On Point - Insurance Journal

On this installment we meet Olga Collins, CEO of the Worldwide Broker Network, or WBN. Olga is a true woman of the world, speaking six languages, including Polish from her native country. She relays a fascinating life and career story as well as business lessons she’s learned along the way. She says she fell in love with risk management and insurance—“a great combination of analytics and people.” Olga covers the evolving insurance market, captive solutions, enterprise risk management, and some interesting countries from which capacity is emerging. Under Olga’s leadership, WBN has grown into the largest independent broker network in the world, with 150 members across 100 countries and a combined revenue of $14 billion. Listen to this interview with On Point host, Peter van Aartrijk and catch all episodes on insurancejournal.tv

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Meet Spencer Mahoney, chief growth officer for CCIG, a Denver-based independent broker with 100 employees generating $30 million in revenue. The firm competes with the big boys in the commercial middle market for p/c and benefits, to include captive strategies. Spencer unpacks what it’s been like for he and his brother to work for dad, who founded the firm 40 years ago. First, they weren’t handed the business. Dad told the boys, “Go get your teeth kicked in somewhere else first,” Spencer relates. Working for a carrier, broker and wholesaler prepared them for a sales career at CCIG. Today, the firm is seeking organic growth as well as strategic acquisitions. “If we are not growing and adding producers, then we are falling behind,” Spencer says. At the same time, bolstering client service is key too. “You need a bench of unvalidated producers you can coach up, but you can’t grow too fast without expert service.” The key to insurance business success, he says, is remaining curious and being a good listener.

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Would you relish reading insurance contracts on a Sunday afternoon so you can properly counsel your client on what they should buy? Do we hear a “Hell, no?” That’s okay. Self-described insurance nerd and recovering insurance attorney Dan Schuleman will save you the trouble. He cofounded the insuretech Qumis as an assistive-AI platform to quickly analyze policies and pull relevant information for claims, brokering and compliance. The idea: Arm insurance professionals with more detailed information, particularly in a time of suffocating legal action. “The increase in litigation is crazy,” Dan says. “The lawyers throw anything at the wall and see what sticks.” AI is accelerating the pace of plaintiffs’ actions—but it also helps carriers fight back,” he notes. “Things are not great in insurance companies’ claims departments right now.” Qumis is a “human in the loop” system. “It’s like a self-driving car where you still have a hand on the wheel,” Dan says.

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On this installment we’re joined by Itai Ben-Zaken, founder and CEO of Honeycomb, an MGA with AI-driven technology to analyze aerial photographs of commercial building roofs to assess their condition. Honeycomb launched with admitted markets but recently expanded to E&S, opening up more opportunities for retail agents to place tough risks. For example, many carriers are active in multifamily property but carve out anything older than 25 years. With 80% of these structures built before 2000, that means 80% of the market is underserved, Itai says. Honeycomb’s “roof model” is hyper-specific, giving underwriters more confidence to take on risks even in troubled areas. Itai also comments on the broader state of insuretech. He sees an opportunity for innovators particularly in the environmental space. “If weather patterns are changing, the traditional insurance models are not accustomed to working with that.”

This episode of the On Point Podcast is sponsored by AM Best Information Services. Turn to AM Best for solutions to the complex challenges you face—with ratings, research, news and data analytics to cover the insurance industry. Visit https://web.ambest.com/information-services/products-and-services-directory for more info!

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Do you truly understand your policyholders, distribution partners and employees? Do you have a clear lens into what competitors are doing? If your organization attempts to get feedback all by itself or relies on ad-hoc, anecdotal feedback from key stakeholders, you will miss opportunities to evolve and innovative. On this recording, research whiz Mackenzie Wilson unpacks best practices. Customer experience work “is the foundation of any business,” she says. “It doesn’t matter how big or small you are.” Yet, only about 30% of firms in any industry—and even lower in insurance—have a formalized program for voice-of-client experience. As much as they talk about it, they don’t really invest today as they should.” They also are missing the employee perspective with surveys that don’t generate authentic and actionable insights. Often, the initial corporate reaction to research “is very tactical and one-off. Everyone is so excited to get feedback. But they don’t understand how it can be operationalized instead of being a single transactional movement.” Firms should implement a standard, ongoing protocol for capturing the voice of key business partners, Mackenzie says. In this way, they’ll be more proactive and reach out to diagnose problems. “Why do people build products or services? They want to solve a problem. Any new initiative started with a problem.” She also reveals a few tricks to get customers to spill a little extra “tea” during interviews.

