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Over the past decade, I’ve scaled revenue and client success at three SaaS companies from $3M to $50M+ ARR, delivering 110%+ net revenue retention and top 10% NPS scores (65+).

Today, we help recruiting agency owners & Principals ($5M–$20M billings, 5–20 recruiters) land new clients from LinkedIn by becoming a trusted authority in their market. 

Our clients are busy business owners. They don’t want to be “content creators.” 

They want done-for-you exec content that lands new clients. That’s what we do.

In the past 12 months, we’ve generated $5M+ in client billings from LinkedIn by positioning recruiting agency owners as the go-to authorities in their markets.

Our methodology:
→ Revenue Growth Engine - a 3-step system perfected with 40+ founders & recruiting agencies
→ Content strategy that generates demand for contingent and retained searches (not just likes)
→ Strategic outreach to initiate conversations with your ideal clients
→ All requiring just 1.5 hours per week from busy Principals and owners

Our results:
→ 40+ owners and Principals served
→ $5M+ in client billings generated from inbound leads via LinkedIn
→ 8+ qualified inquiries per month within 90 days (average client result)
→ Doubling client pipelines in under 6 months
→ Clients include 7 and 8-figure recruiting agencies commanding $75K+ fees and securing multi-search mandates

And we're just getting started!

We help recruiting business owners who are:
→ Tired of building trust from scratch and ready for clients who arrive pre-sold
→ Reliant on a referral pipeline that has plateaued and feels unpredictable
→ Ready to turn decades of expertise into an inbound client pipeline

Ready to turn LinkedIn into your #1 growth channel?
→ Book a 25-minute strategy call: 

https://calendly.com/rohan-karunakaran-mbww/1-1-strategy-call

Rohan Karunakaran

One of my highlights from 2025 was attending a Dr. Joe Dispenza advanced retreat in Nashville. 

It was a fully immersive 7 day experience. 1,500 people. 14-hour days from 6am-8pm. Some days started at 4am. 

A few key takeaways that stayed with me:

1. Most people are living in the past:

Most people are living in a loop where today looks like yesterday. 

If we keep making a copy of a copy of a copy - like an old cassette tape - we’re becoming a cheaper, more diluted version of our true selves. 

To break the loop, we must become greater than the body, the mind, and the environment — all of which are largely conditioned by the past.

“Overcoming is the becoming process.”

The resistance we feel — to get out of bed, go to the gym, or have the hard conversations — is often the past being projected into the future.

The mind predicts an unpleasant experience so the body responds with resistance or avoidance. 

If we can overcome ourselves in those small moments, we step into possibility to a life that feels both more exciting and more peaceful. 

As I wrote in my journal: “If I can overcome myself in the morning, everyone else will be easy” HA!

2. Opening the heart:

The universe only gives us what we feel worthy of receiving. And worthiness comes from an open heart. 

Fear and frustration don’t open the heart. A constantly analytical mind doesn’t open the heart (learned that one the hard way 😄).

There’s nuance here — including practical ways I’ve found to cultivate an open heart — which probably deserves its own post.

The true masters (Jesus, Krishna, Buddha) knew the path: remove anything that stood in the way between them and an unconditionally open heart. 

3. Meditation as remembering:

The world is designed to help us forget our true selves:

• Societal conditioning
• The educational system
• The food we eat

The invisible scripts — when to buy a house, have children, what “success” is supposed to look like, etc, etc. the list is long !

The idea is not to fight against it. But to notice this old software program running and make intentional choices to update it. 

It starts with awareness. 

Meditation is the act of remembering. Of tuning out the noise so we can tune into the intelligence whispering within us.

From a neuroscience perspective, this often corresponds with shifting from high-beta analytical brainwave patterns into slower, more coherent alpha and theta states — states associated with calm focus, creativity, emotional regulation, and heart-brain coherence.

The result - the mind becomes an instrument of the heart:

• Decisions feel clean
• Work feels more easeful
• We feel more regulated, present and grounded

The ultimate goal: 

“Get so good doing it with your eyes closed, you can do it with your eyes open.” 

There were many more takeaways, including a breakthrough experience I had. 

It might be a little “woo” for LinkedIn, so let me know in the comments if you want a Part 2 👇

CEO at Frontier Growth Engine | Podcast host at Founder-Led 🎙️

B2B lags B2C by ~10 years.

