Welcome to the Max Revenue Letter. Recapping the news, trends, and top producer insights from the week.

Sorry for getting this issue out so late. We’re hanging on for dear life over here. Our nanny is out on maternity leave. Our first fill-in quit on her first day, and our second fill-in quite on her first day. All hands on deck. Lord, help us.

Today: 3 briefs, 3 podcasts, 1 article. LFG🔥

The blue wave rolled in. Democrats flipped seven Senate seats and took the House with their widest margin in 33 years, giving them control of both chambers starting in January. That sets up two years of divided government for the back half of Trump’s term.

So what changes for mid market insurance? Here are the 3 key points to watch:

1. Benefits is most in play. Unlike P&C, the big rules here are federal, and restoring the enhanced ACA subsidies is now on the table. That could shift how employers think about their plans.

2. Affordability gets an even bigger spotlight. Expect even more oversight on insurance costs, and it’s bipartisan... Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley already teamed up in October to press six carriers on claims closed without payment.

3. Tariffs aren’t going anywhere. The president still has room to act on trade, and Aon has tariffs pushing property construction costs up 4%. Watch those insured values.

Our hot take: Red or blue, we can all agree a lot needs to change, and affordability is one of the few issues both sides actually care about. The bad news? Nobody’s fixing it in January. Your job is the same as always... help clients understand what they’re paying for and why.

For a decade, commercial auto has been a dumpster fire, losing money every single year. But according to AM Best, the line may finally be turning a corner.

First, the good news. The 2025 underwriting loss came in at $2.2 billion, a 55% improvement over the year before. Physical damage was the star, posting a $2.4 billion gain even with pricier parts and rising labor costs. And the momentum carried into 2026, with the direct loss ratio hitting 66.1 in the first half, a modest improvement from last year.

Pump the brakes. Liability is still the big problem, with a loss of more than $4.6 billion in 2025. Social inflation is still doing what social inflation does. So while property and other lines soften, commercial auto remains the hard market outlier.

Our hot take: The light is real... we’re just not convinced it isn’t the headlights of another nuclear verdict barreling straight at us. Commercial auto’s problem is in the courtroom, and with reform stalled, it isn’t going to get significantly better anytime soon. The biggest thing that breaks the cycle is taking the human driver out of the seat, which is why we don’t see significant rate relief until autonomous vehicles are the norm.

ICYMI, last Sunday, a crowd gathered outside Liberty Mutual’s downtown HQ to demand the company ditch Liberty Biberty, the new and ridiculous fuzzy yellow puppet that’s been all over TV and social since July. The organizer, a New Hampshire YouTuber, called it “the next Boston Tea Party.” His invite video pulled more than 600,000 views.

And he’s not alone. People have been dragging the new mascot all over social media... one person even admitted they’d switch to LM if they set the mascot on fire in a commercial.

Our hot take: Look, it was a slow news week. And when insurance and mascots collide in a street protest, we have to cover it. Which got us thinking... what are our top 5 insurance mascots of all time? Here’s ours:

Our thoughts are with Biberty during this difficult time.

In this episode Brandon Schuh breaks down Zywave’s “Broker of the Future” study and its claim that AI-native brokers could hit $1M in revenue per employee versus $175K at the traditional shop, then tie it to Willis’s $625M Propel plan, Baldwin’s take-private, how LLM search is sending leads to niche producers, and a recap of the Denver event.

Listen on Spotify | Watch on YouTube

In this episode Trey hands the mic to Micah and Derek Laczniak for the kind of in-the-trenches conversation they started over lunch at the Denver event. The topic is how to market accounts in a “soft” market that ain’t soft everywhere. Property is down, auto and umbrella are up, and the nerd session is on. They get into what spooks auto underwriters, how to show clients your work line by line, what to do when the incumbent comes in early with a flat renewal, and why owners move on principle, not money.

Listen on Spotify | Watch on YouTube

In this episode Trey and Micah sit down with Dustin Applebaum, president of Element 22, the preferred wholesaler of the Max Revenue Show. Dustin walks through his path from naming Amwins at an ad agency to starting Element 22. They get into why an independent wholesaler can outwork the national shops, what separates a $200K producer from a $2M producer, and how to tell whether your wholesaler is actually adding value or just providing you market access.

Listen on Spotify | Watch on YouTube

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