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A major workplace challenge is basic human communication among the age groups. How can we create a workplace culture where all four working generations thrive? “Culture Doctor” Warren Wright returns to On Point with insights. Generational conflict impacts teamwork, productivity and retention. Workplace preferences are varied: Boomers and GenXers value stability; Millennials and Gen Z seek rapid growth and flexibility. Younger generations thrive on innovative digital tools and quick feedback, while older generations want to stick with what works. On this recording, Warren also unpacks fascinating takeaways from new research on how consumers of different ages approach insurance buying — and how the generations view insurance agents. Warren will present on these topics at the annual “Ignite” conference hosted by the Insurance Marketing & Communications Association, or IMCA, in Scottsdale this June.

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The danger in writing all small commercial lines is becoming a generalist, says Bobby Touran, who a few years ago founded Rainbow, a restaurant-focused MGU insuretech. Rainbow distributes through independent agents—who he calls “critically” important. Listen as Bobby unpacks three strategic concepts behind Rainbow. “We wanted to be very specialized in classes of business,” he says. “We felt restaurants were a distressed category within small commercial. They were still reeling from COVID, lock-downs and inflation.” He observed other insuretechs taking “a very binary view on the role of technology: a tech-only or human-only experience. We didn’t see examples where purpose-built software was combined with human expertise.” That includes underwriters “making good judgement calls at the margins. We wanted to keep humans in the loop.” Bobby also comments on a specific behavior of successful agents he’s met.

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Most insuretechs aren’t about flashy consumer-focused websites. They improve the plumbing — all the workflows behind the scenes never seen by agents and consumers. Sound exciting? Well, it sure is for Aaron Wright, director of strategy at Earnix, an insuretech supporting carriers’ pricing and underwriting with AI and machine learning. Aaron emerged from the carrier side, where he saw first-hand the inefficiencies plaguing the industry: “What did my well-paid actuaries spend 60% of their time on? Moving things between systems and validating if they copied and pasted things accurately from Excel. Much of this inefficiency and duplication of work was caused by the artificial barriers we put up between IT and business.” Are you a left-brain, rationale thinker? Well, here’s a guest for you: “I was drawn to insurance in college because an actuarial career sounded good. A career combining mathematics, statistics and computer science — what’s not to love?” (Yeah, what’s not?)

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On this recording we welcome back Dave Tralka, our knowledgeable and friendly banker who understands a thing or two about independent agents. Dave is CEO of InsurBanc, the financial institution launched by the Big “I” to support agents’ growth. Dave lucidly covers today’s business opportunities for agencies as well as the broader landscape over which they don’t have much control. Strategic loans to buy other firms or books, hire producers, and install new technology are available. But, “agents are generally debt-adverse,” Dave notes. “The most successful business models I have seen in 20 years of working with independent agents are that the over-performers are doing it both ways. They’re focused on organic growth. And they’re taking an opportunistic approach through acquisitions — in geographic regions, in markets, in specialties, etc. If you can accomplish both of those…, you have a home run.” Listen in to hear how firms are generating tremendous profitability, cash flow and resultant long-term growth. (With guest co-host Dave Evans.)

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Here’s a chance to meet a driven, dynamic leader in Omari Aarons-Martin, who oversees the National African American Insurance Association. Omari outlines the history of NAAIA, founded by an independent agent 28 years ago. With 2,700 members and 24 chapters nationwide, NAAIA represents every industry sector and is dedicated to members’ professional development and empowerment. Your On Point host naturally asks the honest (if cringeworthy) questions you’ve come to expect on race and racial issues. And Omari deftly educates! Diversity means different things to different people, he says. Thus, he encourages insurance organizations to be specific about any talent gaps. “Give yourself permission to say, for example, ‘We want blacks and African Americans.’ We have been unwilling as a society to do that. It makes us uncomfortable. It pits people of color groups against each other.” He advises, “Start with the group you have the largest gap in,” and never stop paying attention so that your organization is future-ready to serve the customer.

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