Become an expert in

Kathy Ryan, SPHR, is an award-winning author and owner of Pinnacle Coaching Group, LLC.  Over the last 30 years, Kathy has influenced thousands of people in the business and non-profit sectors through her coaching, consulting, speaking and on-site training. Her expertise covers a wide range of subjects including leadership, communication, human resources management, team dynamics, and performance management.

Kathy earned her B.A. degree in psychology and history from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and has been awarded a lifetime certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) from the Society for Human Resources Management. She has experience working with diverse industries including insurance, hospitality and entertainment. She is certified in the use of the Myer-Briggs Type Assessment (MBTI), as well as a number of other assessments and tools to support development.

Kathy is author of the book, "You Have to Say the Words" An Integrity-Based Approach for Tackling Tough Conversations and Maximizing Performance, which won a Royal Palm Literary Award from the Florida Writers Association.  Her interactive training program based on the book has helped thousands of managers to improve their coaching skills and drive performance. Her articles on leadership and other personal development topics have been published in numerous magazines including the Insurance Journal. You can follow Kathy’s blog, Inspired Leadership, at www.CoachKathyRyan.com .

Frederick J. Fisher, J.D. is currently the President of Fisher Consulting Group, Inc. and was the Founder of E.L.M. Insurance Brokers, a Wholesale & MGA facility specializing in Professional Liability and Specialty Line risks. He is a Member of the Editorial Board for Agents of America;  a Faculty Member of the Claims College, and Member of the Executive Council, School of Professional Lines sponsored by the Claims & Litigation Management Association and Instructor for the Academy of Insurance.

Since his career began, Mr. Fisher focused on one vision: providing financial security to the client. The result was a successful 40-year career in Specialty Lines Insurance. In 1975, Mr. Fisher began his career on the service side, as an Independent E&O claims adjuster. In 1982, he bought the Company, continued with claims, while expanding the firm’s services to include qualitative claim auditing, risk management & loss control services, and acting as a TPA. In only 4 years, the annual billings increased by 400%. His claim auditing techniques and recommendations resulted in substantial client savings (including the SCRTD now known as the Los Angles MTA). Many Insurers and self-insureds adopted not only the performance standards raised in the audits but adopted his recommended Attorney Management Guidelines as a base, which are still in use today by many major insurers. 

In 1995, he formed what is now known as ELM insurance Brokers, a firm that has acted as an MGA and Wholesale Broker of Professional Liability Insurance and Specialty Lines. From nothing, the firm grew rapidly to a $30 Million dollar facility when sold in 2008. He has lectured extensively on professional liability issues since 1978 and authored over 64 articles in trade journals and periodicals. He is the author of BROKER BEWARE, Selling Real Estate within the Law. He designed a program to conduct on-site pre-underwriting risk management assessments of a clients' professional liability exposures. In 1993, he was elected to the Professional Liability Underwriting Society (PLUS) Board of Trustees. After serving in all Officer capacities, he was elected President in 1997. He remains a Special Materials Expert for several RPLU courses and is the Senior Technical Advisor for The Professional Liability Manual, first published by the International Risk Management Institute in 1990. He has taught over 100 CE classes and lectures. He testifies regularly as an expert witness in cases dealing with the duties and obligations of professionals as well as on coverage and claims-made issues.

Nancy Germond is the Executive Director, Risk Management and Education, for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, the “Big I.” She is located in Phoenix, Arizona. With almost four decades of risk management experience, her unique insights and abilities help businesses better understand and manage their risk. Nancy has authored scores of risk management-related articles, and white papers and has consulted and presented to public-sector and private-sector insurance organizations. She is a licensed P&C agent and adjuster.

A second-generation insurance professional, Nancy was the first risk manager of the City of Prescott, Arizona, and has worked in the private and public sectors as a claim and risk manager. Nancy holds a B.A. in Communication from Mills College and a Master’s degree in sociology from Lincoln University. She also holds the Associate in Risk Management, the Associate in Claims designation from the Insurance Institute of America, the Insurance Training Professional Designation from the Society of Insurance Trainers and is a Senior Professional in Human Resource Management.

