After joining HUB International in 2010, Jerrime Kitsos went from being Rookie of the Year in 2012 to bagging the company’s SHARP Award for sustaining gold-level production five years in a row, making him a bit of a local hero within the company.
As part of HUB’s Gulf South office, Kitsos specializes in coastal real estate, including office space, retail, industrial, multifamily and healthcare assets, while also handling energy and marine risks and focusing on alternative risk placement.
“One of my favorite parts of our industry is one day I can be working a real estate deal and the next placing insurance for a ship builder,” Kitsos commented. “Looking forward to something different every day is the best part of my job, but my greatest asset to my clients is looking at each situation differently and trying to get as far out of the box as possible.”
As well as gaining accolades within HUB, Kitsos features as one of Insurance Business America’s Top Producers of 2018 … but his success hasn’t come with the click of a finger. It takes time to build a book of business and develop good relationships, he explained.
“I’m lucky in that I’m a good networker,” he told Insurance Business. “I’ve built a great support net with clients and other business relationships that have developed into great friendships. This has been a great referral source for my career. For young producers hoping to work their way up the insurance ladder, I would advise them to take their time and work to build a book of business from new contacts and not rely on existing relationships.
“I would not call on your existing network until you have been in the business for at least five years. Those relationships will give you a meeting out of respect, but to be a ‘trusted advisor’ as we strive to be as producers, you have to first earn that respect by learning to swim on your own. And more than anything, it’s important to ‘find your niche’. If you’re a young producer and want to be taken seriously, you have to build a brand for yourself and the other business will come with time.”
On top of being a good people person, Kitsos’s success can also be attributed to his dogged determination to find the best solution for his clients. He said he “gets pleasure” in beating up on underwriters and wholesale brokers in negotiating quotes, while also describing himself as “a person that does not take ‘no’ for an answer.”
The added life perspective of fatherhood undoubtedly plays a role in Kitsos’s success. When he’s not at work, he can be found enjoying the great outdoors, either hunting, fishing or boating with his nine-year-old son, who he describes as his “mini me.”
