Vertafore Insurance Podcast

The CEO retires. What’s next for The Big I?

This week Bob Rusbuldt, CEO at The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, joins us to share why he's retiring and a peek at the future of the national association. If you’re a history buff, you’ll love this one. You’ll walk away learning: 

• The #1 challenge indie agencies faced in 1986 
• Why Bob chose to become the Big I CEO instead of a fighter pilot 
• His first week as the CEO (PSA: he was in the white house bunker) 
• How the best leaders balance optimism with realism 
• The genesis of Trusted Choice 
• What's changed between 1986 and now for the indie agent 
• What's next for The Big I 

Your onboarding experience is missing THIS.

This week Krystal Buller, Learning & Development Specialist at Vertafore, joins us to talk about how to increase employee AND client retention through a great onboarding experience. 
 
Tune in to meet Krystal, plus: 

• Why Krystal ended up in the Learning & Development field 
• How she's increased Vertafore's employee retention through a great onboarding experience 
• Onboarding Best Practices for insurance agencies to consider 
• The biggest "miss" when it comes to creating an amazing onboarding experience

Why Rating, Download & Zapier “connectivity” isn’t enough in insurance

The independent model couldn’t survive without connectivity. When carriers and agencies must work closely together for the sake of the customer...and do so quickly...the health of our connectivity is unavoidable. When agencies are forced to weaponize speed as a competitive edge in their experience and operations, the quality of connectivity within their tech suites and into partners’ tech must be held to a high standard.  Jamie Peers, VP of Business Development at Synatic, walks us through the death and rebirth of connectivity in insurance. You’ll walk away learning: 

• Why a South African insurtech launched in the U.S. 
• Why Zapier isn’t enough 
• The two fundamental tech “lies” you’re probably telling yourself 
• Not all API’s are equal; how do you know which ones should make the cut? 
• The difference between “Policy Download” and APIs 
• How “tech debt” holds us back from modern connectivity 
• Your data management matters – garbage in, garbage out 
• Getting the right data to the right person at the right time 

How Ascend turns agency bill into direct bill

Andrew Wynn, Founder of Ascend, started his professional career as an entry-level Levi Strauss employee. Today, he owns an insurtech startup looking to resolve the payment processing controversy in the independent channel. By the way, that startup just received a $30 million Series A. You’ll walk away from this episode learning more about Andrew and why he decided to take on this challenge, in addition to: 

• Why he swims the length of Lake Tahoe (12 miles!)
• His early days at instacart (before it was suburban moms’ favorite app) 
• How to deal with imposter syndrome, the curse of every entrepreneur  
• Why his first...and second...startups were both in insurance 
• The Industry Problem Ascend solves 
• How Ascend turns direct bill into agency bill 

Jess Butler: The New Face of Commercial Rating

Jess Butler, VP of Product Management and Owner of Commercial Submissions, is taking over for the infamous Dave Acker, long-time champion of connectivity products here at Vertafore. Dave has been looking to retire, but needed to find the right person to whom he could pass the torch. That begs the question: Why Jess Butler? You’ll walk away from this episode learning more about Jess and why she said yes to leading Vertafore’s connectivity mission: 

• How Jess got started in insurance over 20 years ago 

• How she guided Travelers’ business strategy during rater adoption 
• Her decision-matrix for prioritizing the fewest questions during rating 
• Why she started a data analytics company in the mutual space 
• A discussion on whether Vertafore “made sense” as the right next step  
• A debate on whether the term “market connectivity” is outdated 

IndieTech: The UnConference & an Air Force Vet’s Sales Process

Jason Cass has many accomplishments under his belt already: successful agency owner, host of one of the most popular insurance podcasts, founder of BrainShare, a cutting-edge author and thought-leader in the insurtech space. But he’s not done. In 2023, he’s launching a new conference called “IndieTech.” In this episode, you’ll hear: 

• What is indietech? It’s not a conference. It’s not an event. It’s not a mastermind. It’s a live guided experience to help you vet the right and best tech for your agency. 

• How he automated his entire sales process – thanks to a US AirForce Veteran (Jason’s COO) 
• Insurtech predictions for 2023....and maybe 2024/2025. 
• A bold, new...and maybe, crazy....idea for starting a scratch agency. 

The 2023 Vertafore Vision

James Thom, Vertafore’s Chief Product Officer, candidly shares the challenges and opportunities for one of the largest tech providers in insurance. You’ll walk away from this episode with a better grasp on the insurtech conversation and how Vertafore plans to dominate it in 2023: 

• What are the biggest challenges facing any insurtech in 2023? 
• Which of those challenges is Vertafore facing head-on?
• Why data islands are killing efficiency
• Why our Amazon bet was the right move
• Why API development is a priority
• How we plan to win the commercial rating game
• What the best Canadian candy bar is 

Learn from Clark Griswold’s mistake, with Chris Cline

You know the scene from the National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation movie. Clark Griswold has spent hours affixing a superfluous amount of flashy Christmas lights to his house only to have none of it illuminate when he plugs it in.

VIP guest Chris Cline, executive director of Agents Council for Technology, says this iconic movie moment can be compared to a common issue insurance companies face when they don't take the time to carefully strategize.

Chris believes you can buy every shiny tech option available, but if you don’t have a good strategy for putting it together, you won’t be successful—and no, the lights won’t turn on.

How can you balance your InsurTech aspirations with solid results? Listen now.

Pumping iron, with Jessica Jeffress

In this episode, we are joined by Jessica Jeffress, chairwoman at NetVU and current associate vice president at Peel & Holland.  

During this episode, Rick and Jessica talk through:

• Building the planning muscle; learning to execute a plan, from start to finish
• Using the “relationship continuation” method to build loyalty with clients
• The specific ways she builds company culture through training & jam sessions

InsuRant: Getting fit for the feeding frenzy

In 2021, there were over 1,000 insurance agency mergers and acquisitions in the U.S.—up 30% from 2020. This high activity is expected to continue in 2022, so if you’re an agency owner or hoping to be one day, Rick says it’s time to start planning for the day when it might be time to sell.

To make their business worth the most when the feeding frenzy comes, agencies need to be doing everything they can NOW to get fit and maximize value.

This episode is a super-informative listen for current agency owners and aspiring owners alike!