I founded OuterBridge in 2018, in Atlanta, because I could not find the firm I would have hired for myself.
Across the carrier, risk analytics, advisory, and brokerage sides of our industry, I have worked inside good firms staffed by capable people doing real work. But the way these firms are built often puts distance between how they define success and the outcome the client is actually paying for. I wanted to close that distance by building a firm whose incentives, work product, and definition of success line up end to end with what the client hires us to deliver, and by bringing a level of clarity and rigor to risk decisions that I had not consistently found elsewhere in the middle-market commercial space.
Most firms in our industry measure success in revenue, headcount, and account retention. We measure ourselves on one thing: whether our clients’ cost of risk is lower, their margin higher, and their programs stronger at the end of each year than at the start. Every action plan we write is scored against that, and every stewardship report shows the result.
We are committed to a boutique operating model because we believe it is the only operating model that lets us serve our mission honestly. Larger firms have to answer to the pressures of their own stakeholders — shareholders, partners, and growth targets that compete with the client’s interests. A boutique can choose its clients, choose its scope, and put the same senior people on the work the client was sold.
We work with companies across a wide range of industries, and we have built specialized knowledge, sector-specific data, and dedicated engagement architecture for four:
• Wholesale Distribution
• Multifamily Housing
• CRE Leasing
• Golf Course and Club Operations
Each of these practices brings sector-specific loss patterns, regulatory context, and program design choices into the analytical method we apply across the firm.
We do not begin engagements with insurance products. We begin with a plan. The Risk AFA tells an owner what to fix first, who owns it, and what it is worth, built on risk data we compile and maintain for each industry we serve: loss history, what peers carry in limits and retentions, and what the market is pricing by line. One item is finished before the next renewal submission; the rest follow in sequence. Then we do the work with our clients and place coverage around the result. Every year after that: a stewardship report at six months and a renewal strategy meeting, tracking the same plan.
OuterBridge is headquartered in Atlanta, GA. Every client relationship runs on a written plan. You approve the Risk AFA, we confirm in writing who owns each item and how we are paid, and the work starts.
If you believe the way risk decisions are made inside your company could do more for the enterprise than it does today, we invite the conversation.
Principal
OuterBridge Risk Advisors, LLC
Travis is a graduate of the University of Georgia’s Risk Management and Insurance program and holds the Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designation. Before founding OuterBridge, he spent over fifteen years across the carrier (The Hanover Insurance Group), risk analytics (ISO), advisory, and brokerage sides of commercial property and casualty. He is currently president-elect of Southeastern Network Agencies.