How to Communicate Risk Exposures to Middle-Market Clients

• July 14, 2025

By Devin Partida

Middle-market businesses face a growing range of risks across all industries, but many stakeholders underestimate their exposure. As an independent insurance agency, effectively conveying these risks is essential to helping clients understand their situation and how they can reduce their risks.

Communicating risks to middle-market clients is about making the exposure real, relatable and relevant to their goals. By using clear language, tailored messaging, data-backed insights and relatable examples, insurance agencies can guide their clients to strategic protection.

Here are seven strategies to help agents clearly communicate exposures to clients:

1) Understand the unique risk landscape. While many middle-market entities take the steps to manage risk, a large protection gap still exists. Economic stability, regulatory changes, labor shortages and technological disruptions are among the top concerns of midsize businesses, according to a recent Nationwide Agency Forward survey. Yet, despite the vast majority—9 out of 10—having risk management strategies in place, only 54% of entities feel well protected against these threats. And only 51% of business owners currently view their risk management initiatives as effective.

This disconnect creates a challenge for independent insurance agencies. This is when education should be the key focus—understanding the full scope of exposure allows brokers to guide clients toward the most effective options.

2) Use relatable scenarios. Risk is abstract until it becomes personal. That’s why using relevant scenarios is important—it helps people understand what’s at stake. For example, consider the rising threat of cyberattacks. These instances are costly and devastating to a company’s operations. An agent can explain how cyber insurance can ease the financial burden of recovery and reduce downtime. This offers a clearer picture and gives a middle-market business all the more reason to invest in coverage solutions.

3) Back up communication with data. When discussing risk, it’s important to use data to drive urgency. If clients see how risks are playing out in their field or adjacent industries, they could be more likely to see the vulnerabilities and act decisively.

For instance, the health care sector faced the most expensive data breaches in 2023, with incidents averaging $10.92 million each. Sharing figures like this moves the conversation beyond hypotheticals and shows the financial impact more concretely.

4) Tailor your communication. Each client processes risks differently. Some want detailed breakdowns, while others prefer big-picture insights. Agents should take the time to understand each client’s communication style and comfort level with technical information.

5) Simplify the information. Insurance terminology and risk analysis can be overwhelming and difficult to understand. Clients need the information laid out before them so it’s easier to digest everything, which means using language explaining how a specific risk could impact operations. Visual aids can also break down abstract concepts and make seeing the dangers and solutions easier.

6) Highlight the business case for comprehensive coverage. Sometimes, it takes showing the real cost of being unprepared to help clients understand the importance of coverage. For instance, 78% of midsize entities say shifting regulations greatly impact their risk management needs, according to Nationwide. Yet only 1 in 5 admit feeling unready to respond to new requirements. Going in blind can carry steep financial and legal consequences. Framing insurance coverage as a tool for business continuity can help clients see it as an investment.

Devin Partida is the editor-in-chief of ReHack.com and is especially interested in writing about business and InsurTech. Partida’s work has been featured on Entrepreneur, Forbes and Nasdaq.