Two insurance organizations announced leadership changes this week. Below is a roundup of the moves, with a look at what each means for brokers and producers.
Ameritas has promoted Shannon Berry (pictured, left) to senior vice president of sales and distribution enablement, effective August 23, and hired Nick Stremlau (pictured, right) as senior vice president, chief actuary and underwriting, individual, effective August 10.
Berry holds Life, Health and Casualty licenses along with FINRA Series 7, 66 and 24 registrations, plus FLMI, CLU and CFP designations, and is a member of the Financial Planning Association and NAIFA. Stremlau joins from Assurity, where he served as vice president and actuary for product management, bringing more than 15 years of actuarial and strategic leadership experience across life, health and annuity products.
Both appointments follow directly from a leadership change Ameritas announced just a week earlier: Kelly Halverson's promotion to executive vice president of the Individual Division, effective September 1, succeeding Ryan Beasley, who retired after a decade with the company. Halverson had previously served as senior vice president, individual chief actuary and underwriting, the same role Stremlau now steps into, meaning Stremlau's hire directly fills the vacancy Halverson's own promotion created.
For producers and financial advisors distributing Ameritas life, annuity and disability income products, Berry's new role overseeing sales and distribution enablement specifically is the one to watch, since that function typically governs producer support tools, compensation structures and distribution technology rather than product design itself.
Stremlau's arrival as chief actuary and underwriting for the individual line is worth monitoring over the next several renewal and product-filing cycles, since a new actuarial leader often means a fresh look at pricing assumptions and underwriting guidelines, though nothing in this announcement signals an immediate shift in appetite.
Given that this is a coordinated internal succession rather than a sign of instability, producers should expect continuity in Ameritas's overall product and distribution strategy in the near term.
ANV Group Holdings has named Sarthak Sharma to lead its US Transactional Risk business, while confirming that Colin Addy and Greg Conroy, who built and led that business since its founding, have left the company.
Sharma joins from Ryan Transactional Risk, where he served as senior vice president and counsel for mergers and acquisitions, specializing in representations and warranties insurance for strategic buyers and private equity firms.
Aaron Basilius, ANV's executive vice president and head of US MGAs, credited Sharma's combined legal and underwriting background.
"Sarthak brings deep transactional risk expertise, strong underwriting and legal experience, and a proven ability to build trusted relationships across the M&A market. His leadership will be instrumental as we continue to grow ANV's US Transactional Risk platform," Basilius said. He also thanked Addy and Conroy for helping establish "a strong foundation for success" during their tenure, without stating a reason for their departure.
Addy and Conroy's exit marks the end of a tenure that began at the founding of ANV's US operation. Insurance Business reported in June 2024 when ANV first launched its US Transactional Risk offering, naming Addy and Conroy as co-heads after both moved over from Vale Insurance Partners, with Addy previously holding a senior role at Chubb.
The pair built the US unit from scratch, initially underwriting representations and warranties insurance through a panel including AmTrust and various Lloyd's syndicates, extending ANV's existing UK and European TRI business into a global offering for the first time. Sharma's comparable specialization in R&W insurance for private equity and strategic M&A deals positions him to continue serving the same core client base.
"There is a strong opportunity to create a differentiated offering centered on underwriting expertise, broker relationships, and I look forward to building something meaningful alongside the broader ANV team," Sharma said.
This transition comes during a notably active period for ANV's parent organization. In June 2026, ANV Group Holdings agreed to acquire Open Lending Corporation, a Nasdaq-listed provider of insurance-backed lending enablement and risk analytics, in an all-cash tender offer valuing shares at $3.15 each, a roughly 78% premium to Open Lending's 90-day volume-weighted average price.
That acquisition, alongside this US Transactional Risk leadership change, suggests ANV is actively reshaping multiple parts of its business as it continues expanding its US footprint.
M&A brokers and private equity clients who worked with Addy and Conroy on prior placements should raise continuity directly with ANV: whether existing capacity relationships with AmTrust and Lloyd's syndicates remain unchanged, whether current underwriting appetite shifts under Sharma, and how any in-flight transactions are being handled during the handoff.
Sharma's comparable R&W specialization suggests broad continuity in deal type, but a leadership change at a specialty MGA built around two founding underwriters' personal broker relationships carries real transition risk that's worth confirming rather than assuming.