Had a great conversation with Will Leatherman and he said it perfectly:

"If B2C’s creator era kicked off in 2014… B2B is right on schedule"

And the playbook is already written:

2016 → B2C social goes mainstream
2019 → Personal brands disproportionately outperform corporate brands
2020s → Distribution > product

Now the same shift is hitting B2B.

Founders & CEOs are becoming the face of their products & services.

Those who start now will be 2–3 years ahead by the time everyone else catches on.

I thought I was decent at discovery calls.

Then I role-played with the author of Gap Selling.

He dismantled my process in 10 minutes.

3 takeaways that completely changed how I run discovery:

1. Product-centric vs. help-centric selling:

Most founders (myself included) jump to the pitch too quickly. 

“Aha — they mentioned a problem. Let me tell them about our solution.”

Keenan . calls this product-centric selling.

Help-centric selling is different.

It goes deep on:
→ What are you trying to do?
→ What’s preventing you from doing it today?
→ What is that costing you?
→ How long has this been going on?
→ Is it actually worth changing?

If you’re not uncovering those, and gettting them to emotionally feel and articulate the pain of their current state, the pitch — and the decision — won’t have real stakes. And will likely fall flat.

2. Get them to quantify the gap

Keenan’s rule: define everything.

“Onboarding takes too long.” How long?

“We’re losing revenue.” How much?

Most founders hear a problem and move on.

But vague problems don’t create urgency. Numbers do.

When they say “$700K is at risk”  it becomes real.

3. Not going deep on consequences

This one got me.

Keenan didn’t stop at the surface issue.

He kept asking: 
→ What happens if referrals dry up next quarter? 
→ What's it costing you to spend 20 hours a week on outbound that goes nowhere? 
→ If you're spending 5 calls just to build trust — is that the best use of your time?

By the end, "I should probably invest more in thought leadership" became a $500K pipeline gap.

He wasn't manufacturing fear. He was helping me connect what I already knew.

Selling isn't about pitching features — it's about the cost of inaction.

Founder-led sellers - Which is harder for you: finding the pain or getting the prospect to quantify it?

Executives, there are two ways to protect your personal assets and your financial institution’s balance sheet in 2025…

1. Buy insurance. Hope it works.

2. Engineer a risk management program so resilient, it becomes a strategic asset.

Many still do the first. 

Even the sophisticated ones.

That’s why I’ve spent 25 years - and over 85,000 hours - mastering the second.

From building multimillion-dollar divisions at Marsh, JLT, and NFP…to recovering over $250 million in claims for clients…to founding LION Specialty, a boutique insurance firm built for the institutions who can’t afford to settle for off-the-shelf solutions.

Today, I help financial institutions, private equity firms, and insurance carriers, MGAs and ILS funds:

→ Navigate the global insurance markets.
→ Gain direct access to the best underwriters in the U.S., Bermuda, and Lloyd’s.
→ Structure D&O, E&O, Cyber, and complex P&C programs that hold up under real-world stress.
→ Align coverage with board priorities and capital strategy, not just next year’s premium.

We stress test programs annually like regulators would. 

We optimize every renewal. 

We've honed our claims playbook over three decades. 

Because in our world, you don’t get rewarded for being insured. You get rewarded for being prepared.

Building the New Standard:

At our insurance brokerage firm, LION Specialty, we’re building more than a brokerage. 

We’re building the broker of the future...

→ Delivering boardroom-grade insights to thousands of institutions through our weekly "Boardroom Briefings," and daily insights via our social platforms.
→ Attracting elite talent through a high-performance compensation model and culture.

Our mission: 

Obsess over every detail, so you don’t have to. 

Obsess over our execution. 

So you feel like you’re our only client! 

If your institution is ready to rethink insurance as more than a commodity - and turn it into an edge - I’d welcome an opportunity to connect! 

- Mark “FLIP” Flippen 

Mark Flippen

A Lloyd's underwriter once told me:
"I am not betting on the spreadsheet. I am betting on the people."

That advice saved my clients millions over the last 20 years.

I was 28 years old. I was sitting across from him at my first PLUS event. He was a veteran underwriter from a well known Lloyd’s syndicate. 

He had been u/writing D&O since before I was born.

I had my stack of papers. My charts. 5 years of loss data. I was all ready to go thru the math.

He didn't look at the papers. He looked at me and asked one question…”If the building burns down, will they try to save the furniture, or will they let it burn?"

This was an inv mgmt account. Why was he asking about the building burning down!

