Customer Story · Wholesale Brokerage
TRIOS put 50% more accounts on every broker's desk
Heffernan Group's wholesale arm went live on Anzen Pro in four weeks, cut full-market turnaround from 12 days to two, and removed half of its manual BPO work.
Background
Wholesale means serving two clients at once
TRIOS is the U.S. intermediary and wholesale company inside Heffernan Group. Ryan Apgar runs it as President while also serving as Chief Strategy Officer for specialty lines across Heffernan.
Wholesale is a two-sided job. On one side sit retail brokers who need a hard-to-place risk marketed fast. On the other sit underwriters who want clean submissions and a partner who makes their day easier. Every account TRIOS touches has to satisfy both.
“As a wholesale broker, absolutely underwriters are a client base. We need to support them and keep them happy. Supporting underwriters while upholding high caliber service standards for our partner retail brokers is where the intermediary real skill lies.”
Ryan Apgar, President, TRIOS
The Challenge
A pyramid stacked on point solutions
Before Anzen, growth at TRIOS ran on headcount. More accounts meant more account managers, more coordinators, and a third-party BPO keying data into the AMS by hand.
Ryan describes the traditional wholesale model as a pyramid. The people at the base absorb whatever work the tools leave behind.
The vendor market made it worse. Most insurtech arrives as a point solution: one tool for intake, another for comparison, a third for proposals. Someone at the brokerage has to stitch those together into a workflow.
“That approach puts all the pressure back on the insurance professionals, the brokers and the account managers, to piece together what are arguably spread across multiple vendors, multiple point solutions to try to make their overall end to end workflow better. It's cumbersome.”
Ryan Apgar, President, TRIOS
The cost showed up in the calendar. A new business submission that required a full market engagement took an average of 12 days to come back as a proposal the retail client could act on.
The Solution
One system built for the whole transaction
TRIOS brought in Anzen Pro as the platform underneath the desk. Intake, carrier marketing, quote comparison, and proposal generation run inside a single system that already understands a policy transaction from end to end.
Ryan calls it a chassis. The frame arrives intact. Brokers work inside it from day one, and any specialized tools TRIOS adds later bolt onto something solid.
“You drop into a beautiful chassis, an end-to-end solution that's already intact, already providing the key point solutions as is. And it just empowers you and accelerates your ability to go to the next step.”
He sees the sequencing as the difference. Anzen led with the full workflow. Much of the market is still trying to assemble one out of parts.
“Anzen is taking the proper one-two step where the rest of the marketplace is not.”
Ryan Apgar, President, TRIOS
The Results
50% more accounts per desk
TRIOS measures capacity by accounts. Each broker carries a monthly book, and that book is the number that matters.
After deploying Anzen, the average broker at TRIOS handles 50% more accounts per month than the same role could manage under the old model.
“We've seen a 50% increase of what a broker's desk looks like and how many accounts are assigned to them to handle on a monthly basis. On average it's 50%, which is remarkable.”
Ryan Apgar, President, TRIOS
From 12 days to two
Full-market turnaround on a new business submission dropped from an average of 12 days to two.
“The typical turnaround time to get full market response back from that prior submission engagement to proposal stage to the retail client came around an average of 12 days. With the deployment and utilization of Anzen, we have that down to two days.”
Ryan Apgar, President, TRIOS
Half the BPO work, gone
Before Anzen, a third-party BPO handled manual data entry into the AMS. With extraction and AMS sync running inside Anzen Pro, TRIOS removed half of that workload.
Brokers used it from day one
Adoption held from launch. At steady state, 87% of submissions arrive through Anzen's AI channels, most of them straight from the broker's inbox, and 89% of brokers use the marketing email functionality on their submissions.
Better trading with underwriters
Faster, cleaner submissions changed the relationship with carriers. Underwriters get what they need in the shape they need it, and TRIOS becomes the wholesaler they want to trade with.
“The utilization of the Anzen platform is remarkable at how more efficient and effective we can be in engaging with our underwriting trading partners, and ultimately it makes their lives easier.”
Ryan Apgar, President, TRIOS
A different hiring strategy
Capacity gains changed the org chart. With Anzen handling the volume work, TRIOS now hires tenured subject matter experts who can serve clients the day they start.
“We're able to hire more strategically. It's not just a numbers game. Externally, we have a more immediate and impactful service and offering to our clients that they can realize in real time as these true experts onboard.”
Ryan Apgar, President, TRIOS
“The utilization of Anzen is creating levels of success we have not seen in both directions, from underwriting to retail.”
See what a 50% larger desk looks like
Anzen runs the work inside commercial policy transactions for wholesale brokerages, retailers, and MGAs. Book a walkthrough and bring a live submission.