A Gallagher company is accusing a former employee of running a months-long inside operation to funnel clients to a competitor before walking out the door.
AP Benefit Advisors, LLC, owned by AssuredPartners Capital, Inc., filed suit on March 13, 2026, in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. The case names former account executive Kelly Hess, former AP employee Jason Rilley, and DelMarVa Insurance Brokers LLC as defendants. AP describes what it calls a deliberate, coordinated effort to divert client accounts generating more than $75,000 in annual revenue.
According to the filing, Hess joined the Jacobs Company in 2018 and became an AP employee when AP acquired the firm on May 1, 2023. She then signed a Restrictive Covenants Agreement that barred her from soliciting or servicing any client with whom she had material contact for 24 months after leaving the company. The agreement also required her not to "copy, duplicate in any way, use, or disclose to any third party, any Confidential Information" outside the scope of her employment, and to return all company materials upon departure.
The filing claims Hess spent months - from September 2025 until her resignation - quietly working at Rilley's direction to move AP clients over to DelMarVa, a competing brokerage with offices in Maryland. Rilley had resigned from AP back in June 2023. DelMarVa, according to the court filing, is a limited liability company believed to have one member, Laura Rilley, who resides in the same town as Jason Rilley.
The alleged activity, as laid out in the filing, was specific. In October 2025, Hess reportedly referred an AP client to Rilley and DelMarVa to endorse the client's workers' compensation policy. In November, she allegedly helped position another client for transfer at Rilley's direction. By December, AP claims she had sent ten certificate of insurance requests for an AP client to Valerie Keys at DelMarVa, and had directed other AP employees to send loss runs for DelMarVa's benefit.
Once the accounts were moved, Hess resigned - and, according to AP, began servicing those same clients at DelMarVa.
AP is pursuing nine causes of action, including breach of contract, breach of duty of loyalty, trade secret misappropriation under both the Maryland Uniform Trade Secrets Act and the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, interference with business relationships, unfair competition, and unjust enrichment. The company is asking the court for an injunction, compensatory and treble damages, return of profits, and attorneys' fees.
No court ruling has been issued, and the defendants have not yet had the opportunity to respond.
For brokerage owners and agency leaders, the case is a sharp reminder of how much damage can allegedly unfold before an employee ever submits a resignation letter - and why keeping a close eye on client data access matters when the warning signs start to surface.
Case: AP Benefit Advisors, LLC v. Kelly Hess, Jason Rilley, and DelMarVa Insurance Brokers LLC, No. 1:26-cv-01092-BAH (D. Md.)
