HUB International Insurance Texas is an insurance brokerage clearinghouse that works with a wide range of customers – from international and multi-state business operations, to large restaurant chains, to hospital systems, to aviation firms, and high-net-worth individuals. Below, Texas President and CEO W. Martin Yung describes how HUB works with customers to reduce risks in business operations and costs by advocating for their clients.
Q: What kept HUB International busy when COVID-19 hit the economy?
A: One of the biggest things we did was provide current, real time information and resources on COVID-19 for our clients and prospects. We have also spent hours helping our clients shrink their business with insurance companies – but that doesn’t mean reduced coverage. Insurance is computed through revenue, payroll, the number of power units… those various factors are going to the (insurance) rate. As companies began to struggle, we had to work with them, go back to their insurance company, and scale coverage down to match the size of the company. This was a huge help with current cash flow because many had greatly reduced cash flow due to closure.
Q: Where do you start with such a large enterprise?
A: Our people are always in contact with their client base, so we started with our top 200 accounts. In the commercial realm, even in the high-net-worth realm of personal insurance, communication is constant because there’s a lot of transactional activity occurring. Clients are building a new plant and trying to expand, or they’re shrinking, or opening up a new business. We have this ongoing dialogue, a relational dialogue, with our client base. The first thing we did was check on their welfare, and ask how we could help them.
Some of our clients aren’t shrinking at all, it just depends on the business. Right now, trucks are moving like crazy, and they can hardly keep them full of diesel. Both our transportation clients and our warehousing clients can’t get enough folks. The flip side of that story is that our restaurant clients had to furlough or lay their people off because they were unable to open.
Q: HUB International’s public-facing online Crisis Resource Center is packed with guidance on everything from reopening and returning to work during COVID-19, to operating at times of civil unrest, hurricane preparedness and mitigation, to cyberattacks. What’s the reasoning behind that?
A: Our work in helping clients review their policies is just as important as our expertise helping clients face challenges to businesses. Our safety and loss prevention people help our clients in any way they can. If we do our job right, we’re really almost like a business consultant. Regarding COVID-19, the bulk of information comes from the WHO and the CDC, and we also work with a team of physicians. It’s a synthesis of that information. We have engineers who work for us that have certifications and specialty areas, so they’re creating content. We have a specialist in cyber liability; we have a specialist in fleet transportation. You could almost name it, and we have a specialist in the industry. These specialists have the necessary backgrounds, the certifications, to ensure our clients receive the individualized care they deserve.