“The CARE curriculum was developed to help recognize account managers and executives as an invaluable part of the policyholder relationship,” said Bob Nicholas, Amerisure’s Assistant Vice President of Sales Enablement & Customer Experience.

Amerisure partnered with agency customer HUB International in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to launch the program pilot earlier this year. An exclusive carrier-provided offering, the course focuses on how to steward 365 days of an existing account in an experiential learning environment.

Tyler Harmon, HUB International’s senior vice president of the account executive group, and his team dedicated their time and shared feedback with Amerisure as the program’s inaugural participants.
“It was awesome to be able to give back to an industry that does so much for us,” said Harmon.

The academy is delivered in three phases: relationship management & preparation, advising on coverage, and a case study presentation. Participants learned how to conduct difficult conversations, ask key questions to uncover risk, accelerate critical relationships with decision-makers, and present key accounts to their underwriter to ensure the best outcomes.​

“It was eye-opening for the participants to recognize the value of a documented service timeline with tasks, due dates and responsibilities clearly defined,” said Laura Nettles, president and CEO of Nettles Consulting and key partner in the development and launch of the CARE Academy. “It’s never enough to tell the client how much you’ve done – it’s better to show them,” said Nettles.

Amerisure experts dedicated time and resources to draft and refine the program prior to launch. Pilot participants also provided their feedback after each live session. “When creating the program, we looked at it from all perspectives and determined the most effective ways to tie in underwriting, claims, and risk management to create something that would resonate with insurance professionals,” said Nathan Logan, Risk Management Expertise Specialist at Amerisure, who was highly involved in the content creation, coordination and launch of the CARE Academy pilot.

“The initial presentation materials were more related to coverage mechanics,” Logan said, “And together with the helpful feedback from HUB International, it was elevated to allow insurance professionals to be more attuned to the business needs of their clients.”

The Academy asks important questions of its participants, such as:

• What is it to “uncover” risk and align that with customers, clients, business needs and perspectives?
• How can you ask better questions to understand difficult-to-navigate claims scenarios?
• What solutions can you propose that tie together carrier interests with policyholder needs?

The first CARE Academy class with HUB International concluded in April with a team-based collaborative case study and presentation. The winning team within the participating class was awarded the CARE Academy Cup and demonstrated the transformation of traditional service roles to Customer Advocate Relations Expert by applying the concepts they learned at the Academy. The winning team also:

• Created an exceptional service timeline with due dates and responsibilities
• Asked key questions to uncover risk
• Demonstrated an understanding of connecting services to business outcomes

The Academy will continue through 2023 and beyond and provides a unique opportunity for the agency and their underwriting partner to develop a closer bond and enhance trust in their working relationship.

“We are very proud of the launch of the CARE Academy, extremely appreciative to HUB International, and excited to extend this truly unique course offering to additional agency partners in the coming years,” said Nicholas.

There are no limitations to all that Jessica Soufrine is capable of achieving. She has experienced an impressive rise through leadership during her career, with plentiful opportunities for continued growth.

Jessica has served in leadership roles for several years at Amerisure, first working her way up from a trainee to a developmental marketing underwriter, and from a senior marketing underwriter to a team manager and an assistant vice president. In 2021, she progressed from her role of regional vice president of the west region to vice president of field marketing and underwriting (FMU). Located out of the Dallas area, Jessica holds responsibility for the national FMU team and its regional leaders, as well as retention, profitability, agency relationships, state expansions, and partnership growth opportunities.

Jessica hails from a small town in North Carolina, where she experienced an initial lack of exposure to the business world. After paving the way as the first in her family to earn a college degree, she entered the insurance industry through a post-college recruiting event. As Amerisure’s first female assistant vice president, regional vice president, and now vice president of field marketing and underwriting, she is proud and honored to lead by example.

Lifting Others Up

Jessica is passionate about talent development. At Amerisure, Jessica focuses on identifying up-and-coming leaders and engaging and preparing the next group of professionals to help address the talent shortage in the industry. Much of Jessica’s attention is on opportunities for her team: focusing on their talents, challenging them, and identifying where they can be most successful.

Jessica recently reinvigorated an underwriting training program for a new role at Amerisure: senior associate underwriter. The first class of employees with this title graduated last fall, and a new class will begin at the company later this year. Jessica also supported the addition of an associate underwriter role that enables employees with no prior underwriting experience to make an impact in the industry. She has seen improved representation of women in insurance and helps her female team members position themselves for leadership opportunities, ensuring they have the right tools for their success.