Still makes me chuckle. 

That moment though. It changed how I viewed the trade.

The "spreadsheet" broker thinks risk is a math problem. They think if they tweak the deductibles enough, if they best position the financials the risk diminishes.

The "Trading" Broker knows risk is a human problem. We don't just sell your data to the market. We sell your character to the market.

What’s your move when it hits the fan. 

When we bring a deal to market, we don't just send the PDF. The submission. We tell the story of the management team. We explain why you are a safe bet.

20 years on, that underwriter is still right. The spreadsheet tells you the price. The story tells you the risk.

And the best terms always go to the “people,” w the best stories.

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I Help Executives Turn Insurance Into A Competitive Asset & Protect Their Personal Net Worth | Managing Partner & Co-Founder of LION Specialty | Expert in Corporate Liability Insurance 

There are two ways to protect a financial institution in 2025:

1. Buy insurance. Hope it works.
2. Engineer a risk management program so resilient, it becomes a strategic asset.

Many still do the first. Even the sophisticated ones.

That’s why I’ve spent 25 years — and over 85,000 hours — mastering the second.

From building multimillion-dollar divisions at Marsh, JLT, and NFP…to recovering over $250 million in claims for clients…to founding LION Specialty, a boutique insurance firm built for the institutions who can’t afford to settle for off-the-shelf solutions.

Today, I help financial institutions, private equity firms, and insurance carriers:

→ Navigate the global insurance markets.
→ Gain direct access to the best underwriters in the U.S., Bermuda, and Lloyd’s.
→ Structure D&O, E&O, Cyber, and complex P&C programs that hold up under real-world stress.
→ Align coverage with board priorities and capital strategy, not just next year’s premium.

We stress test programs annually like regulators would. We optimize every renewal. We've honed our claims playbook over three decades. 

Because in our world, you don’t get rewarded for being insured. You get rewarded for being prepared.

Building the New Standard:

At my new insurance brokerage firm, LION Specialty, I'm building more than a brokerage. I’m building the broker of the future...

→ Delivering boardroom-grade insights to thousands of institutions through our weekly "Boardroom Briefings," and daily insights via our social platforms.
→ Attracting elite talent through a high-performance compensation model and culture.
→ Making every client feel like they’re our only client.

If your institution is ready to rethink insurance as more than a commodity — and turn it into an edge — let’s talk.

- FLIP

Weekly Boardroom Risk Intelligence

CEO & Co-Founder, LION Specialty | Insurance Broker | 25+ Years Helping Insurance Companies, MGAs & Insurtechs Protect Their Executives & Balance Sheets | $250 Million Claims Recoveries | Corporate Liability Specialist

I drove into Boulder, Colorado with a bonfire raging in the bed of my pickup truck.

It was 1999.

I was on a date with a lady named Julie. I was trying to show her my rugged outdoorsman self. A couple of years before I had completed my Outdoor Semester in the Rockies. 

Grand plan. I’d take her camping and show her how cool I thought I was! 

A little camping trip in the foothills would be the perfect spot. But it started pouring rain, so we threw everything (including the charcoal grill) into the back of my Toyota Tacoma and bailed.

I thought the fire was out.
The 60mph wind on the highway had other ideas.

By the time we parked, flames were licking the tailgate. She was terrified. I thought, "Well, that’s it. She’s never going out with me again."

She didn't run though. 
She laughed. 
And then she helped me put it out.

That was 25 years ago.
And that lady has been helping me put out fires ever since.

She was there when I was fired two months before our wedding.
She was there when we moved across the country to NYC with nothing but a plan.
She was there when I walked away from a cushy salary to start LION Specialty from scratch.

In business, we talk a lot about "partners."
But the most important partner you will ever choose isn't on your cap table.
It’s the one waiting for you at home.

Find the person who will ride with you when the truck is on fire! 

And never let them go.

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A smooth renewal usually means nobody looked.

A mutual insurance company brought us in to review their own program. Their biggest agent, the one who sells for them, had been handling their corporate D&O and E&O for years. Long-standing relationship. Comfortable renewal. Felt efficient.

The problem is incentives.

That agent's job is to maintain a smooth, profitable relationship. Not to run a technical review that exposes gaps and creates friction. The renewal feels easy because it's just a rollover of last year's terms.

We ran their program through our 8-point stress test. Market positioning. Carrier selection. Coverage structure. Benchmarking against peers. Limits. Retentions. All of it.

