Jason Killings: King of Florida Insurance Production (Part 1)
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If you've ever used the Florida insurance market as an excuse for why you can't grow, Jason Killings would like a word. Massive production in one of the most volatile, carrier-challenged, price-pressured insurance environments in the United States doesn't happen by accident. It happens because someone figured out how to operate effectively despite the conditions instead of waiting for better ones.
The Florida Reality Check
Florida is not an easy insurance market. The property exposure is extreme, hurricane risk, flooding, litigation environment, and a homeowners market that has seen carrier withdrawals and premium spikes that make other markets look stable by comparison. The agents who thrive here have earned it. The ones who wait for conditions to normalize are still waiting.
Jason's production story is built on a specific orientation: Florida's challenges are the market. Complaining about them is not a strategy. Adapting to them is. The agents who've figured out how to work effectively with the available carriers, navigate the surplus lines market when needed, educate clients on what's actually available versus what they wish was available, and maintain relationships despite pricing volatility, those are the ones with sustainable books.
His first observation about high production in Florida is that volume requires diversification. An agency built on a single carrier's homeowners product in a state where carriers exit markets without warning is one adverse filing season away from a retention crisis. The agencies with durable production are writing across multiple carriers, across multiple lines, and across multiple risk categories. That diversification is defensive when the market tightens and offensive when one channel produces particularly well.
How Massive Production Gets Built
Jason's production didn't materialize overnight, and he's direct about the timeline. The first two years were about learning the market deeply, which carriers would write which risks, which territories produced which problems, which client segments were worth acquiring versus which would create ongoing service headaches. That market intelligence is not something you can shortcut. You accumulate it by doing the work, paying attention to outcomes, and adjusting based on what the data shows.
The production build was also built on referral systems that took time to develop. A high-volume operation in Florida eventually generates a significant number of referrals from satisfied clients, but only after you've built a client base large enough to generate meaningful referral volume, and only if you've systematized the referral ask so it's consistent and comfortable.
Jason made the referral system explicit rather than hoping satisfied clients would spontaneously recommend him. Every service interaction with an existing client includes a moment where the question is asked naturally and without pressure. Over time, the compounding effect of that consistency is significant.
The Carrier Relationship Advantage
In a market as complicated as Florida, carrier relationships are not just nice to have, they're operational necessities. The ability to call an underwriter, explain a specific risk, and get a hearing rather than an automated decline is worth real money in a state where the standard market regularly says no.
Jason has invested in those carrier relationships deliberately. That means submitting clean, well-documented applications that make underwriters' jobs easier. It means understanding carrier appetite deeply enough not to waste submissions on risks the carrier won't write. And it means maintaining the kind of consistent communication with carrier reps that produces goodwill when you need flexibility.
The agent who treats carriers as adversaries, who never returns calls, submits messy applications, and only reaches out when there's a problem, does not get the same access. The agent who is known as a professional partner with legitimate production and a track record of quality submissions has a different relationship, and that relationship produces better outcomes for clients.
Building in a Market That Doesn't Cooperate
The defining characteristic of Jason's approach to the Florida market is refusal to use market conditions as a limiting explanation. When carriers pull out of a territory, the question is which alternative carriers are writing there. When a client gets non-renewed, the question is how to find them coverage rather than why it's difficult. When rates spike and clients push back, the question is how to help them understand their options rather than how to apologize for the market.
That problem-solving orientation, relentless and practical, is the core of what makes massive production possible in Florida specifically. Part 2 gets into the tactical specifics that back up that orientation.
Catch the full conversation:
This is Part 1 of a 2-part series with Jason Killings. Continue with Part 2.
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