Willie Sutton famously said he robbed banks “because that's where the money is.” Similarly, banks can make attractive accounts for agents and brokers, because that's where the premium is. But unlike Willie, producers have to earn what they get out of banks. The insurance requirements of financial institutions are complex, and it takes a specialist to cover them. Insurance expertise, however, is only part of what one needs to bring to the table. Banks also count on agents and brokers to provide a variety of services, including those that can help keep today's Willie Suttons at bay. In this article, I'll explain how we take such a comprehensive approach to working with financial institutions and protecting their assets.

My career in the financial-services industry began in 1983 at American Research Bureau, a collections and data-gathering organization serving the banking industry. In 1989, I became an underwriter of financial-institution insurance at Progressive Insurance Co. In time, I became a senior underwriter for a four-state region.

In 2000, I joined The Burnham Insurance Group as product manager over the Financial Institutions Insurance Practice, which had about 35 banks as clients, all but one in Michigan. My job was to grow that book. Almost immediately after I joined Burnham, it was acquired by Hub International, one of the nation's largest retail brokers. It also was interested in the financial-institution niche. Today, we insure 123 banks, which are located all over the country.