Distinct Contributions

Jessica’s professional experience has provided her with a solid foundation to leverage her technical underwriting expertise and process knowledge to drive forward the underwriting function. Jessica has completed and is involved in many notable initiatives that help underscore the key differentiators of the organization. The most prominent recent contributions in Jessica’s current role:

• Staffing Model: Jessica worked to build a new model for field underwriting that creates career pathing aligned with strengths. It includes the associate underwriter and senior associate underwriter support and training roles (mentioned above), and also offers technical and business development tracks into specialist and manager roles that did not previously exist. This also brings a team approach to underwriting to better allow for execution and consistency.
• Collaboration and Engagement: Shifting into hybrid remote work while retaining Amerisure’s culture and idea sharing is a continual priority for Jessica, together with the company’s leadership teams. “I have and continue to be passionate about bringing our teams and departments together to achieve the best possible outcome for the organization and our agencies,” she said.
• Process Optimization: Jessica’s current initiative is to bring efficiencies to the field through technology and process improvement. Current systems and tools require a significant amount of manual entry and administrative work from the underwriters. “We are looking for ways to alleviate those tasks to allow for more time to be spent on their technical and marketing responsibilities,” Jessica said. “This will include bringing artificial intelligence capabilities into workflows and utilizing newly added associate underwriter and senior associate underwriter resources.” The team is centralizing training and onboarding support to create a more consistent and effective experience for new hires.

Giving Back & Family Focus

Jessica serves on the executive board and is the volunteer chair for the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF). The Southeast Division is based in Dallas and serves communities in Texas and across the Southeast region, with greater outreach through its Georgia and Houston Chapters. The organization’s grant focus areas include disaster preparedness and relief, children at risk, education, and veterans. All of Amerisure’s FMU team members have competed in the IICF Step Up Challenge for the past three years, and volunteers from the Dallas office, together with Jessica, have supported at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery cleanup.

In her personal time, Jessica’s children, 6 and 10, keep her busy running to Boy Scouts, dance, and baseball and soccer fields. Looking forward, Jessica is excited to continue on the path of professional growth, and further strengthen Amerisure’s strategic agency partnerships to accelerate mutual success.

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About Jessica Soufrine

Jessica is the vice president of field marketing & underwriting for Amerisure. In this position, Jessica serves as a member of the company’s operational leadership team and leads the Field Marketing & Underwriting (FMU) department in driving profitable growth with Amerisure’s Partners For Success® agencies. Prior to her current role, she served as the regional vice president of FMU for the company’s west region and has held many positions during her 15-year tenure and progression with the company. Before joining Amerisure, Jessica worked for Travelers Insurance as a claims representative. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in communication and advertising from Appalachian State University.

To that end, in the summer of 2022, John embarked on an exciting new venture – the pursuit of a Fundamentals of Welding certificate at Scott Community College in his native Iowa. “It was a little intimidating at first because, truthfully, I’m not even that handy around the house,” John admits, jokingly. “But I thought it was a unique opportunity to build a new skillset that will ultimately be helpful in underwriting gas and welding business.”

As recommended by John’s supervisor, Senior Vice President of Amerisure Programs, Rob Sedlak, coursework started with a 10-hour OSHA class followed by six hands-on welding classes, complete with a virtual reality welding machine to help students get acclimated to various welding processes, joint positions, and other situations they may face in a welding workshop.

“I was open-minded to the idea, and as Rob and I talked about it more, I realized how valuable this training could be,” said John. Donning all the necessary PPE – including a welding mask, jacket, gloves, and boots for grinding, plasma cutting, and welding, John balanced his regular workdays at Amerisure with daytime and evening classes in a welding workshop.

“It was like learning a whole new language,” he explains. “I learned all of the lingo, like how to read blueprints and directions from engineers. Moving forward, this expertise will be valuable in helping AMP craft the best solutions for our client’s needs.”

One place where John was able to showcase his expertise was at the annual GAWDA (Gases & Welding Distributors Association) Convention this past October. “I believe I was the only insurance underwriter there with first-hand knowledge and experience,” John says. “It gives us credibility and a real edge when talking to potential new customers to show that Amerisure can offer something that other companies simply don’t have. Not only that, it highlights that we’re a team of dedicated experts who go the extra mile to continue to transform the insurance experience.”

What’s next for John?  He’ll be able to leverage this knowledge along with his Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation and prior experience. “­I’d also like the opportunity to continue to strengthen my new skillset,” he explains. “I’m looking into getting a part-time welding job with my brother in law’s business—even if it’s just 10-15 hours a week—to stay informed and engaged.”

He goes on: “AMP has always differentiated itself by working to truly understand the unique risk characteristics of a particular industry in order to provide innovative insurance solutions designed to outperform industry standards. I’m confident that my newfound knowledge will serve this mission well.”

To learn more about all that Amerisure Programs has to offer, visit our Amerisure Programs page.