Jim Mueller, owner of health benefits consulting firm
mueller QAAS, has sold the company following his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease last year.
The Pewaukee-based company was purchased by
Hays Companies, a Minneapolis-based risk management, insurance and employee benefits consultancy firm that is part of the Daytona Beach, Florida-based
Brown & Brown, Inc. group of companies.
Mueller, who founded the firm in 2012 and has been its president and chief executive officer, informed his clients of the sale Thursday.
“As you may or may not know, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease last year,” Mueller said in an email. “Parkinson’s is a degenerative neurological condition which can cause serious complications, and which currently has no cure. It was always my vision to grow mueller QAAS as an independent, local firm, but I have accepted the fact that my condition will prevent me from leading mueller QAAS into the future.”
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Hays has an office in Wauwatosa, one of its 30 locations nationwide. Former mueller QAAS employees began working in Hays’s office this week. Mueller said clients’ insurance policies will not be affected in the transition.
Prior to founding mueller QAAS (an acronym for quality, affordability, accessibility and strategy), Mueller was president of Frank F. Haack & Associates, a Milwaukee-based benefit broker and consultant, for more than 20 years. He also was president of Wauwatosa-based Zywave,
an insurance technology company that spun out of Haack.
In recent years, Mueller has championed several causes in the Milwaukee area, including promoting Milwaukee’s higher education institutions, advocating for gender equality in the workplace, and pushing for transparency and affordability in the health care industry. Mueller was the
2019 recipient of BizTimes Media’s Nonprofit Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award for his extensive philanthropy.
