Executive Search Success Story: Building a Claims, Underwriting, and Technology Leadership Team to Restore Profitability at a Regional P&C Carrier

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped a regional property and casualty carrier with the claims, underwriting, actuarial, technology, and distribution leadership required to reverse a deteriorating combined ratio, modernize its core platforms, and protect its rating agency standing.

The Challenge

A regional P&C carrier had posted a combined ratio above 108% for two consecutive years as severity inflation, catastrophe losses, and inadequate pricing overwhelmed its results. Claims cycle times and litigation rates had risen, underwriting relied on legacy judgment with limited data, reserve development had surprised the board, core systems were decades old, and the rating agency had placed the company on negative outlook. Long-tenured executives in claims, underwriting, and actuarial had retired or been replaced. Executive leadership identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the carrier:

• A combined ratio above 108% for two consecutive years
• Rising claims severity, cycle times, and litigation rates
• Underwriting and pricing lacking data-driven segmentation and rate adequacy
• Adverse reserve development undermining board and rating agency confidence
• Legacy core policy, billing, and claims systems limiting every improvement initiative
• Independent agency relationships strained by rate actions and service issues

Recognizing that restoring profitability required new leadership across the carrier’s core functions, the CEO and board engaged JRG Partners to recruit a Chief Claims Officer, Chief Underwriting Officer, Chief Actuary, Chief Information Officer, and Chief Distribution Officer. The carrier required an executive search partner with deep insurance expertise and access to leaders who had led underwriting and claims turnarounds.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Insurance Industry Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice serving insurance companies, with deep recruiting expertise across property and casualty carriers, life and annuity companies, reinsurers, brokerages, managing general agents, and insurance technology firms. This focus ensured an immediate understanding of combined ratio drivers, reserving, rating agency dynamics, and the leadership profiles that restore underwriting profitability.

Carrier Turnaround Experience

Our firm has extensive experience recruiting claims, underwriting, and actuarial leaders who have reversed combined ratio deterioration and restored rating agency confidence.

Multi-Role Execution

Our team specializes in running coordinated claims, underwriting, actuarial, technology, and distribution searches in parallel, ensuring leaders are selected as a complementary unit aligned to a single profitability plan.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Profitability Plan Alignment

Our consultants partnered directly with the CEO, board, and rating agency advisors to review loss trends, reserve studies, pricing adequacy, systems roadmap, and agency feedback, defining five executive profiles aligned with the profitability plan.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting claims, underwriting, actuarial, technology, and distribution executives at national and regional P&C carriers, reinsurers, and insurance technology companies who had led documented profitability turnarounds. Over 430 executives were systematically assessed across these sectors.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to leaders with a documented history of reducing claims severity and litigation, implementing data-driven underwriting and pricing, stabilizing reserves, modernizing core systems, and strengthening independent agency distribution. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented profitability plans to the CEO and board, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified combined ratio, reserving, and distribution outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 430+ property and casualty insurance executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized leadership tier spanning claims, underwriting, actuarial, technology, and distribution within eight months.
• Reduced litigation rates 25% and claims cycle times 30%.
• Improved the loss ratio by 9 points through underwriting and pricing discipline.
• Eliminated adverse reserve development.
• Improved the combined ratio from above 108% to 96% and restored stable rating outlook.