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2015 40 Under 40 Broker Awards: Matt Wiener

Posted On: Oct. 11, 2015 12:00 AM CST

2015 40 Under 40 Broker Awards: Matt Wiener

Vice president-insurance adviser

USI Insurance Services L.L.C.

Age: 29

Matt Wiener was considering a career as a financial adviser after graduating from Boston University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 2008.

Then the recession hit. The crisis made him reconsider, as he questioned who would hand over their financial portfolios to a 22-year-old with no experience.

Instead, he turned to the insurance industry, working at New York-based GFI Insurance Services, where he learned the real estate business and how it relates to insurance services.

He joined USI Insurance Services L.L.C. last year in White Plains, New York, as vice president focusing on the real estate, construction and hospitality industries.

Mr. Wiener prides himself on building strong relationships with his clients. His interactions with them start months before renewals, visiting their places of businesses regularly because he prefers to do everything in person.

“Open dialogue and communication with clients is probably the most important thing,” Mr. Wiener said. “As long as you're straightforward and honest and deliver what's promised, I don't see any reason for losing clients.”

Ethan Bloom, principal of New York City-based SLG L.L.C., credited Mr. Wiener with uncovering a residential exclusion in the firm's previous insurance coverage that exposed it to a major loss and revamping the program to properly cover the risk.

“He has basically set the bar so high in terms of his problem solving and forecasting,” Mr. Bloom said.

When Brian Berman, vice president of New York-based SJB Interiors Inc., became partner in his father's construction business in 2010, he decided to end a 25-year brokerage relationship and sign with USI based largely on Mr. Wiener's extensive research and knowledge of the industry. Mr. Berman, who has known Mr. Wiener since they were kids, affectionately calls him “a hustler.”

“He doesn't wait for things to come to him,” he said. “He goes and gets them.”