We found over a dozen significant coverage gaps.

Problematic fraud exclusions buried in the policy. Vague allocation language that lets carriers decide how much of a claim is their problem versus yours. Notice provisions that were a trap.

A relationship renewal will miss these 100% of the time.

We put our manuscript form next to the vanilla form they'd been sold. The difference was undeniable.

The technical review was the foothold. That's what proved acumen over convenience.

They now trust us with their entire P&C and financial lines placement.

I had two uncomfortable conversations last week. And sadly, I plan to have a dozen more before the quarter ends.

First with a CFO, next was General Counsel. 

Back-to-back insurance policy reviews. Many executives would rather have oral surgery than do an insurance review. Believe me, I get it.

But both execs looked at the coverage concerns we found and asked the exact same question. 

"Why didn't my broker catch these?"

After two decades, I still hate answering that question. Because the answer gets uncomfortable. The gaps we find are rarely complex. 

They’re systematic service failures. Your broker just wasn’t looking, sir. Or worse, they don’t have the skill set to see these, madam. 

• Fraud exclusions that trigger too early.
• Allocation language that is vague on purpose.
• Notice provisions that fail during a crisis.
• D&O and E&O programs that don't talk to each other.

Last week weren’t "typos." They were foundational risks that are leaving these executives’ personal assets exposed. And the balance sheet with a false hedge.

Why this is happening now…

For years, the mega brokers have moved business that doesn’t generate $1M in commission into Small Business Units. The aspiring big brokers have copied this model like lemmings. That means one broker handling 200+ accounts at a time. Even a super broker can’t manage that kind of load.

And we all know the super brokers aren’t in the small biz units. 

So your program — which is meant to protect the board, the balance sheet, and your personal assets 
— gets transactional service. 

Add to that the recent agitation. 

All that broker consolidation you’re reading about in the industry rags. 
Your "trusted advisor" is distracted by their own merger. Their new company bogged down w internal crap. Your team is in flux. And litigation might be blocking you from the talent you actually hired.

All the while...

We are in a market with the most favorable terms we've seen in years.
But you can't access them if your broker is distracted, or just hitting renew.

If you are a CFO or GC at a financial institution and you haven't stress-tested your program in the last 12 months, let us help you. 

Grab a time on my calendar. Link👇🏻

Your coverage either works when you need it, or you find out it doesn't.

PSA: you can’t automate the knife and fork, yall. I know, some of you are bummed out. Nor can you AI the lunch convo or the fight across the country to close the deal. Sorry!Those were my reminders this week. 

No Zoom or Microsoft Teams calls with a PowerPoint. Just face to face with a new client whose deal we won at the lunch table! Ok, full disclosure we did bring a PowerPoint. Old habits die hard! 

We also took this cool picture with a Steel LION after the win. 

Then we waited for new client to drive away. Then TASH and I had a round of high fives and a fifteen to twenty second dance party in the parking lot of Cap Grille to celebrate! 

Man, it was awesome.
Winning new clients never gets old. 

P.S. hard to compete w a team that’s having fun! 

LION Specialty

"Be a student of the game." You’ve heard it a million times. But here’s why every young professional specializing in anything should consider it. 

( especially in our industry ) 

It’s arguably the best advice I ever received as a young insurance pro. 

Just behind: “be nice to everyone, you never know who you’ll be working with or for!” And if you are just starting out, it’s the only advice that matters.

How that simple phrase changes everything:

1. The "Game" makes it fun.

If you view this industry as a "job," you will burnout.

You will dread the paperwork. You will resent the long hours. But if you view it as a Game, your competitive instincts kick in. Every sales call is an at-bat. Every renewal is a playoff game. Every deal you bind is a point on the scoreboard.

Suddenly, you aren't "working." You are playing to win.

2. The "Student" makes you dangerous.

Most people in this industry are "tourists."

They know enough to pass the exam, but they don't know the deep mechanics. When you commit to being a Student, you stop skimming the surface. You read the policy forms on the weekend. You study the exclusions. You figure out why the underwriter said no, so you can make them say yes next time.

The tourists get paid a salary. The students of the game build empires.

Don't just show up for work today.
Study the playbook. Learn the rules.
Then go win your game.

What was the best advice you got early in your career? 

P.S. 2012 this is me in my first nice suit in my first nice apartment in Hoboken! 

