses, and on technology. Lower expenses would give the company more room to absorb losses and could eventually benefit customers through more competitive rates.

The company said it plans to remain the top writer of farm insurance in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. It also plans to expand its commercial insurance business in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. The organization is affiliated with Farm Bureau federations in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Washington.

Leadership growth will focus on Pocatello, though Argall said hybrid and remote work will remain options for employees.

"We're not walking away from Laramie," Argall said. "We'll be based here, and we're very proud to call Pocatello our home office."

Argall said he believes the combined organizations have the best talent in the region, along with a strong leadership team to guide it, and the company looks forward to growing the Farm Bureau brand in the markets it serves.

"People make the difference in any organization, and the companies coming together have a tremendous amount of talent that the organization as a whole will be able to leverage to improve and to get stronger, so that we can continue to be the insurance carrier of choice in the communities that we serve," Argall said. "That's our hope, and our mission is to continue to provide financial peace of mind to families, farms, businesses and ranches by protecting what matters most. That's driven by the people, the employees and the agents in our footprint."