M3 Insurance Opens New Office in Escanaba, Emphasizing Community and Client Focus
By R. R. Branstrom
ESCANABA – M3 Insurance, a full-service risk management firm based in Madison, Wisconsin, recently expanded its operations with the opening of its ninth office at 1615 Ludington St. in Escanaba. The privately-owned company focuses on serving businesses, providing services such as human resources, employee benefits, business insurance, and compliance support, but also assists individual clients. Beyond standard insurance policies, M3 offers proactive guidance to mitigate risk, all while emphasizing its commitment to giving back to the communities where it operates.
CEO Mike Victorson, a native of Escanaba, highlighted the firm’s holistic approach, stating that M3 aims to be “a holistic part of the community.” The agency’s roots trace back to 1968 when Loren Mortenson founded an independent life insurance agency named “Loren D. Mortenson & Associates, Inc.” Over the subsequent years, the firm expanded, adding personnel, and diversifying its services. In 1970, Rich Matzelle joined. The employee benefits division was added in 1972. The name changed to “Mortenson, Matzelle & Associates” in 1977. Charlie Meldrum became part of the team in 1985, and that year the company added property and casualty insurance to its offerings and became “Mortenson, Matzelle & Meldrum.” The risk management department was created in 1990, and the private client group was formed in 2011. HR services were added in 2023.
For three decades, the company’s sole office was in Madison. Expansion began in 1998, with offices in Milwaukee, Eau Claire, Green Bay, Wausau, Rockford (Ill.), Fond du Lac, and Kenosha. The name M3 Insurance was adopted in 2008.
Vic Victorson, appointed CEO in 2005, shared his long-term vision of establishing a presence in his hometown. “Everyone in our company all knew I wanted to have an office in Escanaba for years and years,” he said. Client Executive Mary Feuerbach, also an Escanaba native, operates from the new office located in the historic Richter Brewing Company building. Feuerbach’s role is to act as a primary contact, helping clients “strategize for the best direction. They know their business very well, and I know insurance very well,” she said. To initiate the Escanaba office, 21 existing clients transferred their accounts to the new location. The office quietly launched in August 2024 and officially opened in January 2025.
Although M3 Insurance maintains a physical presence in only nine locations, the company and its clients conduct business across all 50 states and on every continent. Vic Victorson explained the company has evolved over the 32 years he has been with M3, moving “more of a year-round risk management firm … than just an insurance placement.”
M3’s clientele spans various sizes, with customized service offerings. “Our (clients) are doing business not just in places like Escanaba, but they’re doing business all over the country and all over the world,” Victorson said. The firm provides support to its geographically dispersed clients to navigate diverse legal landscapes, interpret contracts, and resolve currency issues for international operations. M3’s workforce includes professionals from diverse backgrounds. “One way to summarize the work that we do is: we want to help businesses and people identify risk in their lives. We want to help them drive down the cost of managing that risk, and we want to help them build a better business or a better life,” Victorson stated.
To achieve these goals, the company employs financial professionals, nurses, attorneys, wellness professionals, and communication specialists. Victorson further explained, “One day, we could be helping somebody research the compliance laws of New York because they’re doing business there. And the next day, we could have one of our nurses teaming up with somebody who’s in charge of safety and helping them build a safer work environment. The next day we could have a forensic IT specialist working with somebody on their cyber risk. And then the next day we could literally have a process engineer walking through a plant helping them identify ways to reorient their workflow.”
In addition to client support, M3 contributes to communities through the M3 Foundation. The foundation’s board includes a representative from each office to identify and support local causes. The goal is to donate a minimum of $2,000 per year for each M3 employee. With roughly 500 employees, this translates to around one million dollars annually. “We have been a bit counter-cultural in our industry in that we want to be radically local,” Vic said. “Being connected there allows us not just to build a better business, but we get to be a way better partner for that community. … We think having a radically local approach and being on the ground, being a part of the community, helps us be better – also at our day job of helping people manage risk.”
Feuerbach and other members of her team in the Escanaba office will soon collaborate with the M3 Foundation to identify and support various local organizations and projects within the greater Escanaba community.
M3 Insurance operates as a private firm comprising 61 shareholders, and although not required, it voluntarily maintains a board of directors. The board consists of nine members, with three internal and six external (non-shareholder and non-employee) directors. The non-employee outside directors provide impartial perspectives. “We believe that the right amount of governance helps us run a really good business.” Vic explained. “…That type of rigor, we just think is good, to run a good, transparent business.”
