John Peterson (pictured right) has assumed the role of chief growth officer at World Insurance Associates, helping to bolster and unify the organization’s myriad of offices and segments across the country and focus on organic growth.
“There are many ways we want to achieve this, such as evolving subject matter expertise from the individuals who currently are part of the organization, or continuing to develop excellent relationships with the insurance company so we can tailor risk transfer programs for each client to best address each client’s unique risk profile,” he said.
Acknowledging World Insurance’s acquisitive appetite, which gained momentum from 2011 onwards, Peterson will be tasked with connecting each acquired agency together in order to augment their services and product offerings.
“There are levels of expertise within a given agency that are complementary to the levels of expertise within another similarly situated agency,” he said.
“The idea is to bring them more areas of expertise to complement the existing areas of expertise within a given agency, but then to replicate that across the organization as efficiently and effectively as possible.”
Having started in the insurance industry in 1988 — August 1 to be exact — Peterson cut his teeth in risk management and risk transfer solutions at the brokerage Rollins Burdick Hunter, which was later acquired by Aon, a company he eventually left in 2018 after 30 years.
From there, he switched lanes and ended up becoming a commissioner at the Winnetka Park District, where he was one of seven board members before becoming head of staff in 2020.
While he has amassed leadership experience throughout the decades, assuming the role of chief growth officer will still present Peterson with new opportunities for skills refinement and professional development.
“My first order of business, being only two weeks into my role with World Insurance, is understanding where all the individuals are located and making connections with leadership and employees in any given agency,” he said.
“My biggest challenge is hardwiring myself into the organization as quickly as possible to support World colleagues as they work with clients.”
However, throughout this process, Peterson has been able to utilize his team member’s enthusiasm as encouragement to traverse through the learning curve and adoption period he is currently in.
“The World colleagues I met are remarkably supportive; the positive attitude within the organization is overwhelming,” he said.
“I’m learning from all the experiences and areas of expertise I encounter with each person I have a chance to speak with.”
Looking at the current state of the insurance market and how it may perform throughout 2024, Peterson believes that understanding the nuances in risk profile for any given segment of business is key.
“Take trucking as an example, it will have its nuances in any given calendar year that are unique to trucking and independent from what you might see in agriculture or some other industry groups,” he said.
“Understanding what those nuances are within the insurance industry as a whole but then drilling down into the insurance carriers’ approach to a given risk profile, based on the industry of that prospective insured is the challenge.”
Peterson also observed the ripple effect of the ease of obtaining capital markets and how that can impact on insurers who are looking for investment income on the premiums they are holding from insureds.
“Those investment incomes are going down. And that's part of the overall cycle — carriers were able to hold those premiums for investment income at much higher rates in the last 18 to 24 months. So that's a ripple effect that's worthy of consideration, just watching how that impacts insurers,” he said.
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