Though Michelle Carter, chief underwriting officer, has been with workers' comp-focused organization Kinetic for just over a year, she has already contributed to the company's underwriting profitability, broker engagement and enterprise-wide performance.
Kinetic's history is a story of evolution: once focused on providing wearable safety technology to prevent workplace injuries, in 2022 the organization expanded its
In recent years, Kinetic was so heavily invested in growing the insurance side of its business that its accident year loss ratio deteriorated. While market share certainly mattered to the company (and still does), such expansions could not be had at the expense of its loss ratio.
As she came on board, Carter knew that growth and profitability could go hand in hand – with a narrower focus on Kinetic's portfolio. "I had to illustrate that you can walk and chew gum at the same time," she says. Its underwriters were instructed to refine their assessments and make some key changes to its risk selection.
"I knew that we couldn't be all things to all people," Carter recalls. "Let's better define our lane, see how deep and wide we can go." That shift, she notes, not only deepened broker engagement but also increased accountability and ownership of results.
"We had to alter our definition of what a 'great' risk looks like," says Carter. "We took a portion of our renewal book and said, 'Thank you, but no thank you.' Those clients were either not profitable, not utilizing our services, or they didn't fit our revised strategy." Use of the company's technology services for on-the-job risk prevention and active claims management made certain clients considerably more desirable than others.
Two additional underwriters were brought on to focus on renewals, further ensuring alignment with the revised guidelines, executing non-renewals where needed, and mindfully driving rate increases where appropriate. Previously, its underwriters were operating out of the queue of applicants; today, they're responsible for cultivating strategic relationships with brokers – "building relationships that matter," she says.
Carter collaborated with leaders from product, engineering, strategy, operations, and claims to develop a comprehensive plan that addressed every stage of the policy and claims lifecycle, establishing clear KPIs to track progress within each function. To build accountability and momentum, a practice of sharing loss ratio improvement metrics at the company's monthly "all hands" meetings was instituted, engendering transparency, alignment and buy-in from every corner of the company.
In what continues to be a soft workers' comp market, Carter was intent to buck industry trends and seek rate increases among its clients. Collaborating closely with her underwriters to define clear parameters for rate need across its book, her team used data to surgically target accounts where increases would have the greatest impact without jeopardizing retention.
"We started focusing on gaining rate strategically, where we're able to provide value," says Carter. The result: the organization is achieving a positive net rate on the comp line year-to-date, with an average increase of 7% – and is on track for more than a 35% increase in GWP YoY. Carter says much of that success came out of direct, constructive conversations with Kinetic's broker partners. "A lot of it comes down to people answering the phone," she says. "It's amazing what you can achieve when you do that, as opposed to using e-mail as your main way of communicating."
Additionally, Carter is deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of women and insurance professionals. Before joining Kinetic, she served as a two-year sponsor for a top talent "business school" program, an intensive six-month experience for each cohort that culminated in presenting a fully developed business plan to the board. "My favorite thing is to see the next generation of leadership come up," she says.
Her other biggest passion is supporting San Antonio Threads, a Texas-based organization that provides new clothes and necessities for at-risk teens. After witnessing the group's work through her daughter's volunteerism, Carter soon began supporting them as well.
Meanwhile, Kinetic's CUO knows she and her colleagues still have more work to do. "We're not waving a checkered flag yet, but we're on the right path," she says.
Carter adds, "I've been fortunate to have the opportunity to rise to the occasion when I've raised my hand," and that the Women in Insurance Leadership honor "says to me, this was the right move for me professionally, and what you're doing matters."
