M3 Insurance, a full-service risk management firm, recently expanded its reach by opening its ninth office in Escanaba, Michigan at 1615 Ludington St. The company, based in Madison, Wisconsin, provides services to businesses and individuals, assisting with human resources, employee benefits, business insurance, and compliance.
M3 Insurance CEO Mike Victorson and Client Executive Mary Feuerbach reviewing a proposal in the Escanaba, Michigan office.
M3 Insurance’s approach extends beyond simply providing insurance policies; they offer proactive guidance on risk mitigation. According to CEO Mike (“Vic”) Victorson, the company prides itself on community involvement, aiming to be “a holistic part of the community.”
The origins of M3 Insurance trace back to 1968 when Loren Mortenson established “Loren D. Mortenson & Associates, Inc.,” an independent life insurance agency. Over the following years, the agency expanded, adding divisions and incorporating Rich Matzelle in 1970 and Charlie Meldrum in 1985, and became “Mortenson, Matzelle & Associates”. Property and casualty insurance and risk management were added over the next two decades. In 1990, the risk management department was created; the private client group formed in 2011, and HR services were added in 2023. The name changed to M3 Insurance in 2008.
Vic Victorson, born and raised in Escanaba and whose father was a local barber, was named CEO in 2005. It took almost two decades for the company to establish an office in his hometown. “Everyone in our company all knew I wanted to have an office in Escanaba for years and years,” Vic said.
Mary Feuerbach, also an Escanaba native, serves as a Client Executive at the new M3 branch, located in the historic Richter Brewing Company building. Feuerbach’s role involves acting as the primary point of contact and “help(ing clients) strategize for the best direction. They know their business very well, and I know insurance very well.”
To launch the Escanaba office, 21 clients transitioned to be served from this location. The office had a quiet launch in August 2024, officially opening in January 2025.
Although M3 has offices is located in nine places, “M3 and its clients do business in all 50 states and on every continent,” Vic explained. He highlighted the firm’s evolution into “more of a year-round risk management firm … than just an insurance placement.”
M3 offers a wide range of services customized to each client’s specific needs. “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,” Vic stated. For clients with broad operations, M3 assists in navigating various laws and legal requirements, interpreting contracts, and handling currency issues for businesses operating internationally.
The M3 team comprises professionals with diverse backgrounds, which enables comprehensive client service. “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,” Vic said.
To achieve this, the company employs financial professionals, nurses, attorneys, wellness professionals, and communication specialists. “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,” Victorson explained.
In addition to directly assisting clients, M3 supports communities through the M3 Foundation. Each office has a foundation representative to identify local causes. Victorson said the goal is to donate at least $2,000 per year for each M3 employee; with about 500 employees, this amounts to one million dollars annually.
“We have been a bit counter-cultural in our industry in that we want to be radically local,” Victorson 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.”
Since the M3 Foundation focuses on local work, Feuerbach and her team will be identifying projects and organizations in the greater Escanaba community.
M3 Insurance, a private company with 61 shareholders, voluntarily operates with a board of directors, uncommon for non-publicly traded companies. The board consists of nine members, including six external directors who lack a financial stake in the business. According to Victorson, non-stakeholders deliver unbiased perspectives when reviewing business plans.
“We believe that the right amount of governance helps us run a really good business,” he said. “…That type of rigor, we just think is good, to run a good, transparent business.”
