Jeff Arnold

RIGHTSURE - Insurance

Profile

We are excited to present an insightful interview with Jeff Arnold, the innovative CEO of Rightsure, a company renowned for revolutionizing the insurance industry by seamlessly blending technology and personalized service. Jeff’s unique journey in the insurance sector, which began in his youth in Kentucky, has significantly influenced his empathetic and financially astute leadership style. In this conversation, Jeff shares how these experiences have shaped his approach to leading Rightsure, a company that stands out for its tech-forward yet human-centered service model.

Jeff, you’ve had a unique journey into the insurance industry, starting from a young age in Kentucky. How has this journey influenced your approach to leading Rightsure?

I think that every executive’s upbringing somehow affects either their leadership style or impacts the decision-making process in some way or another. Being that my childhood was steeped in ministry ( everyone from my fathers, grandfather, great-grandfather, and several uncles were ministers ), I am convinced that those experiences created the empathy in me that appears every time a decision needs to be made surrounding staff, customers, vendors, etc. Additionally, I would add that my “late-in-life” master’s degree focusing on finance has enhanced my skill set around pro formas and financial prowess, which was lacking early in my career.

Rightsure is known for blending technology with insurance. Can you share how this approach has evolved over the years and how it sets Rightsure apart in the industry?

Our Approach to technology has definitely shifted over the years. In years past, we were always eager to adopt the new, shiny, flashy, sparkly, software as a service offering OR embed some new code that was supposed to get us inclusion into a mystery insure-tech consortium. That mindset has been greatly amended to focus on being tech-forward and tech-enabled but not tech-shackled ( as discussed in my book tech.jeffarnold.com ). This pivotal thought process has led us to infuse all of our processes with a blend of our Famously Friendly Humans alongside our tech stack, but neither fully dominates the process as it evolves around each customer depending upon their current journey status with RIGHTSURE.

In a time when digital communication is the norm, Rightsure upholds a strong emphasis on genuine, personal interactions encapsulated in your motto, “Talk To A Famously Friendly Human.” Can you share your thoughts on the significance of maintaining this human element in the insurance sector?

You know, when I was first starting out, I used to repeat the mantra that “Our People are our greatest Asset “and while I still believe in people first. My experience has led me to the conclusion that “The RIGHT People in the RIGHT Position are our most important Asset “, thus we invest a lot of resources, time, testing, energy and dialogue about getting our people in the right seat on the bus ( as an analogy ) so that each member of our staff can live up to the Famously Friendly Humans trademark that RIGHTSURE has come to be known for.

Considering Rightsure’s diverse range of insurance offerings, as captured in your slogan “from pets to jets,” could you share some of the more unique or unusual items or scenarios that Rightsure has provided insurance for?

I love this question. I would like to respond in two ways, for why we chose that tagline and secondly, some exceptional scenarios we have come to be known for.

By The Way, the full tagline Is part of our onboarding video for clients: “From Pets to Jets, Home to Drones, and All Things In Between. At RIGHTSURE, we insure
e v e r y t h I n g “
With respect to some unusual scenarios – If we have enough time, I should like to discuss two:

A well-published author was moving from Scotland back to his childhood home in Arizona, North America. He had amassed an extension collection of books totaling more than $400,000 dollars. He needed them protected not only in transit, but up until they were safely tucked away in his new library. We worked with several underwriters to incept coverage at a premium point the author was happy to write about.

A prominent athlete had several homes and cars on each coast of the United States. Several of the cars had no insurance and one home policy was cancelled. RIGHTSURE secured his power of attorney, incepted coverage for all his homes, cars, toys, etc, and even worked with several state motor vehicle departments to correct suspensions, etc.

The two examples above have opened many doors for us in the world sports figures and high-profile individuals.

As a leader and founder of Rightsure, how have you seen your leadership style evolve, especially during challenging times like the COVID-19 pandemic?

The easy answer is YES. Everyone amended, adopted an alternative leadership style post-covid. How could you not? There were so many changes to our lives, our work, and our cadence of meetings that I and every executive I know became more empathetic and engaged in the soft emotional side of our business instead of just chasing better margins, greater efficiencies, etc.
Rightsure has been recognized with several awards for its culture and innovations. How does this recognition reflect the values and goals of the company?

The really fascinating part of all these awards has led many publications to refer to RIGHTSURE as North Americas Most Awarded Insurance Firm. We are hoping that this title sticks with us and I have often done an internet search around that accolade and am greatly impressed with the name RIGHTSURE pops up when searching for Most Awarded Insurance Firms.

It impacts our values by reminder every Famously Friendly Human here that they have chosen a company and a career that allows them to make a difference. That difference is validated by every single new award as the awards are due to our staff’s diligence, commitment and excitement about this glorious industry.

As someone who is continually working on new books and ideas, what are your thoughts on the future of InsurTech and how Rightsure plans to be a part of that future?

I sincerely hope that our industry is always evolving and embracing new tech. I do want other leaders to use tech for the right reason though. We can all point to a company or leader who has used tech ( for the sake of tech ) only to get mired in a tech-shackled environment. I want our industry to be known as tech-enabled and tech-forward, but I don’t think tech will completely replace agents or people, which in our case is our Famously Friendly Humans.
What advice would you offer to young professionals entering the insurance industry, especially in a tech-forward and customer-centric era?

If I were fortunate enough to sit face to face with a person new to our industry, I would say this: You have been called to a glorious and wonderful profession that can not only change your life, but allow you to make a profound impact on clients that you serve.

The Insurance Industry needs you:

If you like talking with people and are an extrovert – you will find a fiscally beneficial home in the distribution side of Insurance.
If you like all things legal or contract related – you will find a rewarding career in creating, underwriting, or assisting with “legal contracts known as insurance. “

If you are Analytical or introspective in nature, we have a great multitude of offerings in the fields of Analytics, Actuary and Pricing of our legal contracts – aka insurance.

If you are the type of empath who seeks to help people when they are at difficult points in life, there is a fantastic career for you in Insurance Claims and Adjudication.
Our industry may not have the cool vibe of say finance, banking or the tech world of silicon valley, but we are an industry of all things sexy, exciting and just plain awesome.

I welcome you to our industry and I cannot wait to see how your youthful enthusiasm enhances every part of our ecosystem.