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Summary
Mutual insurers face intensifying pressure from catastrophe volatility, rapid technology shifts, changing customer expectations, and a more discerning reinsurance market — all while competing against carriers with different ownership structures and access to capital.
In this webinar, we’ll explore how mutuals can translate their member-first model into durable competitive advantage through disciplined underwriting, smart modernization, and clear differentiation in the marketplace. We’ll also discuss evaluating strategic options over time, including remaining mutual, mutual holding company (MHC) conversion, or demutualization.
Join our panel of experts to explore:
- Mutual performance compared to other ownership structures
- Opportunities for mutuals to differentiate
- Capital and growth options for mutuals
- Evaluating MHC conversion or demutualization
Speakers
Griffin Financial Group
Jeffrey P. Waldron
Co-Head, Insurance
Jeff Waldron is Co-Head of Griffin’s Insurance Group. With over 40 years in the financial services industry, Jeff provides investment banking services to all aspects of the insurance industry, including admitted mutual and stock carriers, surplus lines companies, reciprocals, risk retention groups and captives. He also provides investment banking services to MGAs, MGUs, wholesale and retail producers and TPAs. He has particular expertise providing financial advice to mutual companies.
Jeff’s primary focus is providing mutual and stock companies with financial advisory services relating to mergers and acquisitions and capital formation, and helping companies analyze their strategic alternatives, including the preparation of comprehensive strategic alternative studies for consideration and use by management and boards of directors.
Jeff has drafted five different demutualization laws in four different jurisdictions, and he remains an active participant in this market. He consults with carriers, state legislatures and departments regarding reforming the laws of their jurisdictions.
Jeff has been a leader in devising demutualization structures, including distribution rights conversions in which policyholders receive the surplus of the converting company and subscription rights conversions in which policyholders receive the first right to purchase stock in the converting company. Other structures include subscription rights conversions in which all policyholders can purchase stock or redeem their subscription rights, sponsored demutualizations, demutualizations with a standby investor and control conversions.
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Tim Zawacki
Head of Financial Institutions Research
Tim Zawacki is Head of Financial Institutions Research and Lead North American Insurance Analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, where he oversees a team of analysts producing data-driven research across the banking, fintech, and property and casualty, life, and health insurance sectors.
A widely recognized voice in the insurance industry, Tim brings nearly three decades of continuous coverage to bear on the structural forces reshaping insurance markets — from balance-sheet transformation and the accelerating influence of private capital, to the evolving intersection of sustainability and risk transfer, and the wave of consolidation redefining competitive dynamics across every segment of the industry.
A sought-after thought leader, Tim is a frequent speaker at major insurance industry events, where he is known for translating complex regulatory, financial, and strategic developments into clear, actionable perspective. His analysis and commentary are regularly cited in prominent business publications and news outlets, and he is regularly called upon by journalists, executives, and policymakers seeking authoritative views on the forces driving industry change.
Tim previously served as Principal Research Analyst and Insurance Sector Strategist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, roles in which he developed the firm's flagship insurance research franchise and established its reputation for rigorous, data-intensive analysis rooted in NAIC statutory filings. In these capacities he built out coverage across all major insurance lines, originating research on underwriting performance, investment portfolio construction, regulatory developments, and emerging structural trends that has informed the strategies of insurers, investors, and advisors across the market.
Prior to the 2015 acquisition of SNL Financial by S&P Global, Tim spent more than a decade at SNL building deep expertise at the intersection of insurance, financial services, and capital markets, helping to establish the firm’s statutory financial coverage and chronicling the rise, fall and rebirth of the securitization market through the global financial crisis.
He is a 1999 graduate of the University of Virginia.
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Chris Winter
Associate Director, Insurance
Chris Winter is the North America Insurance solutions lead for S&P Global Market Intelligence. In this role, Chris helps insurance clients utilize the full suite of solutions offered by S&P, such as financial data, credit risk solutions, data feeds, and more, while specializing in the NAIC Statutory and Rate Filings products. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and English from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the College of William & Mary.
Questions?
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