August 2016
Vol 4 | Issue 25

Q&A with Lynn Killeen

First Vice President & Family Office Practice Leader at HUB International Northeast

Principal Series:

Family Office Insights sits down with Lynn Killeen at HUB International to learn about how she services the family office community at large, what types of services they offer and things to look at for as a high-net-worth individual.


Family Office Insights is a voluntary, “opt-in” collaborative peer-to-peer community of single family offices, qualified investors and institutional investors. Join the community here www.familyofficeinsights.com


How did you get into the insurance industry working with family offices and ultra-high-net-worth individuals?

I started at a small firm in Grand Rapids, Michigan in their claims department where I learned that side of the business first. Eventually that lead me to personal lines business where we worked with a lot of wealthy clients there. So, at an early age I worked directly many families. Then, Marsh recruited me to their Chicago office and later to run their PCS office in St. Louis and then Washington, D.C. After15 years, Willis recruited me where I held a variety of positions, ending with national director of their Family Office Practice.

Why were you attracted to Hub? 

HUB is the largest privately held brokerage in the United States with exceptional resources to dedicate to families. At HUB they look for ways to say “yes” to whatever your request is, if it makes sense and will benefit our clients. I appreciate Hub's flexibility and ability to support clients.

How specifically does HUB work with single-family offices?

We work as a team to support our clients. I am on the team as a family office specialist. While one person serves as the main point of contact and relationship manager, the team includes specialists across many areas: Kidnap and Ransom, Farm or Aviation, Entertainment or Fine Art, whatever is needed. The relationship manager coordinates our internal resources to support the high-net-worth clients we work with.

Can you give an example of something you did for a family that helped them?

Personal insurance is typically a “need to have” item that individuals and families purchase when they purchase a new home, car or asset. Then the policies typically automatically renew every year with little attention. Many programs we see are outdated and have not been looked at in years. For example: a policy is purchased for each property and all properties are not looked collectively. Valuables ( jewelry, art, wine, etc.) are individually listed and not looked at like a class or covered under a blanket. We have structured some very creative programs reducing the number of policies, invoicing on the quarter by audit for very active accounts, mapping the client’s risk of catastrophic occurrence on a single incident and adjusting values and covering unique property classes by manuscripting coverage. There are many techniques we utilize that vary dependent upon the client and the family.

What are some of the challenges that families face on the insurance side of things that they might not be aware of?

Liability issues can be more complicated for families depending on ownership of assets, activities and exposures they are not aware exist. Families need proactive and regular communication with their risk advisor and require specialized attention.

Some red flag areas that come up are:

1) Domestic employees not only need workers compensation and disability in New York for example, but the family should have Employment Practices Liability (EPLI)coverage to protect them in the event the employee sues for wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination or hostile work environment.

2) We also discuss Errors and Omissions coverage for the family office in the event a mistake is made handling the affairs of the family. Not only can accounting errors be made, but if the family office is managing real estate holdings, what tasks are they performing? If they are managing the properties internally, real estate property management liability should be explored.

3) Directors and Officer Liability coverage is many times overlooked and many clients serve on many boards and as directors of for profit as well as not for profit organizations.

In terms of catastrophe management specifically, what are a few things families should look out for and what are some issues you are discussing most frequently with your clients right now? 

Cyber activity risk assessment and international exposures. We work with our families to conduct cyber risk assessment. We are the only broker that I am aware that has a Security Risk Management Services division. We have a team of 100 specialists with diverse backgrounds available to our clients to work on security risk management, crisis management, cyber and travel risk management

All of our clients travel internationally. We work with them and their family offices to provide support and safety when traveling. We can construct a custom plan and solutions to address a variety of threats and implement controls to reduce exposure to a variety of loss.

Most of our clients have the means to evacuate a country if in danger, but can they coordinate the logistics? There are three types of evacuation: medically necessitated, a natural disaster or a political risk. We also discuss global medical because your Blue Cross/Blue Shield U.S. program won’t work in China!

We have a 24/7 dedicated line for our families that go directly to our Security Risk Management team in the event something goes awry while they are overseas and they need immediate assistance. Our team will coordinate the best medical facility in their area, how to get them back to the U.S. if stranded, and in the unlikely event of a family member’s kidnapping or has gone missing, activate a team of professionals to find the individual and bring them home.


Lynn Killeen

Lynn Killeen currently serves as First Vice President and Family Office Practice Leader at HUB International Northeast, Personal Insurance Division. She is charged with furthering the development of HUB Northeast’s Family Office Practice, Lynn’s responsibilities include management, client relations, production and serving as regional resource for HUB’s Private Client team. Over the course of her 25 year career, Lynn has contributed to the development of new services and personal insurance solutions for affluent individuals and multi-generation wealthy families. Prior to joining HUB in 2014, Lynn served as the National Director and Practice Leader of the Willis Family Office Practice and the Southeast Region leader before that. Prior to Willis, Lynn spent 14 years at Marsh. She held a variety of senior leadership positions there and worked with many families throughout the United States and abroad. For more information, please contact Lynn at lynn.killeen@hubinternational.com.