Perennial “On Point” rock star Dennis Moseley-Williams reflects and digs deep on this recording. No matter what size business you’re leading, here are five pieces of advice to get you thinking differently. The financial services management consultant covers anticipating disruption, creating the unexpected for clients, “life/work integration” (not balance), generating ideas from all quarters of the firm, and learning to listen and be more vulnerable. “Don’t double-down on the status quo; think about transformation,” Dennis says. “Don’t think about the money or it’s a race to the bottom.” A client-focus is more important than process, he insists.

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Church Mutual is lucky to have John Tribble. The carrier that “serves those who serves others” got way ahead of the 2020 social unrest when it launched a diversity initiative with John in 2017. Looking in new places to recruit is key, John says. “We have to be more deliberate in talent acquisition. View people as they are. If they bring a certain different skill set, that skill set is valuable. Some of the most notable achievements or breakthroughs came from people who didn’t necessarily finish college. A degree is important, but hone in on what we need as a company to succeed. We need to allow them to feel comfortable and not be under a microscope, or another company or industry will take them. And we’ll be the losers.” Listen as John outlines how he mentors young talent, as he himself was mentored back in the early 1990s as an unpaid intern. You’ll appreciate John’s enthusiasm for the insurance industry as a fantastic place to work!

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Veteran agency consultant and repeat “On Point” guest Tom Doran with Reagan Consulting is on a renewed mission. He wants agency principals to understand the stark reality about their futures. “If we’re not focused on the leadership transition, we’re likely to wake up one day and realize that we don’t have an option to perpetuation internally because we haven’t done the needed things to maintain a healthy operation.” Primarily, agency owners need to develop young talent, he urges. Unlike the marketplace, this is “the one variable you can control. We desperately need to hire and develop young folks. We are asleep at the wheel in succession planning.” Moreover, the plan should be periodically updated, he says. “It’s not a three-ring notebook to put on a shelf.” On this episode, Tom outlines four pillars of a successful perpetuation: healthy operation, willing sellers, able buyers and a good transfer mechanism.

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Bob Rusbuldt, long-serving CEO of the Big “I,” is retiring in 2023. Starting on The Hill as a lobbyist, Bob later oversaw the development of many initiatives at the national association, including the Trusted Choice consumer brand, a bank for agents called InsurBanc, expanded insurance policies for agents, and more. As for national politics, what’s it like to have lived most of your life in DC? “It’s been a blessing and a curse to have been on the inside,” says Bob. Today, he adds, “I’ve never seen Washington more partisan in my 40+ years in this town. Interestingly, the GOP is more divided on tactics and process, and the Democrats more divided on policy. Republicans agree on most policy issues.” Bob laments that “society has become more dependent on the federal government. It’s more like the European model. There are not very many true-blue independent thinkers left. We’re moving more to socialization — we haven’t seen that since the 1930s with Marxism.”

This episode is supported by PersonalUmbrella.com, where you can quote stand-alone personal umbrella policies of up to $5 MM in 3 minutes online — just by answering 4 simple questions.

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Agency owners who hire producers, invest in technology and explore new markets — in other words, pursuing an organic growth plan — will have “the ultimate return,” according to Dave Tralka, CEO of InsurBanc. On this recording we check in again with Dave as he takes the temperature on the marketplace. Agency merger and acquisition activity is expected to slow, Dave says. “Private equity is taking a pause. There are still a lot of active buyers, but some chips have been taken off the table. They’re trying to digest what they bought.” That could be significant, since three out of four agency deals in 2022 had a PE component to them, Dave says. Listen as he outlines a winning agency’s “culture of achievement” that permeates all facets of the firm, including people, process and technology. InsurBanc is “the agent’s bank,” started in the early 2000s with help from the Big “I.”

This episode is supported by PersonalUmbrella.com, where you can quote stand-alone personal umbrella policies of up to $5 MM in 3 minutes online — just by answering 4 simple questions.

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What would agents and brokers do for a living if customers increasingly buy coverage in different ways? A lot, says Jim Dwane, CEO of insurtech Bolt, a P/C insurance exchange. On this recording, Jim outlines how technology is impacting the industry most in distribution. “Insurance distribution is democratizing,” he says. “The traditional points of sale — call center, agent, website — are now moving to new points of sale, in some cases digitally at that moment.” That means getting car insurance at the time you buy a car; home insurance when you buy or refinance, getting proof of liability coverage at the jobsite, etc. So-called “embedded insurance” means agents will evolve to risk advisors, Jim says. “Technology is making it easier to buy insurance. It also is significantly helping the agent and broker. If you could get the consumer to do 50 to 75% of the up-front work digitally, that reduces the cost basis and brings higher margins, and agents can focus more on the consultative selling process.” Bolt matches buyers and sellers, he says. “We are not disruptors. We are enablers. We enable others to disrupt.”

