June 26, 2024
Eric Wimsatt
McLean, Virginia-based vice president, Alliant Insurance Services Inc.
Falls Church, Virginia-based vice president, property/casualty insurance, USI Insurance Services LLC
The middle- and large-market insurance industry in both the property and casualty arenas should benefit from a more volatile risk environment as well as a rising interest rate environment. We are starting to see some minor softening in what has been one of the industry’s most sustained hard-market cycles in P&C insurance. Many areas are still experiencing a hard market, so the ability to deploy superior resources and technical abilities like due diligence and data analytics will differentiate the value-added brokers from the rest. If your broker has the scale and technical ability to be nimble and provide a full suite of services, then the outlook for the industry is very pleasant.
My goal is to utilize this new, superior platform at Alliant to help grow the financial institutions and government contractor client base in the mid-Atlantic region.
Because the mid-Atlantic region is such a target-rich environment for middle and large-market insurance, the scramble for client resources is always a challenge. Getting good quality account management, claims and loss control people who understand industry risks is not easy.
My first experience in middle-market insurance was with a grease-trap pumping business in Virginia that worked on retail contracts as well as federal and local government contracts. It was a fairly complex company that I learned a lot about while studying the risk management program.
Take the time to learn how “the cake is baked,” so to speak. Learn about the resources available to you for each opportunity and how to deploy them. Learn how insurers like to do things and develop a skillset around a couple of areas of core competency. Then go apply those skills with all your customers. Use that knowledge base to provide the best service to your clients that you absolutely can.
Running a private dairy farm or small organic meat farm. I like working with my hands and seeing the results of my hard work.
Business administration and math
I am looking forward to the ability to deploy greater resources and knowledge to help solve my clients’ challenges surrounding risk management. Alliant provides me with that opportunity, and I am grateful.
I am a meat and potatoes guy, so a good New York strip and a baked potato pretty much sums up my best meal.
I read as much as I can, and outside of business books, I read action and sci-fi fiction. My favorite business book is probably “When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management.” My favorite fiction is any of the “Game of Thrones” or Tolkien books.
Aside from sports activities with my two sons and my daughter, I am very into archery. My neighborhood has a professional-level range; I just started shooting a couple of years ago and I love to shoot there on any occasion.
I don’t watch much TV.
Throw the lacrosse ball in the backyard with my boys.
Based in New York, Stephen Freeman is a Senior Editor at Trending Insurance News. Previously he has worked for Forbes and The Huffington Post. Steven is a graduate of Risk Management at the University of New York.