On November 18th, Ryan Turner Specialty Chairman and CEO Tim Turner was named Insurance Insider’s Distribution Leader of the Year, honoring him as 2020’s most influential and outstanding individual in insurance distribution. This award coincides with the ten-year anniversary of RT Specialty, the wholesale brokerage Tim founded with Patrick G. Ryan in 2010, and it is a crowning achievement after the organization’s decade of excellence in the field of specialty insurance.
This year has been significant for RT Specialty in more ways than one. On September 1st, RT Specialty joined forces with All Risks (the then 4th largest wholesale broker in the industry) when All Risks was merged into Ryan Specialty Group, setting up RT Specialty to become the largest property and casualty wholesale brokerage in the world. This growth is taking place during the first hard insurance market in decades, which has made the need for specialty insurance brokers more critical than ever. As the costs of global warming, civil unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic come into focus, Tim Turner has led RT Specialty with a steady hand, helping the RT team to provide their clients with insurance solutions when they are needed most.
Over the course of an impressive 30+ years in insurance, Tim Turner has made an undeniable impact on the excess and specialty lines industry. However, despite being recognized for his insurance accomplishments, his career began in a very different field. Initially, Tim served in law enforcement, graduating from the Detroit Police Academy and taking on such roles as Wayne Country SWAT team leader and Michigan State Police undercover narcotics officer. These experiences left him with unparalleled leadership abilities and the courage to act quickly and decisively—invaluable traits for the chairman and CEO of one of the world’s largest specialty insurance brokerages.
When he left his law enforcement career behind, Tim began working as a casualty broker for A.J. Renner & Associates in 1987. He moved to the Crump Group in 1990 and quickly distinguished himself, eventually being named the president of their Chicago office. From there, Tim’s career continued its remarkable trajectory, leading him to becoming the president of the wholesale and specialty insurance organization CRC Insurance Services.
In 2010, Tim made another bold move—at the request of the Aon founder and insurance industry icon Pat Ryan, Tim joined Pat in a brand-new venture. Together, they would be building a specialty insurance organization from the ground up, and with it, a wholesale brokerage operation. Ryan Specialty Group and Ryan Turner Specialty were born.
Under Tim Turner’s leadership, RT Specialty has experienced unprecedented growth, both organically and through a series of savvy acquisitions. Through it all, Tim has led RT from the front, modeling the drive and integrity it takes to stand out as a broker in the specialty insurance industry. RT Specialty has maintained a relatively flat structure, and Tim works directly with his brokers, often personally stepping in to create solutions and ensure that RT regularly out-executes its competition.
Tim’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. This year, based on a survey of RT’s retail insurance agent and broker partners, Insurance Business America named RT Specialty a Wholesale Broker All Star, achieving a five-star rating in all categories on which it was evaluated. Ryan Specialty Group, RT’s parent organization, was named both a 2020 Top Insurance Workplace by Insurance Business America and one of the Best Places to Work in Insurance 2020 by Business Insurance. Now, Insurance Insider adds to this increasingly crowded trophy shelf, recognizing the man responsible for so much of this success. Thanks to his tremendous skills as a broker, innovator and CEO, Tim Turner has earned the title of Distribution Leader of the Year.