Chris Burand is the Owner/Founder of Burand & Associates, LLC.  Chris is the only insurance agency consultant with an Institute of Business Appraiser’s Certified Business Appraiser Accreditation and one of the very few who are certified by the two largest E&O carriers to provide audits for agencies.  With more than 35 years of experience in the insurance industry, Chris is acknowledged as a leading consultant and is a nationally recognized speaker and author.  His broad experience and wealth of knowledge have enabled him to work with hundreds of agencies, taking great care to learn the client’s goals and understand their needs while developing a solution for their specific situation.

Chris combines education, experience, and knowledge from multiple perspectives at proven levels that few other consultants or educators can provide.  This enables Chris to provide holistic solutions.  Chris’s services help agencies, individuals, and carriers identify strengths and opportunities, optimize productivity and profits, implement real-world strategies, leverage resources, and develop realistic plans of action in order to maximize profitable growth.

Chris established Burand & Associates in 1992 (originally known as Growth Planning).  As a consultant, Chris has consulted with hundreds of agencies and many major insurance carriers.  He built and now facilitates two insurance agency networking associations.  He is also a featured speaker across the continent.  To date, he has presented more than 400 seminars and educational programs, and his articles have also been published more than 500 times.  He is a monthly columnist for The Insurance Journal, a past columnist for American Agent & Broker for eleven years, and his articles have appeared in Rough Notes, The National Underwriter, A.M. Best, many regional insurance publications, and many other trade publications.  He also publishes Burand’s Insurance Agency Adviser for independent insurance agents.

Areas of Expertise

Insurance Agency Appraisals:  Chris Burand’s professional services include appraisals for Acquisitions and Sales, Buy/Sell Agreements, Mergers, Dissolutions, and Perpetuation Planning.

Contingency Contract Analysis:  Contingency contracts offer opportunities to increase compensation through negotiations and strategically placing business.  Chris Burand’s Contingency Contract Analysis® service provides the information agents need to take advantage of those opportunities.

Note:  Chris Burand and Burand & Associates, LLC are advocates of agencies which constructively manage and improve their contingency contracts by learning how to negotiate and use their contingency contracts more effectively.  We maintain that agents can achieve considerably better results without ever taking actions that are detrimental or disadvantageous to the insureds.  We have never and would not ever recommend that an agent and/or agency implement a policy of, or otherwise advocate, increasing its contingency income ahead of the insureds’ interests.

PEP® (Productivity Enhancement):  Chris’s innovative statistical algorithm method for identifying procedural consistency, compliance, activity cost, and opportunity cost savings.

Carrier MD® Stability Analysis:  A unique analytical method for creating opportunities to learn negotiating points and insurance carrier stability from an agency’s perspective.

Producer Compensation Plans:  Chris Burand develops plans that increase profits and motivate producers.

Chris Christian stumbled into insurance in 1985 as a temporary employee at GAF Insurance Services, a bank-affiliated insurance agency in San Diego.  After six years with GAF, Chris moved to the carrier side, opening the San Diego branch office of RLI Corp, an underwriter of specialty lines of insurance.  The San Diego office was dedicated to Directors and Officers Liability coverage, and was the launching pad for Chris’s specialization in professional liability.

Chris left RLI in 1997 to establish her own underwriting facility at London American General Agency and branched out thereafter into professional liability broking.

Chris joined U.S. Risk in November of 2005 and six months later relocated herself, her significant other, and 26 animals to Tennessee, where she continues her pursuit of the art and science of professional liability broking, and contributes to the industry as a frequent speaker, author and association participant.

As a second-generation insurance professional, Nicole Limpert serves as a cyber Production Underwriter for Evolve MGA. From start-up ventures to publicly traded companies, Evolves helps to identify, manage, and transfer commercial cyber risk. Nicole started her career on the agency side working in Employee Benefits but then became interested in the young and ever-changing cyber market. Nicole is responsible for underwriting new cyber risks, establishing and maintaining broker relationships throughout the Southeast, and conducting educational-style presentations to teach insurance professionals on the complex cyber landscape.

Crystal is an insurance lawyer who is passionate about elevating the expertise of lawyers and insurance professionals on the ever-changing issues in our industry. Crystal is the owner of Clarity Education and Consulting, LLC where she creates meaningful educational experiences for insurance agents, lawyers, and claims professionals. Crystal also works in the Claims Department at a mutual insurance carrier. Crystal is responsible for supervising first and third party property litigation for the carrier and its insureds. She also works directly with claims professionals to find the best solution to avoid litigation and with the underwriting department to develop and update coverage forms.

