Welcome to another edition of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast Recap—a rundown of key lessons from top operators, founders, and execs shaping the future of auto retail.
Today’s guests are Michael Naim, VP and GM of the East Division at Zurich North America, and Jeff Glanzmann, Dealer Principal at Glanzmann Subaru.
This conversation breaks down how to move from a reactive "set it and forget it" mentality to a data-driven operation that yields massive returns on premium.
Most dealers aren't actually managing their reinsurance program
Jeff Glanzmann ran a major Subaru store for years before gaining independent visibility into his own profit participation portfolio.
"Knowing what I know now, I can say that I really wasn't managing the reinsurance program. You know, I'd look at what most dealers do. You look at your loss ratio from time to time and kind of make sure that that wasn't creeping up too high. But in order to do that, it would either be a quarterly meeting with the rep or you'd have to email the rep to get a report." — Glanzmann
When the provider controls the cadence and the dealer waits, the information exists, but the dealer doesn't own it.
Focusing on fee structure is the wrong starting point
Michael Naim's biggest misconception among dealers shopping for a profit participation program is about what they're optimizing for.
"Think about this. If you were to have a procedure done, a spinal procedure done, spine's pretty important to the body—would you be researching which facility could get it done for the least amount of money or would you be researching which facility would get it done with the best results?" — Naim
Fee scrutiny crowds out results scrutiny, and he says that's where most programs quietly underperform from day one.
Return on premium is the number that actually matters
Even though most dealers track PVR, almost none can tell you how much they're keeping for every dollar of premium they put in.
"For every dollar you put in, regardless of what the fees and the structures and all that is, for every dollar you put in, how much did you keep? Not enough people are talking about how to calculate that number." — Naim
Jeff's return on premium is currently north of 70%, compared to a ~4% net-to-sale benchmark on the retail side.
Early claims data revealed a used car reconditioning problem
When Jeff got real-time visibility into his portfolio, the data pointed straight back to the used car department.
"The biggest surprise when I actually got the data was seeing how many claims were actually coming through within the first 120 days of the customer's ownership." — Glanzmann
That one insight triggered a review of the reconditioning process and raised replacement thresholds, with benefits that extended well beyond the reinsurance program.
Presented by:
1. Zurich.Insurance - Zurich delivers The Zurich Advantage to dealerships nationwide by combining comprehensive F&I products, consultative training, revenue‑generating programs, and wealth‑building profit participation strategies. Grounded in our mission to provide clarity, confidence, and certainty, we help dealers protect what matters, strengthen performance, and build a legacy for the road ahead. Learn more @ here.
You can't set it and forget it when costs keep rising
Passive reinsurance management made more sense when labor, parts, and used car costs were stable, but that environment no longer exists.
"With the set it and forget it, nobody really knows what that is in their profit participation program. For every dollar of premium you're putting in, what are you retaining and what are you keeping, because at the end that's all that matters." — Naim
A dealer who has adjusted labor rates multiple times but never touched their premium structure is quietly eroding their return without a single alert going off.
Dealer access to data strengthens the provider relationship, not weakens it
The old assumption in F&I (that the rep owns the numbers and the dealer depends on that) doesn't hold up when you look at what actually improves program performance.
"The more educated I believe our dealers are in 2026 and forward, they're going to know to make educated decisions. And I believe when making educated decisions, then we're going to be just fine as a company and as a provider. And that actually strengthens the bond of our relationship because it leads to deeper discussions, further discussions, and discussions more often." — Naim
Shared visibility shifts the conversation from status updates to active optimization, which is where performance actually moves.
Bringing your management team into reinsurance changes how the whole store runs
Most dealers keep the profit participation conversation at the principal level, leaving the managers who directly affect the portfolio completely in the dark.
"One of my regrets at the outset was not bringing my management team into full education on reinsurance and how it affects the overall portfolio of the dealership...by incorporating my team, they have a better understanding of how the overall portfolio of the dealership is affected by what they're doing, whether it be the recon process or the PVR or the premium that's being seated." — Glanzmann
To his point, when department managers understand how their decisions affect the portfolio, accountability becomes structural rather than something the dealer principal chases.
Access alone isn't enough, because active management is what separates top performers
A dashboard nobody acts on produces the same result as no dashboard at all.
"It doesn't stop at just what's my loss ratio and what's my premium going in. It's to take the time and look at the multiple cause of loss reports. It's to take the time and have access to the immediate claims reports and then to take the time and look at the claims retention and what we're retaining, what we're not retaining, and why." — Naim
The dealers consistently getting the best returns treat the portfolio like any other department, aka one with standing reviews, defined metrics, and a willingness to adjust.
Not knowing your benchmarks means you don't know what you're leaving behind
A program that looks acceptable on the surface can still be significantly underperforming relative to what's achievable.
"You might still be performing okay, but if you don't know the data and what the benchmarks are, you're not, you don't know what you're leaving on the table." — Glanzmann
With front-end gross compressing and every profit center under pressure, the reinsurance portfolio is too consequential to manage by assumption.
Tightening recon discipline lifts the whole store, not just the portfolio
The argument that recon costs and reinsurance claims come from the same business anyway misses what happens when you actually enforce a process.
"We absolutely saw our customer satisfaction go up. Our sales team was actually invigorated a little bit more because they didn't have to really defend like they used to. If something was kind of on the borderline of whether it should have been replaced or not, let's say tires, for example, we don't have that anymore. We're just in the recon process. We have our threshold. It gets replaced and the salespeople know that they can stand behind this car confidently." — Glanzmann
One process change produced cleaner reinsurance, stronger CSI, and a sales team that could actually stand behind the product.