I had been playing the game in NYC for a few years by then and it was starting to pay off!

After 25+ years in insurance, I've watched too many talented people sacrifice too much for “success”... 

The traditional insurance model is:

→ Individual producers grinding alone
→ 60+ hour weeks disguised as "dedication"
→ Compensation structures that pit teammates against each other
→ Knowledge hoarding as competitive advantage
→ Burnout treated as inevitable

( for pros trying to be elite ) 

So we‘re building something different..

An “Insurance Blue Zone.” Seems a bit woo woo at first! But, give me another min here…

When we look at the world's actual Blue Zones - regions where people live to 100+ at extraordinary rates - you see their longevity comes from their systems.

And the principles that create longevity in Italy, Japan, California are ones you’ll see in LION.

1. Purpose Over Performance

Blue Zone communities have ikigai - reason for being. 

At LION, we solve problems that matter instead of chasing revenue targets. When your work has meaning beyond metrics, sustainable intensity replaces destructive grinding.

2. Community Over Competition

Centenarians in Blue Zones live in tight social networks. 

We structured LION as "Elevated Ensemble" - shared success, collective expertise. Knowledge flows freely because everyone wins when anyone wins.

3. Movement as Medicine

Blue Zone residents walk naturally throughout their day. 

Our workflows eliminate artificial urgency. Steady progress over frantic sprints. 150-day renewal orchestration instead of 90-day panic cycles.

4. Stress Resilience, Not Stress Avoidance

Blue Zone communities face challenges but have strong support systems. 

We embrace complex risks but tackle them systematically as a team. "Crucible Forged"—edge earned under pressure, together.

5. Sustainable Rhythms

Blue Zone eating patterns: regular, moderate, mindful. 

Our workload design prevents feast-or-famine cycles. Consistent quality over erratic heroics.

These principles have led to:
→ 92% team retention over 20 months
→ 30% faster project delivery
→ Zero compromise on quality
→ People actually want to be here 

We stopped asking, "How do we make people work harder?"

And started asking, "How do we help people thrive longer?"

Most firms push until people break.

We built a system where excellence is the natural outcome of sustainable practices.

The insurance industry treats burnout like a badge of honor.

But the world's healthiest communities prove that longevity will always beat intensity.

P.S. I wrote about our Blue Zone in our latest “Wednesday Intelligence,” blog series yesterday. See link in comments…👇🏻

You cannot read the label from inside the bottle. Yet so many smart MGA executives try to anyway.

Over our 20+ years, we’ve seen a lot of factors that drive this. We saw it four separate times just last year.

Each time, the MGA had brilliant in-house people who understood financial lines. Some were ex-underwriter friends we had traded with in the past. A few had even been underwriters and brokers.

Love you guys, but this is how you get out over your ski tips!

You’re smart. Tons of experience. And because of this keen institutional knowledge, you try to structure your own D&O and E&O insurance deals. 

The thought: "why do we need a broker? We know our business better than anyone."

In all our cases last last year they were right. They did know their business better than anyone.
But they recognized their gap was knowing the global market.

They realized they were operating with a sample size of one.

They only saw their data, their history, and their specific exposures. So they made a strategic move.

They decided to zoom out.
They stepped out of their silo and used us to help them access the global market—London, Bermuda, the US.

By partnering with a specialist team, they gained visibility into where the capacity was hiding. They knew which levers to pull to create more competition.

The transformation…

→ They leveraged our proprietary Lloyd's form to get broader coverage than they could have negotiated alone.

→ They created the right competition that drove down their pricing.

→ They have the LION process and platform in place to stress test their program annually now too! 

They didn't need us to be "smarter" than them.

They just needed a better map.

And they were smart enough to ask for it.

The value of a specialist broker isn't just "doing the transaction."

It's the process you use to see the whole deal.

how elite MGAs go to market:

Moltbot's this week's headline. Agentic AI is the real story.
But here's what the tech press missed...

An AI that actually does things went viral last week. 44,000 developers. Cloudflare stock up 14%.

And this is exactly what's coming for insurance. Every function. Every department. Every part of the value chain. In many ways it's already here. 

The shift:

For two years, AI meant chatbots and document summaries. Useful. Not transformational.

Agentic AI is different. You give it a goal. It figures out the steps. It executes.
And it's the part that changes everything.

Underwriting:

Submissions that will auto-triage, pull loss runs, check appetite, and bind small risks — no human touch required. 