Crystal earned her juris doctorate in 2007 from the University of Wisconsin Law School (magna cum laude, Order of the Coif). She earned her Certified Property Casualty Underwriter designation in 2017.

Becky Lathrop, is a Certified Insurance Counselor, Certified Professional Insurance Agent, has a degree in Risk Management and Insurance from Florida State University, and has been working in the insurance industry for over 30 years.  She has a diverse background in the insurance business, and has spent the majority of her professional career in industry positions such as Business Consultant, Sales Manager, Underwriting Consultant, Financial/Market Analyst, and Portfolio Manager. 

During the last 15+ years, Becky has been helping agencies throughout the United States grow profitably by counseling them in areas such as sales/service training, workflow management, staff organization and stratification, sales/marketing business plans, client retention, strategic planning, and producer compensation.  She has also developed a “Back to Basics” Boot Camp Sales/Service Training to assist staff in cross-selling techniques and higher retention levels.  She has also developed a Marketing/Profitability workshop to help agencies manage their loss ratios and to assist them with capitalizing on agency growth and contingency bonus opportunities.  Becky has written and had published several articles on a variety of insurance topics. 

Becky is Vice President of Optimum Performance Solutions, LLC, a company that offers management consulting services on a nationwide basis to insurance agencies and carriers.  Her agency and corporate experiences provide unique perspectives when assisting her clients.  OPS is also an endorsed consulting firm for several state insurance associations.

Walt has been training and coaching insurance (wholesale & retail) leaders and salespeople for over 25 years. He teaches and coaches an effective sales process that transforms conversations to make producers resonate with prospects. Walt has helped his clients drive consistent and predictable sales results and has retained several for over a decade. He is a former life insurance producer with Pacific Mutual Life and New England Financial. 

Ms. Thomas is the founder and CEO of Thomas Consulting, located in Newton, Massachusetts.  Her firm specializes in creating powerful Client experiences that increase retention and profits with a specialty in P&C insurance. The firm’s services help companies to plug the “leaky Client bucket” and thereby increases its profits which it has been doing for decades with over 480 companies.

Ms. Thomas is a nationally acclaimed, powerful, engaging and dynamic speaker and consultant on Client experiences, emotional intelligence, retention, and relationships.  She has been a columnist and has published two books with her latest being an Amazon #1 Best Seller.  All of her firm’s consulting services come with a written guarantee of 100%-300% ROI within one year. 

Ms. Thomas started her career as a tax attorney with Arthur Andersen, then a Private Banker and then Change Agent with Bank of Boston. She holds a J.D. cum laude from Suffolk University and a B.A. cum laude from Wesleyan University.  She is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association and former Board Member of Alpha Resource Center and Insight Seminars.

Frank Pennachio is co-founder of Oceanus Partners, a consulting and training firm that works with insurance professionals to improve their sales and new business development.  Oceanus Partners was acquired by ReSource Pro in April 2019.

Mr. Pennachio brings over 25 years of agency ownership/management, sales training, and workers’ compensation expertise to his topics. His keen industry understanding, empathetic and humorous style, and depth of technical knowledge make him a popular speaker at insurance and workers’ compensation conferences.

A highly regarded expert, Mr. Pennachio is a frequent contributor to such publications as American Agent & Broker, PIA, Risk & Insurance, HR Magazine, Insurance Journal, and Occupational Hazards and Risk & Insurance.  

Contact him at fpennachio@resourcepro.com

William C. Wilson, Jr., CPCU, ARM, AIM, AAM is the founder of Insurance Commentary.com. He retired from the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America in December 2016 where he served as Assoc. VP of Education and Research and was the founder and director of the Big “I” Virtual University for over 17 years.  He is the former Director of Education & Technical Affairs for the Insurors of Tennessee and, prior to that time, he was employed by Insurance Services Office, Inc.  He is a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology with a B.S. degree in Fire Protection & Safety Engineering.

Bill was a licensed insurance and surplus lines agent, and his professional affiliations have included past president of the Middle Tennessee Chapter of CPCU, member of the board of directors of the national CPCU society, PMLG of the Honorable Order of Blue Goose, International, member of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA) National Education Committee, member of the Certified Insurance Service Representative (CISR) National Advisory Committee, member of the National Underwriter FC&S editorial board, member of the Society of Insurance Trainers and Educators (SITE) and its SITE Journal editorial committee, member of the National Writers Association, chairman of the Tennessee Insurance Commissioner’s Education Advisory Committee, member of the Middle Tennessee State University Insurance Liaison Committee, and member of the Nashville State Technical Institute’s Business Management Advisory Committee. He is currently a member of the American Association of Insurance Management Consultants (AAIMCo).

