Executive risk is changing fast – and Bill Holden (pictured) says brokers need to change with it. As senior vice president of executive perils at The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers, he sees firsthand how corporate leaders are navigating a storm of legal, financial, and technological threats – and how traditional liability coverage is failing to keep up.
“There are a lot of headwinds that boards and management are having to face,” he said. “These are both internal and external influences.”
Internally, that means succession, debt service, and product strategy. Externally, it means volatility in the stock market, interest rates, global politics, and regulation. But for Holden, the most urgent risks are also the least understood: cybersecurity and AI.
Holden argues that executive risk programs must go beyond check-the-box policies – they need to be designed like layered defense systems.
“We have to work hard with our clients to become a partner and a trusted advisor,” he said. “Strive to understand the client before you try and be understood.”
That philosophy leaves little room for transactional selling or annual carrier-hopping. “You want to develop a long-term marriage, not creating a relationship that hops from one carrier to the next to a third every year,” he said.
He believes brokers must dismantle the siloed approach to coverage – especially across executive, property, and general liability lines. “If you understand what each coverage does, and what it covers and what it excludes, you can then tailor a program… like a jigsaw puzzle, the pieces fit together to create a more comprehensive risk management solution.”
Holden warns that policy language is often vague by design – and that brokers must do more to negotiate clarity. “The best time to settle a claim is before the claim occurs,” he said.
From exclusions for state-sponsored cyberattacks to overly broad bankruptcy carve-outs, too many policies leave clients exposed. “We have to be willing and able to negotiate those on behalf of our clients to get the best and clearest wording,” he said.
That requires fluency not only in coverage but in risk presentation – translating exposures in terms underwriters respect.
Holden, a longtime advocate of strong corporate governance, said that cultural and procedural discipline is now essential to obtaining coverage. “It doesn’t keep you out of court, but it does give you a good, strong paper defense,” he said.
Superficial programs won’t satisfy underwriters. “You can have the practices and procedures in place, but if you’re not implementing and actively monitoring them… it’s going to come out.”
He also pointed out how governance expectations shift with political climate. “Five years ago, DEI was such an important thing. Now it seems to be just the opposite,” he said. “They were punished by the investors and punished by the courts.”
Holden isn’t arguing for performative compliance – he’s advocating for disciplined pragmatism. “Companies need… to have the ability to do things that they feel are in their best interest,” he said. “If you think about the pendulum, it is swinging entirely the opposite direction under America’s current administration.”
Holden’s bottom line is simple: coverage must follow the exposure, not the other way around. “I never want to sell a client a policy that they don’t need. It might be great for my company and our profit, but it doesn’t help the client,” he said.
He sees the broker role as hybrid: advisor, translator, and negotiator. “Put my clients, the risk managers and the senior executives, in front of the underwriters,” he said. “We’re giving the opportunity to the client to do a little interviewing of the various carriers so that we can again develop long-term marriages as opposed to divorces.”
For Holden, the job isn’t about selling insurance – it’s about helping clients make risk-visible, build trust with carriers, and secure coverage that stands up under pressure. “The stakes are too high to settle for anything less.”
