Insurance Business Review: Specials Magazine

Long-term care planning is rarely a comfortable conversation. It’s the kind that lingers at the edges of financial planning meetings, acknowledged and then quietly postponed. Collaborative Insurance Solutions (CIS) invites those conversations with empathy, clarity, and respect for the deeply personal choices that come with them. CIS doesn’t fit the traditional mold of an insurance agency. There are no hard sells and no one-size-fits-all playbooks. Instead, it exists to serve as a partner for financial advisors, estate-planning attorneys, and other professionals who want to help their clients think more deeply about how care, aging, and security intersect. “We built CIS with one goal in mind, and that was to collaborate,” says Austin Hultquist, CLTC® and RICP®, Senior Insurance Strategist at CIS. “We work alongside financial advisors and attorneys to bring long-term care planning into their client conversations in a meaningful way. We’re not product-driven; we’re education-driven. Our focus is to understand what’s truly important to people and then find the right solution to match.” That idea of education over sales and collaboration over competition sits at the center of everything CIS does. The Agency That Refused to Reduce the Human Element When CIS President Eryka Morehead founded the agency a decade ago, she saw a gap that few others wanted to fill. Advisors and attorneys were comfortable with investments, retirement strategies, and tax planning, but when it came to long-term care, the conversations often stopped short. “I realized that many professionals in our industry avoided long-term care discussions because they were afraid of not having all the answers,” Morehead recalls. “And I don’t blame them. It’s not just about numbers; it’s about fears, about aging, about vulnerability. But those are exactly the conversations that matter most.” Instead of shying away, CIS leaned in. The agency made it its mission to educate both advisors and their clients, to demystify long-term care, explain its role in financial planning, and address the emotions that come with it. From the start, Morehead designed CIS to operate differently: a specialized agency focused solely on the core protection side of financial planning, including life insurance, disability coverage, and long-term care. “You can’t be an expert in everything,” she says. “We decided to be experts in the things that most people find hardest to talk about.”

In today’s world of accelerating complexity, risk is evolving faster than ever, and businesses need more than capacity. They need clarity, partnership, and confidence in an insurer that stands the test of time. That’s where MSIG USA is redefining what it means to be a specialty insurance partner, combing its A+, Class XV financial strength, global reach, and local expertise to deliver protection with precision. For decades, MSIG USA has served as a trusted insurer to leading Japanese corporations operating in the United States, including Toyota, Sony and Fujifilm. Today, backed by a 350-year global legacy and a $50–55 billion premium base, the company is expanding its capabilities to meet the growing and more complex demands of the U.S. specialty market. MSIG USA is bringing disciplined underwriting, advanced analytics, and a long-term view to lines of business that require sound judgement and innovation including cyber, financial lines, political risk and trade credit, excess casualty, and property. Built to Endure, Designed to Evolve As part of the Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group (MSIG), one of the world’s top 10 insurers, MSIG USA draws strength from an international network spanning 40+ countries and regions, and a history defined by resilience and reliability. That heritage of endurance is what enables the company to think differently about the future. “Our heritage is built on longevity. Once we come to a market, we stay, and we’ll be here,” says Peter McKenna, CEO. “That long-term view is part of what makes us different.” That mindset, stability with adaptability, defines how MSIG USA approaches underwriting, service and growth. It’s not about growing the fastest, it’s about being the most trusted partner in a volatile world..