Your underwriters stop processing paper and start making judgment calls on the risks that actually need them.

Claims:

Systems that don't summarize files — they will help adjudicate. 

Real-time settlement for straightforward losses. Fraud detection running in the background. Your senior adjusters focus on complexity and negotiation, not data entry.

Distribution:

This one's uncomfortable. Consumer AI agents that will shop carriers via API. Price, coverage, claims reputation — all compared in seconds. Carriers that don't embrace this will lag behind those that do in many parts of the industry. 

If your quoting process requires too many phone calls and PDF applications, you become invisible to the next generation of buyers.

The risk nobody's underwriting:
Moltbot also proved the vulnerability. Prompt injection — one malicious message, and the AI acts on it automatically.

Silent AI risk. Accumulation exposure. Most cyber and E&O towers weren't built for this.

The board issue:

Everyone's asking about AI strategy. Few are asking about AI exposure.

If you've gotten this far and you dont know what Moltbot is...We broke it down and the security issues in yesterday's Friday Five Boardroom Brief. Link in the comments.

Like it? Subscribe. 

We do it every Friday. It's the fastest growing insurance newsletter in the industry! Because it's written by people actually in the market, not just reporting on it. 

Stay covered y'all 🦁

Median jury awards climbed from $21 million to over $51 million in five years.

Yet, risk costs? Still trending down. 

Thermonuclear verdicts exceeding $100 million appeared 27 times in 2023. In the previous decade, there were roughly three.

Traditional exposure models are becoming dangerously outdated.

Plaintiff attorneys use what's called the "Reptile Theory" to bypass logic entirely. They trigger primal survival instincts in jurors. The goal is to make the jury feel like the defendant's conduct threatens the community's safety. Once that switch flips, rational damages calculation goes out the window.

The nationals are responding with million-dollar defense strategies.

But regional and mutual insurers have an overlooked advantage: community presence.

Your adjusters living in town and coaching Little League is better verdict prevention than anything the nationals can buy. Jurors are less likely to deliver nuclear verdicts against companies they see as neighbors.

The era of predictable verdicts is over. Your D&O limits need to reflect that.

P.S. We built a 5-day email course on the D&O mistakes we see most often. Get started here: https://lnkd.in/gVzZgGPW

Is this the biggest 2026 risk exposure for financial services firms? Especially for regional, mutual insurers, MGAs and insurtech & fintech companies? 

Last year a Chinese hacking group attacked 30 institutions at the same time. 

But they didn't have 50 hackers.

They jailbroke Anthropic’s AI coding tool (Claude Code) gave it access to command lines and file systems, and pointed it at targets.

The AI did 80-90% of the work autonomously. It scanned networks, found weak spots, and broke in at machine speed. Thousands of attempts per second.

It failed most of the time. 

Hallucinated credentials. Tried to steal documents that were already public. Clumsy.

Yet clumsy at machine speed is still dangerous. It only has to get lucky once. And while your security team chases all the noise, the real attackers slip in the back.

Meanwhile, many of your cyber policies were written for human hackers. 

Most policies are silent on AI attacks and autonomous AI agents. And while silence in some of your other lines of coverage like D&O and E&O might be favorable to you. Silence for this type of new attack in cyber insurance is dangerous.

There’s virtually no case law yet to show us how the ambiguity in coverage will work. Will it favor the insured? Or the insurer? 

If you’re buying cyber you should read this. 
If you’re writing cyber you should read it, too. 

If your policy doesn't say "Artificial Intelligence" explicitly, you might be holding a blank piece of paper when the claim hits.

We broke down the full Salt Typhoon event and what it means for cyber renewals. Comment NEWSLETTER for the link.

And if you’re not on our distribution and you want weekly updates and breakdowns like this, join 2500+ financial institution executives receiving our Boardroom Briefings. 

https://lnkd.in/gP22wvyF

P.S. The diagram below shows the different phases of the attack.

Florida just dropped from 2nd-10th in national nuclear verdict rankings. And that’s only part of the story.

Seven other states are running their own similar tort reform plays. With a half dozen others right behind them. Strong momentum nationwide. 

Some highlights of our National Tort Reform update in this week’s LION Specialty Boardroom Briefing…

→ Georgia banned anchoring
→ Louisiana moved to a 51% fault bar
→ Third-party litigation funding is now being treated as a national security concern

As it should be! 

