Welcome to the Max Revenue Letter. Recapping the news, trends, and top producer insights from the week.
Today: 3 briefs, 3 podcasts, 1 article. LFG🔥
NEWS BRIEFS
🚨 Jensen Huang Just Wrote the D&O Case Study of the Century
The man who built Nvidia into the face of the AI boom, is officially out. He resigned Thursday as president, CEO, and board member, effective immediately, after reports of three extramarital affairs, including one with an alleged Chinese spy.
CFO Colette Kress steps in as interim CEO, and Harvey C. Jones becomes the company’s first-ever board chair. No permanent successor is lined up.
And the fallout is just getting started. Shares dropped more than 11% after the announcement. A proposed securities class action citing Rule 10b-5 was already filed, claiming the company misled investors. Wachtell Lipton is running an independent investigation. Oh, and earnings are still on deck for Tuesday, November 17.
Our hot take: This is D&O, securities, and key person risk all wrapped in one headline. If a $4 trillion company can lose its founder overnight with no plan B, your clients can too. Ask the uncomfortable questions... Is there a real succession plan? Is key person coverage in place? Are the D&O limits built for the bad day, not the average one?
⚖️ Your Clients Are Paying a $4,900 Lawsuit Tax
A new study from the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, a tort-reform advocacy group, estimates U.S. tort costs hit $655.6 billion in 2025. That’s 2.12% of GDP and more than $4,900 per household.
And it’s growing fast... 7.8% a year since 2019, about twice the pace of inflation, by ILR’s math. The priciest states per household? Delaware, New York, and New Jersey, with California racking up the biggest total bill at nearly $82 billion.
The bright spot is Florida. After its 2023 reforms, tort costs dipped from 3.35% to 3.11% of the state’s economy, and AM Best says average paid claim severity is trending down there too.
Our hot take: This is why your umbrella renewals aren’t softening while property is. Property follows the weather. Casualty follows the courtroom. Until more states follow Florida’s lead, expect casualty to stay firm... and expect your clients to keep asking why.
📧 Outlook Went Down and the Insurance Industry Took the Afternoon Off
Thursday around lunchtime, Microsoft gave the entire insurance industry an unexpected half day. Outlook, Teams, and Copilot went dark, with about 130,000 outage reports piling up on Downdetector just after 1 p.m. ET. And it didn’t come back quickly. The outage dragged on into the evening while Microsoft paused deployments and started restarting servers.
For an industry that runs on “see attached,” “circling back,” and “per my last email,” this was basically a national holiday. Somewhere, an account manager finally ate lunch sitting down.
Our hot take: One vendor went down and half the economy stopped working. That’s a problem. Hope you enjoyed the break, because today and Monday are about to be a circus. And dependent business interruption claims incoming? Possibly.
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When you’re ready for a captive partner who works with you, not around you, ICS can help turn captive interest into new opportunities, deeper client relationships, and long-term book growth. Head over to yourcaptive.com/max and call our boy Will Allen ASAP.
PODCASTS
How Top Producers Manage Underwriter Relationships
In this episode, Micah and Derek dig into underwriter relationships. They explain why your underwriter is in sales too, with rate and retention goals that can line up with yours. They share how to remarket an account and handle last look without burning the incumbent. They also show how underwriters who aren’t on a deal can be one of your best sources of prospecting intel.
From a $1.5M Book to a $5M Agency in 10 Years with Vince DiBenedetto
In this episode, Trey sits down with Vince DiBenedetto, who grew a $1.5M book into Provant, a $5M agency, in just over 10 years by doing almost everything differently. Instead of using an aggregator, he got his carrier appointments by wining and dining the carriers himself. Instead of building slowly, he bought a book in his first year, and he explains why he wouldn’t tell you to do the same. He also shares why his producers sell both P&C and benefits instead of picking a niche, and how he grew personal lines while other agencies were getting out of it. They finish with his best advice for anyone ready to start their own shop.
How To Double Your Book with AI with Vishal Sankhla
In this episode, Trey and Micah sit down with Vishal Sankhla, founder of Outmarket, the AI platform already used by 25 of the Top 100 brokerages. Vishal explains why AI won’t replace the producer, three ways it can help you double your book, and what sets Outmarket apart from every other AI tool out there.
Listen on Spotify | Watch on YouTube
ARTICLE
What Your Buyer Is Really Thinking During Your RFP Pitch
I just ran an RFP from the buyer’s side for the first time. Here's the 5 things that decided who made the cut.
By Derek Laczniak, CIC
I've spent more than fifteen years broking middle market, upper middle market and national accounts. I've sat on the broker side of plenty of RFPs. I had never run one until now. It was fascinating.
I just wrapped up leading an RFP, start to finish, for a very sizable upper middle market organization. I'm not claiming to be an expert. This was my first time on that side of the table. But I learned more in a few weeks than I expected to, and I want to share it while it's fresh, because I think it could be really beneficial for you to see the RFP process through your buyer’s eyes.
Here's how I set it up
I worked with the client to define what mattered most to them, wrote the questions around those conversations, and built a 100-point scorecard. Then we ran a pretty traditional process: the invitation went out, firms elected to respond, written answers came in, and finalists came in for interviews. My goal was to keep it broker friendly while shaking up the parts of the process that felt more like habit than common sense.
I read all six written responses front to back. That's a lot of reading. Here's what my big takeaways are…
LINKS
🏆 Win More Captive Biz with Innovative Captive Strategies:
https://yourcaptive.com/max
💼 Find Your Next Agency with Palladium Point:
https://www.palladiumpoint.com/max
📈 Free Trial of Insurance Xdate:
https://www.insurancexdate.com/maxrevenue
🔗 Meet Your New Favorite Wholesaler, Element22:
Email submissions to: [email protected]
Or call Brian at 843-296-3376
💸Work with BindPoint Premium Finance:
https://gobindpoint.com/
Or call Chris at 214-888-8900
📬Sign up for The Max Revenue Letter:
https://maxrevenuegroup.com/subscribe
📘 Access Part 1 of Micah's Producer Playbook:
https://www.maxrevenuegroup.com/products/producer-playbook-p1
📕 Access Part 2 of Micah's Producer Playbook:
https://www.maxrevenuegroup.com/products/producer-playbook-p2
👕 Snag your Max Revenue merch:
https://max-revenue-store.printful.me/
Ok, fam. That’s it for this week. Enjoy the massive influx of emails, and for goodness sake, don’t fall into any honey-pots out there.
Oh, and don’t forget to share The Max Revenue Letter with your peeps and earn some rewards. You’ll find your own unique referral link below.
Onward and upward,
Trey
