VP - Personal Lines

Company Overview

Recognized as a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Top Workplace for 14 consecutive years, including three years of being honored as number one! Join us at West Bend, where we believe that our associates are our greatest asset. We hire talented individuals who are conscientious, dedicated, customer focused, and able to build lasting relationships. We create and maintain an environment where you feel a sense of belonging and appreciation.

Your diversity of thought, experience, and knowledge are valued. We’re committed to fostering a welcoming culture, offering you opportunities for meaningful work and professional growth. More than a workplace, we celebrate our successes and take pride in serving our communities.

This is not a remote position. Candidates who are located within 50 miles of a West Bend office location will work a hybrid schedule (at least 3 days/week) for collaboration days, team meetings or other in-person events. The position can be based in West Bend, Madison or Appleton.

Summary of Responsibilities

The Vice President (VP) – Personal Lines provides strategic and operational leadership for the Personal Lines (PL) division, with full accountability for growth, profitability, and overall portfolio performance. This role sets the strategic direction and delivers profitable growth across auto, homeowners, umbrella, and other personal lines through disciplined underwriting, market-responsive products and pricing, strong distribution partnerships, and operational excellence. Leads a cross-functional team spanning underwriting, product, pricing/actuarial partnerships, filing/compliance, operations, and analytics to achieve profitability, retention, new business and growth goals while advancing customer experience and digital capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and P&L

• Define and execute a multi‑year PL strategy that balances growth, profitability, and volatility management; own the PL operating plan, including premium, loss ratio, expense ratio, and combined ratio targets.
• Monitor external trends (e.g., inflation, frequency/severity shifts, weather/CAT, litigation) and convert insights into timely strategy and rate/file actions.

Underwriting Governance

• Establish risk selection, appetite guides, authority levels, audit cadence, and referral frameworks; strengthen line‑of‑business portfolio management and accumulation controls.
• Maintain disciplined catastrophe management, including reinsurance considerations in partnership with the Reinsurance Committee.

Product, Pricing & Filing

• Lead product roadmaps, coverage forms, pricing segmentation, customer segmentation, and rate/relativity strategies; partner closely with Actuarial for indications and with Compliance on state filings; understand and integrate consumer economic factors around longevity and elasticity (lifetime value) into product strategy.
• Advance integrated risk management solutions, capital management sophistication, and data partnerships to improve segmentation and customer value propositions.
• Drive continuous improvement in underwriting sophistication, pricing segmentation, data and analytics capabilities, and product innovation.

• Collaborate with cross-functional leaders on technology initiatives, operational enhancements, and service improvements impacting the Personal Lines division.

Distribution & Market Management

• Deepen relationships with key independent agents; set compensation, incentives, and ease‑of‑doing‑business standards; drive geographic expansion and appointment strategy.
• Advance agency segmentation combined with consumer segmentation to meet expected outcomes.
• Represent Personal Lines in agency councils, joint‑selling opportunities, and key escalations, ensuring market advocacy and alignment with strategic distribution objectives.

Operations & Customer Experience

• Optimize new business, renewal, and endorsement workflows; reduce cycle times and rework; champion straight‑through processing and enhance customer service capabilities through expansion of digital, self‑service, and AI-enabled tools.
• Partner with Claims to align coverage intent and underwriting…