The Top Specialist Wholesale Insurance Brokers in the USA
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Ensuring insurance excellence
As intermediaries dealing with hard-to-place risks, Insurance Business America’s Top Specialist Brokers of 2024 use their expertise to equip retailers with the information they need to ensure clients gain the correct cover.
“Specialist brokers are strategically and intentionally focused on just one aspect of the work they bring to the table, but that’s a good thing,” says Charmaine Davis, global education and private risk consultant at Marsh.
“You may not necessarily require a specialist in all aspects of your consulting services, but there are certain parts of business operations where that is extremely valuable,” she continues.
“Being a top specialist is having the knowledge and expertise to help clients find the right solutions. That comes from listening and really understanding what the risks are for that client or insurer”
Alison GreenCapitol Special Risks
Serving a niche segment of borrowers with unique needs, winner Alison Green, director of brokerage at Capital Special Risks, compares the role of a specialist broker to a “wizard behind the curtain.”
“We aren’t usually client facing or insured facing, but we need to be the one that gives our customers the knowledge they need to be able to do their jobs. That’s the value we bring, trying to combine it all in an easy package for them to present,” she adds.
With specialized knowledge in lines of coverage spanning across construction, real estate, and cyber, the 2024 specialist brokers excel in:
Sharing specialist expertise
As the president and CEO of Colorado-based Western Pacific Insurance Network, Eric Richter is passionate about ensuring clients obtain the right coverage for their construction needs.
As an expert in the field, the CEO:
conducts Continuing Education (CE) classes on the state of construction in Colorado
facilitates seminars for the Colorado Home Builders Association
acts as a resource and guide for independent agents across the state
“We try to create an element of stability for our agents. It’s about being that resource along the way so they can make the best possible insurance decisions not only this year, but for the long term as well”
Eric RichterWestern Pacific Insurance Network
By planning out detailed case studies, Richter provides thoughtful and holistic risk assessments.
“You must be the best possible resource for all channel partners. That comes with pre underwriting, understanding the risk, and understanding what you’re presenting to brokers. You have to show how they can tailor their package for that year or for the long term accordingly,” he explains.
Top Specialist Broker Anthony Manna, senior vice president of financial lines at Jencap, collaborates with clients to provide best-in-class solutions.
“The biggest problems that we’re solving are just finding competitive terms to whatever clients need, whether it’s a specific amount of capacity, placing a tough risk, or just understanding the exposure and the type of coverage that’s needed.”
Winning an internal gold level sales award in 2023, cyber specialist Green recognizes the importance of communicating with clients and team members.
“Everyone was so separated over the course of COVID and working from home independently. The translation of information from our carriers throughout our team members was sporadic at best.”
In efforts to establish more efficient lines of communication, the director of brokerage highlights her focus on education.
“We implemented a new kind of way of communicating, but also a way for everyone to be able to hear the same message by having our carrier partners participate with everyone,” she shares.
“I think understanding and being an expert is one thing, but being able to put it in terms that others can understand is important. We articulate policies in a way that our clients feel respected. It’s a collaborative effort”
Nick CarozzaRisk Placement Services
Problem solving
With expertise in cyber management liability, Nick Carozza, area senior vice president of risk placement services, has built a growing book of nearly $50 million in executive liability premium.
To achieve this level of success, he solved a range of challenges thrown at him by the industry, with two issues standing out:
Comparative raters coupled with drastically reduced cyber rates in 2023 left many retail agents with options they did not know how to decipher, leading to detrimental impacts on insureds.
Solution: Carozza educates agents on highly technical matters in a way that is easy to understand, allowing agents to confidently recommend the most appropriate coverage for their clients.
Cyber insurers offer a wide array of disparate risk management services for insureds and take-up rates are often low. As a result, these value-added resources are untapped.
Solution: Carozza participates in panel discussions to educate agents and brokers on the complexities of cyber risk and how the market is responding. He also attends local, regional, and national insurance industry events to gather input from agents and their insureds to further improve his team’s expertise.
“Given how soft the market was this year, we were still able to retain about 98 percent of our cyber business,” reflects Carozza. “A lot of what drove that was educating and explaining the differences between our products, and some of the products that retailers can get in-house.”
Establishing trust
With newcomers entering the cyber market space, which is set to grow at a reported 18 percent annually until 2028, clients have more cover options than ever to choose from.
Determined not to let the soft market negatively affect her, Green goes the extra mile to meet with agents and their clients, to ensure both parties receive the advice they need to mitigate risks.
“I truly care about what I’m doing. And I want to succeed, which means I want my customers to succeed. And the only way I can do that is by being at the top of my game.”
With over 10 years of industry experience, Manna also works tirelessly on behalf of his clients. Recently, the wholesale broker helped a large real estate company escape serious professional liability risks after noticing a policy oversight that offered little protection.
Speaking in an internal case study, Manna comments, “You can’t blame the insured. It’s not their job to understand insurance. It’s all about knowing the right questions to ask.”
As Jencap’s 2023 top professionalized producer, Manna uses strategies such as:
attending seminars year around while staying on top of daily developments in his field
maintaining relationships with carrier, wholesale, and retail market leaders
“Retailers don’t specialize in what we do. We help them by being specialists. We need to know where to find the solutions, and we need to be able to explain it or sell it to the brokers”
Anthony MannaJencap Group
Covering all the bases
For IBA’s 2024 winners, being a Top Specialist Broker means thinking ahead to protect clients from future risks, but also inspiring young people to enter the industry to create a positive future.
“The industry needs to do more to get young people to recruit their friends. To young people who are unsure of what they want to do, I always say, ‘try insurance, there is something for everyone,’” says Green.
Industry expert Jose Aponte, vice president at Alliant Insurance Services, agrees that talent recruitment is a challenge.
“With people working remotely, it may be difficult to get that in-house experience and knowledge needed to become a specialty broker. It just takes time to develop and perhaps the industry may need to start developing a more enhanced or advanced curriculum to educate people on that.”
Manna is one leader combatting this through Jencap’s Educational Enrichment Program. Launched in 2023 as a partnership with Jencap’s vice president of technical training, it is a 12-week professional lines development program that Manna created to help expose younger staff to different market segments.
In addition to inspiring the next generation of industry professionals, what ultimately makes a great specialist broker is the foresight to create long-term plans for clients. Top brokers must be prepared for every scenario.
“We’re working with agents that are generalists in nature, and they rely on us to be the specialists. We need to be that resource for them. It goes beyond explaining coverages and finding the best market and all that kind of stuff – you really have to have a deeper level of thought,” shares Richter.
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Brian C. Lynch
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JM Wilson
Dayna Herron
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Evan Aldrich
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CRC Group
Jeffrey Case
Vice President/Broker, Casualty & Environmental Practice
Hull & Company
Jeffrey Cunningham
Vice President, Environmental
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Joseph Messina
President and CEO
Maximum Independent Brokerage
Kevin Ronan
Property Broker
CRC Group
Nick Kohal
Executive Vice President, Environmental Broker
ARMR Brokerage
Peter Taffae
Chief Executive Officer
ExecutivePerils
Rachel Hamilton
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CRC Group
Robert Hughes
VP, Brokerage and Risk Management
APEX
Sebastian Swain
Director
RT Specialty
Stefanie McLeod
Vice President, Personal Lines Leader
Monarch E&S Insurance Services
Wana McNeal
Vice President, Director of Underwriting
MDP Programs
