The U.S. market offers growth opportunity for firms seeking expansion.

From the frozen Arctic to the inferno of a high net worth divorce, Power Brokers go to extremes to find solutions for their clients.

Top Negotiator Ruiz Foods saw collateral obligations under its workers’ comp coverage continue to climb and its out-of-pocket costs increase to unsustainable levels. “Bruce Droz and his team worked to decrease the amount that carriers required us to maintain in standby letters of credit by more than $1 million,” said Bill Wheeler, corporate controller. “Bruce… View Article

Helping Clients Soar It seems like everywhere you look, businesses are finding more ways to use drones — also known as unmanned aircraft systems. It follows that the insurance industry needs to keep pace. But it wasn’t, as brokers and clients alike observed. Getting coverage meant a time-consuming process, restrictive policy language, low liability limits… View Article

Call Her Maestro Jenny Charles is a master at getting the right people together in a room and orchestrating business relationships and deals that wouldn’t happen if each party was singing their own tune. Says one source, “Jenny orchestrated a meeting between one of her clients and a major firm. It was a win-win for… View Article

No Problem Too Big Earthquakes on campus? No problem. Remote flights? No problem. High premiums? No problem. With Charmaine Davis, clients know the words “no problem” aren’t lip service. Davis’ “no problem” solutions are the result of hard work, industry knowledge and connections; understanding client needs; and leveraging the marketplace to her clients’ advantage. “When… View Article

A Joint Venture Pioneer In a pioneering effort, Marsh’s Danette Beck borrowed a practice from engineering and brought it to the construction sector. “We work often through joint ventures, and we don’t construct low-risk projects,” said the risk manager at one client. “Our incumbent carriers were not giving us competitive terms, and that was making… View Article

Negotiating in the Nick of Time “We recently switched our broker of record to JLT primarily due to Rob,” said a treasury official at one client. “He had some great ideas on how to improve our insurance program. One specific item he proposed and we implemented was adding our terrorism coverage back into our property… View Article

A Partner to Weather All Storms Beecher Carlson’s Susan Garrard supported a client through a complex transaction involving the purchase of a lease interest in a portfolio of power projects from a bankrupt company. “A material chunk of the portfolio is in a part of the country seriously affected by the hurricanes this year,” explained… View Article

Dedicated to Creating Coverage Clients applaud Cristin Bullen for improving their environmental coverages and designing protection for singularly difficult risks. “Cristin was an invaluable resource in underwriting a custom and comprehensive PLL policy,” which covered a recent acquisition that involved spinning off a contaminated site to a third party, one client noted. The client needed… View Article

Nontraditional Insurance for Nontraditional Workers The U.S. Woman’s Chamber of Commerce was looking for health insurance and related education for traditionally uninsured parties, including part-time workers and small women-owned businesses, said Fred Karutz, a third-party consultant. Together, he and Jennifer Akhter developed solutions. “Jenn drove creation of the multichannel health care coverage and education campaign,”… View Article

Eagle-Eye View on Insurance It’s no surprise drones would eventually find their way into the entertainment business. “There’s this wave of drones,” said Lindsay Vetter, senior business affairs manager, VSA Partners Inc. “One of our productions decided to use footage from a drone, but I didn’t have the time to look it all over.” Vetter… View Article

The Right Words A great broker is not only well-versed in finding the right insurance but can also eloquently explain various coverages and solutions to clients outside the field — no easy task, to be sure. Such is the case of Kristina Marcigliano. “Kristina makes the complicated world of insurance easy to understand when she… View Article

A True Captive Adviser Some brokers simply sell products; others also help their clients understand their insurance needs. Kathryn Christensen excels at the latter. Christensen advised Katie Smart, assistant vice president, risk management, Macerich, on the process of setting up a captive as it involves big capital commitments. “Kathryn focused on our business and what… View Article

Your First Call Carriers want to know that a company is mitigating its risk. Terence Bohan knows this, and he makes sure his clients do, too. Bohan uses his industry knowledge, including his perspective from his former role on the carrier side, to guide his clients through renewals, claims or just about anything they need…. View Article

His ‘Claim’ Is Advocacy Most brokers list their job title as broker, of course. But George Andersen calls himself a client advocate/broker, and that small distinction is revealing. Having “grown up” in the insurance world thanks to a mom in the biz, it feels like family to Andersen, so he treats his clients like family…. View Article

Above and Beyond Last year, KIPP NYC was asked to join a larger group insurance portfolio that offered significant savings — up to 30 percent — but they would have to change their coverage. Katina Grays, managing director, data & operations, had a good relationship with her broker Brandon Cole and was transparent about the… View Article

Bankable A South Florida nonprofit had been with the same broker and an insurance pool for decades when Giselle Lugones suggested it would benefit from a stand-alone insurance arrangement. With 20 health care facilities — including long-term housing for the elderly, hospices, acute rehab — each with different risks, “we had lots of insurance issues,”… View Article

Tackling Tough Risks A client of Marsh’s Grant Bell, a relatively new privately held biotech company, has multiple subsidiaries and is acquiring assets but hasn’t yet introduced any products. With such rapid expansion, risk management issues can crop up unexpectedly. For example, a state recently sought evidence of workers’ compensation coverage at a new subsidiary… View Article

The Talk of the Town Scott Marting, director of risk management, Palm Beach County BOCC, knows what it’s like to live through a hurricane. As a risk manager in Florida, Marting said he needed a broker who not only understood the frequency of hurricane events but also the scope of damage that can be done,… View Article