Key Takeaways
- Making the move from client service to independent consulting reinforced Sr. Consultant Kylee Cundiff’s career-long belief: there’s always more to learn in insurance and risk management.
- A client-centered perspective to helping public entities evaluate insurance programs, understand their options, and make informed decisions.
- For Kylee, the mission has stayed the same from client service to independent risk consulting: building trust, solving problems, navigating risk, and helping people make better decisions.
Lessons Learned Moving From Client Service to Risk Management Consulting
After spending 20 years in the insurance industry, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of what it meant to be a trusted advisor. I built relationships with clients, navigated renewals, reviewed coverage, worked through claims, coordinated with carriers, solved problems, answered countless questions, and helped clients make decisions about risks that could have significant impacts on their organizations and communities.
Insurance, client service, and public entities were not new to me. But when I moved from the agency side to independent consulting, I quickly realized that while I was still working in the same industry, I was learning to see it through an entirely different lens.
Transitioning careers in insurance has reinforced something I’ve believed throughout my professional journey: there’s always more to learn in this industry.
If you’re considering a similar career path in insurance—whether your background is in account management, underwriting, claims, loss control, sales, brokerage services, or another area—many of the lessons learned are universal. And for municipality and public entity leaders, working with an independent consultant whose expertise is grounded in the insurance industry means you have a knowledgeable partner on your side.
Why Mindset Matters in Risk Management Consulting
One of the benefits of spending two decades in the insurance industry is that you accumulate a tremendous amount of knowledge without always realizing just how much you know.
You learn to:
- Read between the lines of a policy.
- Understand how renewal decisions are made.
- Know which questions need to be asked, and which questions a client may not know they should be asking.
- How claims affect more than a loss run.
- Why relationships with carriers matter.
- How decisions made today can impact programs years down the road.
As a client service consultant, I was focused on providing the best possible service to my clients within an agency structure. As an independent consultant, my focus is entirely on the client’s perspective. Instead of asking, “How do we place this coverage?” I may be asking, “Is this the right structure for this organization in the first place?”
Transitioning careers in insurance required me to stop thinking only about completing the next insurance task and start thinking about what the organization is trying to accomplish, where the risks are changing, and how public entity insurance and risk management strategies support its long-term goals.
A Client-Centered Approach to Risk Management Consulting
Independent insurance and risk management consulting gives me the opportunity to evaluate an insurance program without being tied to the placement of the coverage itself, and that objectivity changes the conversation.
For public entities, independent risk management consulting can help evaluate whether an insurance program aligns with exposures, budget pressures, claims history, operational needs, and long-term goals. My role is not simply to help a public entity purchase insurance. I’m also striving to help them understand:
- What they are purchasing.
- Why they are purchasing it.
- Where potential gaps may exist.
- What alternatives are available.
- Whether their overall program aligns with their exposures and goals.
Public entities face complicated risks. They also operate with taxpayer dollars, public scrutiny, limited resources, changing exposures, and responsibilities that extend far beyond an insurance policy.
Our greatest value as consultants can be as simple as being willing to ask, “Why are we doing it this way?”
Why Relationships Matter in Insurance and Risk Management Consulting
When my insurance career path evolved from client service to consulting, I realized just how valuable the relationships built throughout my career really were. Clients, carrier partners, colleagues, adjusters, attorneys, loss control professionals, and countless others had all played a role in shaping the professional I had become. These relationships were built over years of answering the phone, responding when something went wrong, following through on promises, admitting when I did not know an answer, finding someone who did, and showing up consistently.
This doesn’t change when you become a consultant; if anything, it becomes even more important. Being a trusted advisor doesn’t mean having every answer. To me, it means that when a client calls, they know I will help them find the answer. It means being dependable, transparent, responsive, and willing to have difficult conversations when necessary.
Successful Risk Management Professionals Never Stop Learning
There’s a funny thing that happens when you have worked in an industry for a long time. You become confident in what you know while simultaneously being aware of how much the industry is changing every day.
Every public entity is different and has their own organizational culture, leadership, budget pressures, risk tolerance, claims history, operational challenges, and priorities. Staying up to date on emerging risks, coverage developments, changing legislation, evolving claims trends, risk financing alternatives, and the operational realities facing clients helps you advocate for your client.
The goal is not to be the smartest person in every room. The goal is to make sure the client has the right people in the room.
The Best Risk Management Consultants Balance Confidence with Humility
Clients hire consultants because they want expertise, recommendations, and someone willing to look at all the information, identify concerns, explain options, and provide a point of view. But good consulting also requires enough humility to say, “I need to look into that,” or “There may be someone better equipped to answer that specific question.” Twenty years of experience has taught me not to pretend I know what I do not, and clients appreciate that.
Insurance and risk management are too complicated for any one person to be an expert in every aspect. Strong consulting is about using what you know and the resources around you to help a client make the best decisions for their situation.
What You Need to Know to Make the Transition to Insurance Consulting
If you have spent years working within an agency, carrier, third party administrator (TPA), or another insurance organization and are considering other career options in insurance, don’t underestimate how transferable your experience is. Technical knowledge matters, but so do the skills that may never appear within the job description.
You may have spent years looking at a problem from one side of the table. Consulting asks you to walk around that table and examine the same problem from a different angle.
Be curious, ask questions, use your network, and listen to people who know things you do not. Be confident enough to offer your perspective and humble enough to change it when new information warrants it.
Most importantly, give yourself time to adjust. Experience does not mean a new role will feel natural on day one. Growth can be uncomfortable at times, but it does not mean you made the wrong move.
From Client Service to Independent Consultant: The Mission Has Always Been the Same
Looking back, I am incredibly grateful for my 20 years as a client service consultant. I would not be the consultant I am today without those years. These years taught me about insurance, but more importantly, they taught me about people.
Moving into independent consulting has allowed me to take those lessons and apply them differently. Today, I can look at risk from a broader perspective, advocate from the client’s side of the table, and help public entities make informed decisions about protecting their organizations, employees, communities, and resources.
At the end of the day, I am still doing what I have spent the last 20 years doing: building relationships, solving problems, navigating risk, and helping people make better decisions.
Every organization faces unique risks and challenges. If you’re looking for a trusted partner to help evaluate your public entity insurance program, identify opportunities, and make more informed risk management decisions, we’d love to connect with you and learn about your goals. Reach out today to get started!