Is this the sauce that helps replenish much needed capacity across the nation? You tell us…Let it rip in the comments below. 👇🏻

In other news…the tale of the most unusual market I’ve seen continues. 

Experian’s recent cybersecurity annual report is out. Financial services companies are the #1 target for cyber attackers  -  387 breaches in the first half of 2025 alone. Significant cybersecurity risk profile volatility, but the soft market cycle remains for cyber insurance. 

Grumblings from the market aside, it continues to amaze me! 

If you want these summaries, along with our takes on how these events are moving the global insurance markets, and you’re not subscribed to our weekly Briefings? Comment "GAMETIME" below and we’ll get you on our distribution…

Over 2,500 financial services executives receive this quick five minute skimmable read every week now. 

The LION Specialty “Friday Five”Boardroom Briefing! 

Stay current / stay covered yall!

P.S. Want to map your litigation exposure by state? DM me  -  happy to walk you through what we're seeing on recent renewals.

I didn’t call the "Claims Hotline."
I called Mike. He thinks the burgers at J.G. Melon are the best in the city.
Unless he can get you to Queens for the Fillmore's Tavern burger!

Contrary to popular belief, claims aren't paid by logos. They’re paid by people.

When the worst day of your career happens. Or when the lawsuit lands in the WSJ, you can feel incredibly small. Or defensive. You feel like you are up against a faceless machine designed to say "No."

And in many ways, that’s right. 
There also another side. 
That’s way more human. 

Because behind every "Big Carrier Name" is a claims adjuster. A guy like Mike. 

Behind every reservation of rights letter is a person making a judgment call.

If that person sees you as a "File Number," they will stick to the rigid letter of the contract. They may look for reasons to minimize the cost.

But if they see you as a Partner.
Or better yet, an actual human being they can get a burger with everything changes.

This is the human side of Claims Advocacy that no one talks about.

It not about War Rooms like many will tell you. It’s about the relationship capital teams like ours have built long before the disaster happens. 

We’re not just emailing these adjusters when things go wrong.
We know them. We respect them. We view them as allies, not adversaries.

Because we have built that bridge, we can pick up the phone and turn a conflict into a conversation. We can say, "I know what the exclusion says Mike, but let's talk about the intent."

And because there is trust, they listen.

You can have the perfect policy language and still lose the claim if you have the wrong partner.

Where are my claims people at?

Stay covered out there everybody!

Mike Approved Executive Guide to Claims Advocacy 

What do DEI programs and billing fraud have in common?

For those of us around during the credit crisis years, you’ll likely remember when 19 of the top 30 banks got crushed, the last time the DOJ dusted off the Civil War Era False Claims Act! 

That was for lending services. 
Now it’s diversity, equity and inclusion. 

DOJ just launched False Claims Act investigations into corporate DEI programs.

Billing fraud? Nah. 
Not defense contractor over-billing either. DEI practices.

CFOs, GCs, and board members at regional insurers, reciprocals, and mutuals…maybe all financial services companies. 

This could affect you if your institution has federal touchpoints — SBA relationships, TRIA coverage, federal program participation.

In my 20+ years placing coverage for financial institutions, I've seen the pattern:

→ Whistleblowers can initiate lawsuits even if DOJ declines — and collect a percentage
→ The investigative phase alone imposes significant document production and reputational costs 
→ The time to build the paper trail is before anyone asks for it

If you want the framework sophisticated institutions use to treat compliance as balance-sheet protection…

…read about it in this week's LION Specialty ‘Friday Five’ Boardroom Briefing.

Comment "BRIEF" below if you're not on our distribution…

Stay covered out there everybody!

P.S. If you're wondering whether your certifications create FCA exposure, let's talk. 

DM me

And join 2,500 financial services executives reading our weekly Briefs…

https://lnkd.in/gP22wvyF

There is a quiet dysfunction that plagues even the best brokerages. 
We built something different. Inspired by the world's Blue Zones. Regions like Okinawa and Sardinia where people live longest due to their systems, not their genetics—we designed an environment for professional longevity. We call it the Insurance Blue Zone.

There is a quiet dysfunction that plagues even the best brokerages. It’s the account manager who doesn't remember the coverage conversation from six m

LION Specialty's Blue Zone

How to know if your insurance coverage will actually respond during a claim—in under 3 minutes:

(buyers, trust but verify your structure)

After 20+ years negotiating coverage for financial institutions and private equity firms, I've found every program that actually works passes three tests.

