Welcome to the Max Revenue Letter. Recapping the news, trends, and top producer insights from the week. Sorry for the late shipment this week. When SHTF, what can you do? Onward.

Today: 3 briefs, 3 podcasts, 1 big announcement. LFG🔥

Applied Systems, maker of every producer's favorite headache, Epic, had quite the week.

Sept 28: AppliedNet 2026 kicked off in Washington DC, 4,000+ attendees, the company's biggest annual stage.
Sept 29, 9:00 AM ET: Applied drops the official press release announcing Epic Conductor, its new native AI platform.
Sept 29, same day: New CEO Graham Blackwell, only a few weeks into the role, takes the keynote stage and tells a room full of peers their products are irrelevant.

Let's break it down.

First, Epic Conductor. Applied's new AI platform makes some bold claims. ~55 minutes saved per submission reading carrier documents, ~45 minutes saved per policy check, 60% faster submission handling, and renewal quotes back in 3 hours instead of 3+ days. And our favorite, extraction accuracy at 99% across 90+ carriers. Now, did they say how any of those were measured, which agencies were tested, or what baseline they're compared against? No. No they didn't.

Next, new CEO Graham Blackwell took the stage and said standalone AI tools, policy checking, quote comparison, reconciliation, are "just a feature." Anyone can build one. What nobody else can do, he said, is connecting all of it, across an agency's entire operation, out to the carriers on the other end.

Our hot take: Applied just went full incumbent, and you know what they say about going full incumbent. Unverified stats, posturing, thowing the newcomer under the bus. Look like they’re in full defense mode. Why? Their per-seat licensing model, and the agency data lock-in that's kept agencies from leaving, are both now in serious jeopardy thanks to AI, and they know it.

Willis just published its 2027 forecast. And the headline is... wait for it... wait for it... Property softening will keep accelerating. Liability lines will keep climbing. Just a little slower than before. Womp womp.

Property: large and complex risks should see rates fall 5-15% for single-insurer programs and 15-25%+ for shared/layered programs. Willis's own book already posted a 14.5% average decline in Q2, with shared/layered placements involving five-plus insurers down a striking 23.41%. Rates are trending back toward 2019 levels.

Liability: tough, but moderating. GL for large/complex risks: 2-10%+. Auto liability: 8-15%+ for moderate risk, 10-20%+ for difficult risks (still the line that's refused to behave, as we've covered). Umbrella: 3-12%+ standard, 8-15%+ challenging. All of it driven by the same thing we keep circling back to, rising court awards, nuclear verdicts, and adverse loss trends, even as fresh capacity from MGAs and broker facilities cools the pace of increases.

Two lines worth flagging separately: workers' comp for large accounts is projected between a 3% decrease and a 2% increase, essentially flat, with middle-market comp potentially down as much as 5%. And cyber is forecast between down 5% and up 5%, still soft despite rising ransomware and AI-related exposure, abundant capacity is simply keeping competition intense regardless.

Our hot take: This confirms the asymmetric “K-shaped” market we've talked about all year, real relief on property and comp, continued (if slower) pain on casualty. As you were.

A new WCRI study of 8 million non-COVID claims across 31 states (roughly 83% of all US workers' comp benefits paid) found workers with less than two years of tenure accounted for 54% of all injuries from 2022-2024, despite being only about a third of the workforce. Nearly 4 in 10 injuries happened in an employee's first year, including 16% in just the first three months.

The concentration gets extreme in specific industries. Restaurants and entertainment: 64% of injuries hit workers under two years tenure. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing: 60%. Construction: 59%. And construction carries a separate cost problem on top of that, it's only 7% of total injuries but the most expensive by far, combined medical and indemnity payments on lost-time claims approach $40,000, versus roughly $25,000 across industries overall.

One genuinely good sign buried in the data: the newest-hire spike is actually reversing. Claims involving workers with less than three months tenure dropped from 18.4% in 2022 to 14.4% in 2024, now below pre-pandemic 2019 levels.

Our hot take: Sure, workers' comp is flat right now, but don't sleep on the fundamentals like onboarding and safety training. Construction proves exactly why: it's only 7% of total injuries, but lost-time claims there average nearly $40,000 combined at 12 months, versus roughly $25,000 across industries overall. Low frequency, extremely high severity. With auto and GL rates still creeping up, workers' comp is one of the few places you can actually hold the line for clients right now, but only if the fundamentals are in place.

In this episode Brandon Schuh breaks down the Big I's rosy new agency study, then they dig into Meta's new AI assistant, Muse, which can shop insurance on your behalf and sent Allstate and Goosehead stock tumbling.

In this episode, Micah and Trey sit down with Geoff Christian, a multi-million dollar EB Producer with Gallagher who has been building EB captives for two decades. Geoff breaks down why the benefits market is more chaotic than he's seen in 27 years, and why that chaos is creating real opportunity for producers who know where to look and how to position themselves. Whether you're a P&C or EB guy its worth a listen.

In this episode, Trey jams with Micah Salas to celebrate his 5-year anniversary of leaving a mega-broker to rebuild his book. Micah reflects on his journey of growing his book back past the $1.2M mark from scratch and breaks down the 5 biggest mindset shifts, hard-learned lessons, and tactical strategies he wishes he knew back when he started over.

Introducing Agency Builders, the newest show to the Max Revenue lineup. I'm Trey Shields, and I'll be joined by my co-host Colby Allen, consultant at Agency Brokerage. We'll talk with agency owners and leaders who are in the trenches, producing while they build. You'll hear how they're hiring and retaining talent, balancing selling with leading, training up their team, handling carrier and market pressure, and the tech stack they’re using. You won't hear from folks who've sailed off into the sunset. These are practitioners doing the work. Whether you're an agency owner today, on a path to ownership, or hoping to lead one day, this show is for you. Our first episode drops in a few weeks. Hope to see you there.

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