With the news of Mitch Insurance opening its first branch in Kingston, Ontario and the appointment of Kris Giddy to lead the operation as its managing partner, Mitch Insurance CEO Adam Mitchell has admitted that the city was not initially on its radar as an official outpost and shared plans for further expansion.
“I’d be fibbing if I said we went hunting for a Kingston solution,” said Mitchell (pictured left). “Instead, we went hunting for the right commercial branch solution. Kris picked Kingston and we signed off.”
With other branch locations planned to open across Canada in the future, Mitchell and the team at Mitch Insurance are focusing on a building out a more community-focused approach to business.
“This is a rounding out of our offering to say that there is some great strategy around local presence and relationships matter for complex commercial risk,” Mitchell said. “We'll continue to run our model on inbound personal lines, but we're going to continue to deepen some community relationships with key commercial brokers that that we feel have cut their stripes and earned them.”
The branch openings could be seen as a way for Mitch Insurance to expand its professional acumen with teammates that are able to lead new areas, rather than an exercise in trying to capitalize on a local market.
“The city or location really is secondary. Obviously, you want it to be a good demographic of clientele to write coverage for, whether it is growing a certain income bracket or an opportunity for commercial business,” Mitchell said.
“However, we're absolutely not going to do any more of these without first finding the people we think are qualified and have earned the opportunity, which means there also isn’t a set number of branches we intend to pursue — we’ll be as ambitious as the list is long for qualifying candidates.”
In an interview with Insurance Business, Mitchell was joined by Giddy (pictured right) to speak about why the latter is excited to assume this role as leader of this Kingston office and what they expect to happen in the market for 2024.
Starting as a broker in Kingston with Upper Canada Commercial Insurance Group, which was then acquired by McDougall Insurance and Financial, Giddy was able to cut his teeth under leader from experienced and dynamic brokers. He was also given the opportunity to witness firsthand how a national brokerage operates and the different systems in place.
“Like a lot of brokers, I found myself wondering what an office led by Kris Giddy would look like,” Giddy said.
However, trying to do so independently with today’s market constraints and nuances seemed like a daunting task.
“Whether it be from a compliance standpoint or insurance requirements from various markets, it didn't seem doable,” he said.
However, when the opportunity from Mitch Insurance came around, and the logistics of this expansion were being workshopped between the two, Giddy began to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
“This is going to allow me to put my fingerprints on a whole other aspect of the insurance business. Obviously building a book of business I'm proud of and that's our insurance partners value is our main focus,” Giddy said.
“But being able to put in place customer service standards and best practices that I see valuable is going to be very exciting.”
“However, I'm most excited about, growing a team of talented people, watching their careers progress and helping them along the way. I didn't think I'd ever have the opportunity to do or take part of, quite frankly.”
Elsewhere, Giddy is excited to tap into Mitch’s sophisticated digital capabilities and meld that with the more personable elements of a career in insurance broking.
“It's a choose your own adventure from a customer standpoint. If you want to come in and see me, that’s great! Or if you would rather have your pink slips delivered by email or access to eDocs, there is also an opportunity to take care of you in that manner,” he said.
With the launch of a brand-new office, both Mitchell and Giddy are looking forward to opportunities and challenges await that them and their business throughout 2024.
“I'm a glass half full kind of guy, so I'd like to think we're starting to see increased capacity, as well as increased risk appetite from our insurer partners. Ultimately, I think that puts the client in a really good position,” Giddy said.
“It gives them the opportunity to fill coverage gaps that may have been lacking over the past few years, as well as potentially some rate relief in certain classes.”
He specifically pointed out how commercial realty seems to be back spiking carrier interest and appetite.
Additionally, as clients pivot and evolve their business models, Giddy said he believed this creates a challenge for brokers to properly educate them on the new exposures that they didn't recognize when they made these business decisions and filling those gaps for them, especially related to cyber security.
“Cyber is kind of low hanging fruit at this point, as people start working from home and with the digitization of certain industries, it's going to be huge for the foreseeable future. Filling that that cyber gap is going to be a big focus for the businesses,” he said.
For Mitchell, on the strategy side, a lot of markets have been struggling with personal lines profitability, especially in the auto sector.
“I think there's a lot of long-term threats on the horizon, such as self-driving cars and OEM insurance,” he said. “Continuing to invest and build the books for our insurance company partners into a bigger distribution of commercial insurance will be a big trend in the 2024 market.”
What's your view on Mitch Insurance expansion plans and its opening of a branch in Kingston, Ontario? Leave a comment below.
