Kelly has spent more than a decade transforming independent insurance agencies across the United States and Canada. Through Agency Performance Partners, she provides consulting, training, and leadership coaching focused on retention, efficiency, sales scripting, and culture change. She’s known as a straight-talking, empathetic advisor who helps agencies implement systems that actually work in today’s market. In this conversation, she shines a spotlight on one of the most overlooked issues in the industry: how shifting homeowner behavior has made insuring properties more difficult than ever.
The Homeowner Psychology Shift
Kelly points out that in past generations, homeowners took pride in maintaining their homes systematically. Roofs were replaced on schedule, windows updated every 20 years, and major systems serviced before failure. Today, however, priorities have shifted dramatically:
Many homeowners don’t know the age of their roof until a leak occurs.
Big-ticket replacements like HVAC systems are delayed in favor of cosmetic upgrades.
Social media has amplified the pressure to showcase stylish kitchens, bathrooms, and finishes — often at the expense of budgeting for essential maintenance.
This shift means homes are increasingly sold with outdated infrastructure. Buyers stretch to get into their dream neighborhoods or school districts, maxing out budgets while ignoring looming $20,000–$30,000 repair needs. For insurers, this creates a book of business filled with properties more likely to experience claims — turning what should be rare catastrophic events into routine maintenance problems.
From Catastrophe Coverage to Maintenance Replacement
Kelly explains that insurance carriers are now dealing with claims for things that were once handled by homeowners as part of normal upkeep. Instead of “we had a hailstorm and the roof was destroyed,” claims are being filed when a 20-year-old roof starts leaking. Instead of catastrophic HVAC failures caused by fire or weather, insurers are seeing breakdown claims for systems that simply aged out. This has shifted loss ratios, tightened underwriting guidelines, and contributed to today’s hard insurance market.
The Bigger Picture: Market Implications
When homeowners treat insurance as a substitute for maintenance, it creates ripple effects:
Underwriting gets stricter: Carriers require pristine property conditions before binding policies.
Eligibility shrinks: Homes with older roofs or dated systems often can’t qualify for coverage without expensive upgrades.
Premiums rise: Claims frequency goes up, so carriers adjust pricing to account for increased risk.
Customer frustration grows: Homeowners feel squeezed by both high premiums and costly repair demands, leading to tension with agencies and higher shopping rates.
Kelly draws parallels to the mortgage crisis of 2008, where looser standards created systemic risk. In insurance, loose underwriting paired with homeowner neglect has created a similar pressure cooker, forcing carriers to tighten dramatically in order to survive.
Why Agency Leadership Matters
For independent agencies, the homeowner psychology shift is both a challenge and an opportunity. Kelly urges agency leaders to take a proactive role in educating clients:
Teach homeowners the importance of preventative maintenance.
Explain how upgrades like a new roof or updated electrical system can reduce claim risk and keep coverage options open.
Position insurance properly — as protection against catastrophic, unpredictable events, not as a financial backstop for deferred maintenance.
This requires clarity, accountability, and leadership inside the agency as well. Staff need the right tools and scripts to have these sometimes difficult conversations with clients, especially when explaining why an older roof or neglected property may not qualify for coverage.
About Kelly Donahue-Piro and Agency Performance Partners (APP):
Agency Performance Partners provides consulting, training, and leadership coaching to independent insurance agencies across North America.
APP specializes in retention strategy, efficiency systems, sales processes, and staff development, with a mission to help agencies become “ridiculously amazing” at serving clients and growing profitably.