Bill has served as a trainer and speaker for various organizations, including the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America and 43 of its state affiliates, the CPCU Society national convention and chapter programs, the National Association of Insurance Women (NAIW), the Southern Agents Conference (SAC), the Risk & Insurance Managers Society (RIMS), the International Risk Management Institute (IRMI), and the Society of Risk Management Consultants (SRMC).

He has conducted hundreds of technical seminars, workshops and convention presentations—from Hawaii to Maine and Alaska to Florida—as well as programs on time management, presentation and public speaking skills, seminar development, and many others.  He has been the top-rated presenter at several CPCU National Conventions and his programs are always highly rated by attendees. He has presented seminars or webinars to as many as 5,000 attendees in a single session.

He was the recipient of the IIABA L.P. McCord National Education Award for having the #1 ranked state insurance education program in America and has won six other national education awards, including the George M. Gottheimer Memorial Award which is presented periodically to a CPCU Society member who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of insurance education, risk management or insurance consulting and, most recently, the Jeff Yates Lifetime Achievement Award which is the IIABA’s highest honor for nonagents.

Bill has researched, developed, written, and published dozens of technical articles, manuals and CDs/audio tapes, and has authored articles in business and industry trade periodicals such as Presentations magazine, American Agent & Broker magazine, Independent Agent magazine, Tennessee Insuror magazine, Tennessee Business magazine, the CPCU Journal, CPCU Interest Group newsletters, and the SITE Journal.

He has been quoted as an expert in a number of mainstream publications, including Readers Digest, Kiplinger's, and Money magazines and the Wall Street Journal, and he has been cited as an expert resource/interviewee for local television and radio media. He has also served as an expert witness in litigation.

According to Nashville NBC television affiliate WSMV, “Bill Wilson is an expert when it comes to insurance.”  Dr. William T. Hold, president of the Society of Certified Insurance Counselors in Austin, Texas has said that, “Bill Wilson is recognized by his peers as one of the premier insurance educators in America.” Bob Rusbuldt, CEO of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America says, “Bill Wilson is the nation’s foremost leading expert on form, coverage, and technical issues.”

Bill now blogs on insurance industry issues at www.InsuranceCommentary.com and delivers keynote presentations in conjunction with his consulting practice. He is also working on several book projects in addition to playing lead guitar with the band The Old Dogs. Email Bill at InsuranceCommentary@outlook.com.

Nick Kormos joined MarshBerry as a Senior Sales Management Consultant in 2013. In 2015, he was promoted to Vice President and Unit Leader of MarshBerry’s Sales Performance division, which is now the most rapidly growing division in MarshBerry Consulting Services. His team focuses on producer training/coaching and agency sales culture development through deployment of the MarshBerry Selling System that was built by the industry’s top producers.

Nick has over 14 years of sales and sales management experience, and he has completed several years of formal sales training courses. Prior to joining MarshBerry, he spent more than six years of his career in production and management roles at an independent insurance agency. He has earned his professional insurance designations of Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) and Certified Professional Insurance Agent (CPIA). Nick holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a minor in interpersonal communication from Ohio University.

Nick’s approach with producers and agency management is focused on building a process, not just an end goal. His team manages and coaches producers with experience levels ranging from brand new to industry veterans who are trying to get over their book growth plateaus. In his time at MarshBerry, Nick has coached hundreds of producers and spent time in dozens of agency offices working closely with leadership to drive change and sustainable growth.

He has been a keynote speaker at insurance carrier conferences, agency sales summits, and insurance association events including the Worldwide Broker Network as well as state Big I meetings. He has presented on a multitude of topics surrounding agency growth, sales culture, producer sales tactics, and organizational infrastructure. He also leads and facilitates SalesPro training sessions, organic growth seminars, and CEO Peer Exchange groups hosted by MarshBerry.

Abi Potter Clough, CPCU, MBA, is an author, keynote speaker, and freelance insurance writer. She writes and speaks about insurance, risk, leadership, and change. Abi is the author of Life After Leaping In and Top 10 Lists For Relocation. Connect with her on social media or at Abi1Leads@gmail.com.