👋 Good Morning. Welcome to the 4th edition of our Weekly Recap. The news, trends, and training Producers need (with less of the boring).

🥶Vibe Check: A ‘generational’ winter storm is about to cover 35 states, more concerning stats on the benefits front, and Greenland preps for war while you try to tie up your 2/1 renewals.

☕ Grab your coffee, make sure your generator has plenty of gas for the next 7 days, and let’s dive in.

STORY OF THE WEEK

A 2,000-Mile “Potentially Catastrophic” Ice Storm Is On It’s Way

A massive winter storm is barreling through the U.S. this weekend, stretching from New Mexico to New York and threatening to coat everything from Texas to the Carolinas in enough ice to make roadways impassable, collapse power lines, and leave hundreds of thousands of people without electricity for days. We're talking 200+ million people in 35+ states.

It's the kind of storm that makes meteorologists use words like "potentially catastrophic" and "historic" in the same sentence.

By the numbers:

• 2,000+ mile stretch of frozen chaos

• Up to 1 inch of ice accumulation in some areas (that's 500 pounds on a single power line)

• 100+ million people under winter weather alerts as of Wednesday

• 48-60 consecutive hours below freezing in Dallas

• 4,000+ likely flight cancellations

• Temps could feel like -50°F in parts of the Northern Plains

What's happening: An arctic air mass is diving south from Hudson Bay to crash into warm, moist air streaming up from the Gulf of Mexico. When they collide this weekend, the result will be what the National Weather Service calls "treacherous travel conditions, prolonged power outages, and tree damage."

The ice is the real villain here. Forget snow, ice is what brings down trees, snaps power lines, and turns highways into NASCAR tracks without the safety crews. And the South is getting the worst of it.

Ryan Maue, former chief scientist at NOAA, summed it up: "I don't know how people are going to deal with it."

Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina have already declared states of emergency. Governors are mobilizing National Guard units. Stores from Little Rock to Atlanta are running low on sleds, salt, and emergency supplies.

The Texas question everyone's asking: Is the grid ready?

After the Great Texas Freeze of 2021 killed 240+ people and left 10 million without power, Texans are understandably nervous. ERCOT (the state's grid operator) says they're monitoring conditions and expect the grid to handle it, but they've issued a weather watch from Saturday through Tuesday.

The good news? This storm won't be as long or as cold as 2021. The bad news? It's still going to be "dangerously cold" with ice that could knock out power for days—and when temps are in the teens for 48+ hours straight, that's not just an inconvenience. It's a crisis.

What about the Northeast? While the South deals with ice, the Northeast could see 10+ inches of snow, with some mountain areas potentially getting 30 inches. Cities like NYC, Philly, Boston, and DC are all in the path. This could be the biggest storm of the winter so far.

The timeline:

• Friday: Storm hits Texas and Oklahoma with ice, snow moves into Kansas

• Saturday: Ice expands across Arkansas, Tennessee, and toward Georgia/Carolinas. Arctic temps lock in.

• Sunday: Storm reaches the East Coast, snow for the Northeast, ice persists in the South

• Monday: Brutal cold prevents melting, power restoration efforts hampered

For insurance pros: This is the kind of storm that shuts down entire cities for days. Half your book of business is about to discover what their policies actually cover when ice collapses a roof, bursts a pipe, or shuts down operations for 72 hours straight. Now might be a good time to reach out.

NEWS OF THE WEEK

👻 Small Employers Are Ghosting Health Insurance

New research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute just dropped some numbers that should make every small group benefits producer sweat.

Nearly half of small employers: said "nah, we're good" on offering health benefits in 2024. After hitting 46.3% in 2023, sponsorship crawled to 49% this year. That's not a recovery. That's a dead cat bounce.

Meanwhile, large employers: are still offering coverage at stable rates, employing two-thirds of workers and keeping 80% of private-sector employees eligible for benefits.

The plot twist: Employment-based coverage used to hit 70% of non-elderly Americans (1970-1989). Today? Just 61%.

