When most insurance professionals talk to clients, the focus is on premiums, policy limits, and deductibles. But what if we’ve been missing the bigger picture all along? In a recent episode of the Power Producers Podcast, we sat down with Aris Papadopoulos, Chairman of the Resilience Action Fund and a powerful voice in the world of property resilience, to discuss how insurance agents can become change agents in the fight against vulnerable development—and why they should.
This isn’t just about better building codes or stronger homes—it’s about reframing the role of the insurance professional as a trusted advisor in protecting long-term wealth, safety, and sustainability. With the rising frequency and intensity of natural disasters, there’s never been a better time for our industry to step up.
Aris brings a unique perspective to this conversation. As a former CEO of a billion-dollar construction firm and a 9/11 survivor, he has seen both the physical and economic devastation that occurs when our built environment fails us. His journey into resilience advocacy started with a simple but profound question:
“Not why the hazards are strong—but why the assets are weak.”
The core issue? Speculative development. Builders often construct to minimum code requirements because it’s legal, profitable, and the average consumer doesn’t know any better. This leads to homes and commercial buildings that may look great on the surface but are ticking time bombs when faced with wind, fire, flood, or earthquake.
These practices shift the risk from the builder to the buyer, who inherits the consequences. As Aris puts it, “We have so much vulnerable construction because it’s legal, it’s profitable, and the consumer is blind.”
The insurance industry has a vital role to play in fixing this broken system. Instead of simply writing policies, agents can provide property risk education before, during, and after the buying process.
Imagine if buyers consulted their insurance agent before choosing a home. An experienced agent can point out flood zone exposure, the age and quality of a roof, the importance of wind-rated windows, and the long-term cost of insuring that property. That’s a value proposition no online quoting engine can compete with.
As Aris noted, “It’s better to buy your house with an insurance agent than a real estate agent.”
For agents, this is about going beyond the sale to become a risk advisor, guiding clients on flood insurance, ordinance and law coverage, and home upgrades that can reduce premiums while increasing protection.
There’s a widespread misconception that if a building meets code, it must be safe. But here’s the hard truth: building codes are the legal minimum—not a guarantee of durability or survivability.
“Building to code is building to minimum wage,” says Aris. “It’s designed to help you escape—not to save your building.”
Many clients put thousands into cosmetic upgrades while ignoring structural vulnerabilities. New countertops won’t protect your home in a flood or hurricane. Instead, investing in a fortified roof, impact-rated windows, and elevated foundations should be the priority.
The financial impact of vulnerable construction isn’t theoretical—it’s measurable. Aris shared a compelling comparison between two working-class neighborhoods in St. Petersburg, Florida: Shore Acres and Disston Heights.
Shore Acres, a low-elevation neighborhood prone to frequent flooding, has seen home values plummet. In contrast, Disston Heights, built on higher ground with better drainage, saw property values rise—even through the same storm season.
This disparity in property value performance highlights a hard truth: resilient properties protect wealth, while vulnerable ones destroy it. Insurance agents must help clients understand that their total cost of risk includes more than just premiums. It includes downtime, displacement, emotional trauma, and lost home equity.
To clarify what we mean by resilience, Aris defines it in two parts:
True resilience goes beyond construction materials. It includes whole-home generators, redundant fuel sources, and proper elevation to avoid water intrusion. This is especially important for businessowners, who risk not only physical damage but operational downtime if their buildings aren’t ready to weather the storm—literally.
Fortunately, there are solutions available. Organizations like the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) have developed the Fortified Roof Standard, a set of guidelines that exceed typical code requirements and can earn insurance discounts in states like Alabama.
New global initiatives like the Building Resilience Index, backed by the World Bank, aim to measure and standardize resilience for buildings across the globe.
And tech is catching up. 3D-printed homes, while still in their early stages, are beginning to show promise in delivering stronger, faster, and more cost-effective structures—often using recycled materials.
Consumers also have access to tools like Flood Factor by First Street Foundation, integrated into sites like Redfin and Zillow, to assess flood risk beyond what outdated FEMA maps provide.
Agents often struggle with clients who are more receptive to their mortgage broker or real estate agent than to their insurance professional. But the tide can turn with education.
Use every policy discussion to explain:
“We’ve been too busy selling and not busy enough educating,” says David Carothers. “But if we educate, the product will sell itself.”
If insurance professionals want to be part of the solution—and protect their own profitability in the process—they must make resilience a core strategy.
That means:
As Aris experienced while leading a global construction firm, the best insurance relationships were built on direct expectations: “Here’s what you must do to be insured—and here’s what you can do to get a better rate.”
Let’s bring that clarity and confidence to our clients.
Resilience isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the future of risk management in the property and insurance world. As climate change accelerates and disasters become more frequent, agents who embrace resilience will differentiate themselves in a crowded market.
This is your opportunity to lead. Educate your clients. Push for smarter standards. Be the one who helps families build stronger—not just insure what’s weak.
If we can help people understand that resilience pays off in property value, peace of mind, and lower total cost of risk, we won’t just sell more policies—we’ll change lives.
Workers’ compensation is one of the most misunderstood and underestimated lines of coverage in the middle market. Too many producers view it as a commodity, something to quote, bind, and move on from. But as the market heads toward 2026, that mindset is becoming a liability.
For years, commercial insurance producers could survive by being good enough across a wide range of industries. They could write a little construction, a little manufacturing, a little hospitality, and a little habitational business and still build a respectable book.
The commercial insurance industry is in the middle of a quiet evolution.
While most conversations still revolve around premiums, deductibles, limits, and carrier appetite, a different category of risk transfer has been gaining traction beneath the surface—parametric insurance. It is not new, but it is finally becoming accessible, relevant, and actionable for middle market producers who are willing to think differently about risk.
In a recent episode of the Power Producers Podcast, I sat down with Brian Thompson from Descartes Underwriting to unpack what parametric insurance actually is, what it is not, and why producers who ignore it may be leaving their clients—and themselves—exposed.
This article breaks that conversation down into practical, producer-friendly language and shows how parametric insurance fits into modern middle market risk management.
The last several years have reshaped the landscape of property insurance across the country. While most national carriers have retreated from coastal states, wildfire zones, and other catastrophe-exposed regions, a handful of disciplined players have taken the opposite path—leaning into difficult markets with a strategic, data-driven approach.
For most entrepreneurs, the decision to start a business is rooted in the promise of freedom. Freedom from a boss, freedom to control income, and freedom to build something meaningful. Yet for many business owners, particularly in service-based industries and middle-market companies, that freedom slowly erodes. What begins as ownership eventually turns into obligation, where the business demands constant attention and the owner becomes the single point of failure.
The insurance industry is full of shortcuts. Some producers look for ways to streamline the quoting process, others avoid hard conversations with clients, and many rely on endorsements or extensions because they are “easier” than diving into the details. Nowhere is this more dangerous than in the world of cyber insurance.
Too many agents assume that a cyber endorsement on a BOP or commercial package policy is “good enough.” It isn’t. In fact, treating a BOP cyber extension as a replacement for a standalone cyber policy leaves clients dangerously exposed, puts producers at risk of losing accounts, and opens the door to costly errors and omissions (E&O) claims.
Cyber threats evolve faster than any other area of risk, and endorsements simply can’t keep up. If producers want to protect their clients and themselves, it’s time to understand why standalone cyber insurance is non-negotiable.
Please confirm you want to block this member.
You will no longer be able to:
Please note: This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.
Responses