This episode is supported by PersonalUmbrella.com, where you can quote stand-alone personal umbrella policies of up to $5 MM in 3 minutes online — just by answering 4 simple questions.

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Most independent insurance agencies are family owned and operated (and argued over!). Most generate less than $2 million in revenue. Others, like Ansay & Associates, break out to a new level. And for “On Point” listeners, the reason is familiar: culture and brand. Our favorite topic. Listen as principal Mike Ansay walks us through how the firm had grown to 270 employees, 20+ locations around Wisconsin, and $50 million in revenue. “The culture became strategic to our ability to grow,” Mike says, noting the firm hired an exec who leads culture. “Core values are the base. If you don’t have a base to manage your people, you lose alignment. Once you lose alignment, your business is put at risk.” Mike walks us through his core values, and addresses the priority on technology. In fact, the firm is on a journey to resemble more of a tech company that happens to sell insurance.

This episode is supported by PersonalUmbrella.com, where you can quote stand-alone personal umbrella policies of up to $5 MM in 3 minutes online — just by answering 4 simple questions.

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Lou Moran from Knoxville, TN is a seasoned independent agent who is learning some new tricks. Lou is leading the charge to create Fortified, a new agency alliance comprising 55 firms in seven southeastern states and some $2.6 billion in premium revenue via 35 carriers. “We’re trying to give independent agents a sustainable advantage to maintain independent,” particularly since many of its firms are family-owned, Lou says. “With all the M&A out there, it is scary.” Fortified is working on back-office support as well as coverage enhancements (e.g. benefits and cyber) just for members. Culture leads the day in interviewing potential members, Lou says. “We have learned a lot,” Lou says. “We don’t care how good you are; if you’re not a culture fit for us, you’re not getting in, because we are very collaborative, we share a lot, we help each other. A lot of aggregators are about revenue and market access, and we’re trying to build a true platform that allows us to keep doing what we do, take the back office off our plates, and let our producers sell, which we’re really good at.”

This episode is supported by PersonalUmbrella.com, where you can quote stand-alone personal umbrella policies of up to $5 MM in 3 minutes online — just by answering 4 simple questions.

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Verisk CEO Lee Shavel joins “On Point” to explore the role of data and digitization trends in the insurance industry. A top issue: Inflation is driving higher claims costs for insurers, and creating longer-term risk exposures, pricing and reserving challenges as consumers and businesses adapt to higher prices, Lee says. The cost to make and transport products, the cost for construction, and auto and home loss costs and repairs all have spiked. Another source of stress is social inflation driven by litigation and jury awards. It was aggravated by a backlog of cases in courts during Covid, Lee relates. Insurance data reported into Verisk shows growing loss ratios in GL, commercial auto and commercial umbrella, starting in 2015. And, these losses are fed by higher jury awards and defense costs despite a lower claims frequency. Florida is an acute problem, with 79% of property litigation in the nation but only 9% of homeowners claims. In response, insurers should leverage legal analytical tools to prepare for “nuclear verdicts” in the same way they do for natural disasters, Lee says.

This episode is supported by PersonalUmbrella.com, where you can quote stand-alone personal umbrella policies of up to $5 MM in 3 minutes online — just by answering 4 simple questions.

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“On Point” likes check in with future insurance leaders. On this installment we hear from Taylor Evans, a communications professional with carrier IAT Insurance Group in North Carolina and recent recipient of the Trailblazer Award from the Insurance Marketing & Communications Association. In 2017, Taylor was new to the industry, leading the charge to pour meaning into the letters “IAT” with “insurance answers together.” That galvanized a decentralized operation of 30 offices, 900 employees and eight vertical markets. “We talk about our culture a lot here at IAT. We know how to describe it now,” Taylor says about the branding process that began first inside the organization. “We had to find our internal voice. We refer to our employees as family — that works for us. Internally, we said our employees are a family of answers.”

This episode is supported by PersonalUmbrella.com, where you can quote stand-alone personal umbrella policies of up to $5 MM in 3 minutes online — just by answering 4 simple questions.

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