Why incoming Alliant CEO is bullish on 2024

Incoming Alliant Insurance coverage Companies (Alliant) CEO Greg Zimmer (pictured) has a rosy outlook this 12 months for the brokerage business and his group.

Chatting with Insurance coverage Enterprise, Zimmer named a secure insurance coverage market and important progress and enlargement plans for Alliant as the explanations for his optimism.

“There are at all times challenges inside a enterprise, however there are comparatively extra constructive alternatives than unfavourable challenges,” Zimmer instructed Insurance coverage Enterprise. “We predict the market will stay secure this 12 months, and that’s good for purchasers and carriers.

“We don’t envision big outliers dramatically altering {the marketplace} that might negatively influence brokers.”

Natural progress versus M&A?

At the moment the eighth-largest insurance coverage brokerage within the US, Alliant can be one of many fastest-growing brokerage companies by way of mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

Underneath Zimmer’s management, Alliant accomplished over 100 acquisitions in strategic markets nationwide, rising its worker headcount to almost 11,000. It stays targeted on increasing its attain throughout its core enterprise strains of property and casualty insurance coverage, worker advantages, underwriting, and private strains.

Regardless of a buoyant M&A pipeline, Zimmer stated conventional M&A is supposed to enhance Alliant’s natural progress technique.

“We definitely purchase firms, however the place, for a lot of of our opponents, that’s their core progress technique, [M&A] has by no means been the core progress technique for Alliant,” he stated. “It’s at all times complemented natural progress.

“Natural progress is the place we see most of our progress, together with successful new purchasers, but additionally prime expertise within the business that could be disenfranchised with their present employer.”

Expertise acquisition and improvement: a prime precedence for Alliant

Zimmer acknowledged that rising premiums in lots of product strains final 12 months have been a boon for brokers’ revenue, serving to increase Alliant’s enterprise in 2023.

Although he expects that slowing premium progress will influence the market, Zimmer expressed confidence in Alliant’s progress plans, particularly in its concentrate on attracting and retaining expertise.

“Our purpose is to have the very best individuals and to mix the very best individuals with fabulous merchandise that we develop both with our insurance coverage provider companions, or by ourselves, to ship a greater shopper resolution, and we’ll proceed to try this,” stated Zimmer.

“Over the past 25 years, we have now constructed a company that helps our brokers in some ways, from the proprietary product that we develop to staffing, to allow them to appropriately serve their shopper base, offering them possession alternatives within the firm, and offering assets which can be a worth to them that they will ship to their purchasers,” stated Zimmer. “As we keep that atmosphere, we’ll proceed to be the house of alternative for prime expertise acquisition.”

Management transition underway at Alliant

Alliant is present process a management transition after saying a slew of modifications earlier this month, most notably that Zimmer would take over as chief govt from long-time chief Tom Corbett.

On the similar time, Peter Arkley has been named president, nationwide brokerage, overseeing retail property & casualty and worker advantages, and Sean McConlogue has been tapped to steer Alliant underwriting and shopper options as president. The brand new management roles will take impact on April 1, 2024.

Corbett, who has led Alliant for over three a long time, will retain his place as the corporate’s govt chairman.

Zimmer joined Alliant in 1998 as CFO and was named president in 2007. Although he has been with the corporate, serving to steer its progress, for over 25 years, he admitted that his imaginative and prescient for Alliant has remained the identical.

“It’s a quite simple marketing strategy that may be very troublesome to execute, which is, should you rent the very best individuals, good issues will occur,” Zimmer stated. “Our focus is on hiring or buying, sustaining, and retaining the highest expertise within the business. present them the assets they should do their job for his or her purchasers and keep out of their method.

“That has been the philosophy and can proceed to be the philosophy. We firmly consider it is a people-first enterprise.”

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