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The Insurance Insider Podcast Ep 1: The Start of WCI Advisors

Kailey: So Whitney Commercial Insurance Advisors, when did you start that and what made you get into insurance?

Ty: So Whitney Commercial Insurance Advisors was founded in 2021. It was an iteration out of my former partnership at the Sena Group Insurance with John Sena, one of my good friends. And before that I had a company called the Whitney Group.

The Whitney Group was a commercial insurance firm that specialized in large high-end general contractors, we specialized in doing risk management and insurance programs for for the large GCs in the South Florida market. And then prior to that, I was with Bateman, Gordon, and Sands. I came out of college at Stetson University and went to work at Bateman, Gordon, and Sands in 1989.
And then attended the Aetna Property Casualty Insurance Program. Yes, Aetna at one time was a property and casualty insurance agency and insurance company. And what we did was, after the training there, I became a producer at Bateman Gordon and Sands. I was there until 2003. And then again, Whitney, the Whitney group was our, was the next iteration, then again, the Sena Group was the next iteration and now Whitney Commercial Insurance Advisors.

Now, Whitney Commercial Insurance Advisors was founded out of the concept of focusing exclusively on the needs, the insurance and risk management needs of business owners. In particular, we find that business owners need. They really need a specialist that completely understands their business, their risk to the world.

What’s their risk exposure when they’re operating their businesses? What risk exposures do they face on a given day? And how do we identify those risk factors? How do we then find unique ways to transfer those risks away from that client company to either an insurance policy or working with their attorneys, we find ways to transfer the risk to other parties.

In other words, via a contract such as a subcontractor agreement, independent contractor agreement, or a lease agreement. How do we transfer the risks that they face from them and that they are exposed to over to these various third parties, and that risk transfer technique translates to a more acceptable risk tolerance for their insurance company.

In other words, their insurance companies look at them and say, wow, these, these guys are really focused on risk transfer and those techniques and they, that translates into many times lower rates or a more acceptable, more insurance companies are attracted to the, to propose their business insurance and their risk management needs through that technique.

Kailey: So would you say that you have about going on 35 years of experience now? Has it always been in commercial insurance?

Ty: Yes, I’m glad you asked that question. So I have only done one thing in my entire career and that’s commercial property casualty insurance with the focus on businesses and business owners and their individual needs.

Kailey: So is that what Whitney Commercial Insurance Advisors does now, only focus on commercial? Do you have any other aspects within the company that focus on different insurance needs? Or would you say that it’s mainly just commercial?

Ty: It’s, that’s again a great question. I appreciate you asking that. And what I focus on is only commercial insurance. And the reason why is because commercial insurance has become so incredibly technical and so incredibly diverse. There is never one insurance policy that looks like another. They’re all now customized to tailor fit the individual business owners needs.
And, so long gone are the days where you could pull a policy off a shelf and it, it fits every single business owner, those days are over. Now we have to clearly identify the unique risks that that business owner faces and then tailor the insurance products around those individual needs and individual risk exposures and then transfer those to either third parties via contract with their attorney or with transferring it to an insurance policy.