Swipe through to see if yours would pass →

AXIS surveyed 500 CEOs and CISOs. The results expose a fault line rifting in boardrooms across the country. 

( operators, here’s the summary ) 

CEOs are 10 points more optimistic than CISOs that AI will strengthen cyber defenses.

But here’s the contradiction that should concern you:

— 82% plan to increase cybersecurity budgets over the next 12 months
— 75% plan to cut cybersecurity headcount because AI tools will make remaining staff more productive

Wait, what? 

Read that again. Budgets up. People down. While AI-driven attacks are viewed as the greatest emerging cyber threat. And possibly the biggest risk profile threat for insurance operations. 

The generational gap runs even deeper…Only 23% of executives over 55 believe AI improves security. 77% of those aged 35-44 do.

Meanwhile, CISOs rank “Shadow AI”or unauthorized tools employees deploy without IT oversight — as their top risk.

AXIS’s Lori Bailey put it plainly: “While it is now commonplace for CEOs to champion AI as a catalyst for innovation and efficiency, CISOs tend to see it as a new frontier of exposure and control.”

Your board probably has this same disconnect.

For our regional and mutual insurance company clients…

If your last cyber briefing came only from the CEO, you’re missing half the picture. And your D&O policy doesn’t care which executive was more optimistic.

We break down governance gaps like this every Friday. 

Here’s a link to last week’s Briefing:

https://lnkd.in/gNcA_WhF

If you like it, please sign up!

P.S. we’re also developing a 5 minute audio version too, if you prefer to listen. Here’s a sample…

My claims advocate opened the file and started naming people, not policy provisions. That taught me everything about how claims actually work.
It was my first big claim. SEC suit against an investment management client.

We bring in Ed, our senior claims advocate and attorney, to help manage the response. I'm expecting him to dive into the policy. Start reading provisions. Analyze coverage grants. Review exclusions.

Instead, he opens the file and says: "Ah, good. We got Greg."
(Greg was the underwriter.) Then he says: "And my buddy Sarah handles claims for Greg and their team."

He knew them by name. Knew their track records. Knew how they operated.
I thought we were there to review coverage. To design response. He taught me we were there to work with people.

Policies don't respond to claims. People do.

The policy language matters. But the people interpreting that language matter more. Ed spent the first 30 minutes teaching me about how Greg and Sarah work. Not about their company—about them specifically.

How Greg approached gray coverage situations. How Sarah worked with brokers during claims. What their track record looked like on similar situations.

He said: "These are good people to have on a claim. They won't be easy. They'll be tough. But we always seem to get to a reasonable place with them."

That was the tell. "A reasonable place."

Here's what I learned: most claims aren't black and white.

They're not "this is clearly covered" or "this is clearly excluded." They live in gray areas where the policy language could go either way.
And in those gray areas, the people on the other side of the table often determine the outcome.

Some carriers approach gray coverage asking: "How can we deny this?"
Others ask: "How can we cover this?"
That difference is everything.

Twenty years later, the people are still how we select carriers.
My teams don't just evaluate policy forms. We evaluate who will be in the room when our client's business is on the line.

Because coverage is only as good as the people who honor it.

Let's connect if you want a broker who's been through this before.

Executives Guide to Claims Advocacy

“ Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve... You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." Dr. King

A health insurer embedded an off-the-shelf AI solution into their claims process. Regulators asked how it worked. 

The company said they didn't know! 

Florida's insurance commissioner is now pushing two bills that would require humans in the loop whenever a claim is denied.

Other state regulators are watching.  

Rep. Hillary Cassel filed HB 527. Sen. Jennifer Bradley filed SB 202. House Speaker Daniel Perez declared December 8-12 "Artificial Intelligence Week" with subcommittees examining AI across their jurisdictions.

Commissioner Michael Yaworsky outlined his framework to the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee: disclosure when AI is used, auditing that confirms systems do what they're supposed to do, and a human in the loop who actually understands the technology.

He's not calling for AI elimination. "I'm not an opponent of AI," he told lawmakers. But he wants carriers to be able to explain what their systems do.

The bills aren't law yet. But the regulatory direction is clear.

Quick question: if someone asked your team to explain what your AI systems do, could they?


P.S. We built a 5-day email course on the D&O insurance mistakes we see boards make most often and how to fix them. Comment BLUEPRINT and I'll send it.

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The Battle

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