Welcome to this week's recap. The news and top producer insights you need, without the snoozefest. Today: 5 briefs. 1 norm pod. 1 quicky pod. 1 poll. 0 boring. Let’s roll!

Acrisure just handed pink slips to 2,250 employees — about 11% of its workforce — and the official reason is AI and automation. CEO Greg Williams told staff that technology is "fundamentally changing" how value gets created and that the "greatest risk" is not acting fast enough. Sure, Greg. But let's not forget: Acrisure is a privately held, investor-laden giant laser-focused on EBITDA, and "AI transformation" is a much cleaner headline than "we need to hit our numbers." Probably a little of both, honestly.

Whether it's bots or bean counters driving the cuts: the mega-brokers are hollowing out their service layers. That's an opening if you’re at a smaller shop. Relationships, local expertise, and complex risk counsel are exactly what neither the robots nor the spreadsheet warriors can replicate. Double down on the human stuff.

Patagonia — the brand that literally gave its company away to fight climate change — is taking a LGBTQ climate activist to federal court. The outdoor apparel giant sued drag queen and environmental activist Pattie Gonia (real name Wyn Wiley) for trademark infringement, claiming the name could create consumer confusion. The awkward part: Patagonia claims Pattie Gonia's offending activities include environmental sustainability speaking and organizing trail and hiking events — which sounds less like brand sabotage and more like Patagonia's own mission statement in heels. Patagonia is only seeking $1 in damages — but Wiley says the legal fees alone could top $1 million. Pattie Gonia went public this week calling it a betrayal of Patagonia's core mission, asked her followers to take action against the brand, and the internet largely agreed. The legal argument may have legs. The PR does not.

Sip your oatmilk and take notes: This is a masterclass in reputational liability. When a brand's legal strategy directly contradicts its public identity, the PR damage can dwarf the legal costs. Make sure your clients understand that litigation risk isn't just financial — it's existential.

Corgi, an AI-native insurance carrier just raised $106 million in a Series B1 round, valuing it at $2.6 billion. The jaw-dropping part? That's double its valuation from just three weeks ago, when it closed a $160 million Series B at $1.3 billion. Corgi is a fully licensed carrieR — handling its own underwriting, claims, and policy management —currently focused on startups in tech, with plans to expand into trucking and small business.

Why it matters to Producers: Insurtech money is back in the headlines. A two-year-old carrier doubling its valuation in three weeks is a signal that the market thinks legacy distribution and underwriting are ripe for disruption. Know what they're building before it shows up in your clients' inboxes.

Good news from the reinsurance tower: June 1 renewals saw low double-digit rate decreases as ample capacity — bolstered by increased insurance-linked securities activity — tipped the supply-demand balance in favor of cedents. Property catastrophe risk-adjusted rate reductions averaged 15–20% across the market. Translation: reinsurers are flush with capital and competing hard for business. A 12% spike in demand for property cat capacity was partly driven by Florida Citizens' depopulation pushing more insureds into the private market.

Why this matters on our side: Softer reinsurance costs mean carriers have more room to play on pricing — especially in property. If your markets have been stingy, now's the time to push back and ask what's changed on their end.

The White House was hours away from signing an executive order tackling AI cybersecurity risks last week — invitations had already gone out to tech executives — when Trump pulled the plug. His reason: "I didn't like certain aspects of it." The order would have revamped cybersecurity information-sharing programs to include AI companies and called for voluntary government testing of frontier AI models across federal and critical infrastructure networks. Trump's concern was that any guardrails might slow the US lead over China in AI. Meanwhile, buried in the story: Anthropic's new Mythos model is so good at finding network vulnerabilities that access has been restricted to a handful of large tech and Wall Street firms — and the NSA is already using it.

The quiet part the carriers are already pricing in: No federal AI security framework means the regulatory vacuum stays wide open — and cyber underwriters are already scrambling to price AI-related exposures nobody fully understands yet. If your clients are using AI tools in their operations, that's a coverage conversation you need to be having right now.

We’ve partnered with Element 22 to be Max Revenue’s preferred wholesale broker. If you've got accounts that need a creative P&C solution give them a shot. We’ve vetted them. They’re legit. You can send your submissions straight to [email protected] or call Brian at (843) 296-3376 and tell him Max Revenue sent you.

In this episode, Trey sits down with Tanya Andolsen of Argosy Risk, a 30-year veteran of the environmental niche, to break down everything producers need to know — from why premiums are surprisingly affordable to the hidden gaps in standard GL and property policies, Tanya walks us through site pollution, contractor's pollution liability, transportation coverage, non-owned disposal sites, products pollution, and more.

In this video, Micah shares his three favorite talk tracks for explaining to insureds why working with one agent is the best move — and how to get them to sign a Broker of Record letter with confidence. If you're looking to improve your positioning around BORs, the hardest part is often the conversation. How do you explain it without sounding self-serving? How do you make the insured feel like it's the right decision for them? Micah breaks down how inside.

Today's email was written by Trey Shields

Edited by Bob Vance | Illustrated by Creed Bratton

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