Yikes.

👍 TRIA Gets A 7-Year Extension

The Deal: The House Financial Services Committee is considering HR 7128, which would extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) through 2034.

A quick refresher: It's late 2001. Insurers just wrote $40B in checks for 9/11 claims. Their collective response, "Yeah, never again."

So Congress created TRIA in 2002. Insurers offer terrorism coverage, and if something catastrophic happens (we're talking $200M+ in industry losses), Uncle Sam steps in to cover 80% of the damage.

It was supposed to be temporary. That was 22 years ago.

TRIA doesn't expire for another two years: But the insurance industry has PTSD from 2014, when Congress let it lapse for 12 whole days. Cue absolute pandemonium: nobody knew if existing policies were valid, carriers freaked out, and the market basically shut down.

For Insurance Pros: This is the most important boring news of the year. TRIA is the invisible infrastructure that makes billions in commercial deals possible. Congress is finally learning that waiting until the last minute to reauthorize critical programs is a terrible idea.

💣 Greenland Warns Residents To Prepare for Invasion

The setup: Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen announced a task force and recommended households keep 5 days of food on hand, calling military conflict "not impossible.” The trigger? President Trump's ongoing "we need Greenland for national security" comments and Denmark's troop deployments to the Arctic under Operation Arctic Endurance.

Meanwhile, in Canada: Reports from The Economist suggest our neighbors to the north are quietly modeling their own Taliban-style insurgency plan if the U.S. decides manifest destiny 2.0 includes Tim Hortons territory.

Why insurers care: This is less about tanks rolling and more about what happens when "remote risk" becomes "actively monitoring." Think business interruption exposures, supply chain disruption, marine routing changes triggering war-risk surcharges, and reinsurers suddenly very interested in polar geopolitics.

💀 WTW Report Suggests Pay Raises Are Flatlining

Looks like companies are playing it safe with raises in 2026, keeping salary increase budgets at a modest 3.9%, the same as last year.

According to WTW's latest survey of 1,500+ companies: the era of pandemic-fueled salary explosions is officially over. That 3.9% average increase might sound decent until you realize it's barely keeping pace with inflation.

The culprit: A perfect storm of cooling labor markets, ongoing economic jitters, and companies desperately trying to protect their margins. Organizations are shifting focus from blanket raises to more targeted retention strategies. Think spot bonuses, career development, and workplace flexibility instead of across-the-board salary bumps.

For benefit brokers: Your clients' HR teams are getting creative with total comp, and that's your opening. When salary budgets are frozen, benefits become the differentiator in talent wars. Expect more conversations about voluntary benefits, lifestyle perks, student loan assistance, and flexible work arrangements.

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

🍋 50%

The discount Lemonade is slashing from Tesla's Full Self-Driving insurance rates, marking the first time an insurer has differentiated pricing between human and autonomous driving in real-time.

The play: Lemonade plugs directly into Tesla's onboard computer to track when FSD is actually driving versus when humans are behind the wheel. They're using Tesla's sensor data to price risk with "higher precision than ever before."

The bigger picture: Traditional insurers treat a Tesla like a Honda Civic and AI like any other distracted human scrolling Instagram. But Tesla argues FSD vehicles get in "far fewer accidents," and Lemonade is betting billions that autonomous miles are fundamentally safer than human ones.

PRODUCER OF THE WEEK

Michael Campbell

In this episode, Trey talks with Top Producer, Michael Campbell. Michael explains how he built a 7-figure book specializing in churches and non-profits, and how he’d do it again if he had to start over from zero.

TOOLS OF THE WEEK

📈 Insurance Xdate: free trial here

📬 Max Revenue Letter: sign up here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

📒 Producer Playbook: learn more here

⁠⁠⁠⁠🕹️ Play Producer Games: check it out here

POLL OF THE WEEK

OPINION

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That’s this week in insurance.

Forward it to your office buddy who’s trying to fit in 18 today before the White Walkers arrive.

See you next week.