The Coastal Team

Chuck founded Coastal Insurance Underwriters in 2007 for the purpose of providing exclusive community association insurance products underwritten and distributed over the internet to a select group of retail agents throughout the United States. Coastal has grown to become one of the largest Managing General Underwriters in the United States focused on community association products with over 8000 homeowner and condominium associations currently insured.

Mr. Bushong started his insurance career in 1974 working for Nationwide Insurance Company and was promoted through their ranks to Regional Sales Manager in Florida, until he left in 1989 after earning many of their highest corporate management awards over the years. Between 1989 and 2000 he served as a Vice President of a top ten national commercial insurance broker (Brown and Brown) and ranked among their top ten producers ranking each of nine years. Bushong chose to specialize in the Homeowner and Condominium and Homeowner Association niche in 1974 and over the years has become a veritable authority on the coverage requirements and nuances of these associations. In 2018, Chuck was recognized by Insurance Business America as one of 29 insurance heavyweights inducted into IBA's 2018 Hall of Fame.

Sim Bridges is a valuable member of the Coastal Insurance team of commercial underwriters, having diversified knowledge of many classes of risks. Sim started his career at Zurich Insurance Services in 2005, and was promoted to Builders Risk underwriter and Commercial Package line underwriter. In 2008 he was hired by American Keystone Insurance Company to underwrite a $30 million book of residential condominium associations. Sim’s contribution to the Coastal team has also strengthened our agency relationships, as our agents have enjoyed working with Sim on the accounts from term to term.

• sbridges@ciuins.com
• (904) 395-5912

Kim is a graduate of Florida State University and completed dual degrees in Finance and Risk Management & Insurance. She joined Coastal in 2012. Prior to working at Coastal, she was a Commercial Underwriter in training at Burns & Wilcox in Tampa, FL. She has a diversified knowledge of many commercial classes of risks. One of Kim’s talents is in reviewing coverage forms, and technically dissecting and analyzing specialty coverages. In 2017, Kim was named one of Insurance Business America's "Top 125 Elite Women of the Insurance Industry".

• kbushong@ciuins.com
• (904) 834-4754

Erez specializes in providing custom built, database driven solutions to help optimize workflow and customer experiences. Erez previously worked for companies including Kidder Peabody, Medical Economics, and Bank of America with a focus in those organizations in network support, DBA functions, and systems integration.

Michele Ortiz joined Coastal in 2013. Michele has over 25 years experience in this industry, with a background in both Personal Lines as well as Commercial Lines. Her most recent experience comes from having worked with Citizens Property Insurance Corp. for over 7 years. Her key talents include a training prowess which proves very helpful to our agency force, as she can very easily and clearly communicate our products and use of our website tools. She has proven very valuable to our team. Michele is currently pursuing her Certified Risk Manager designation as well as her degree in Instructional Design & Technology.

• mortiz@ciuins.com
• (904) 834-4747

Alison Strother has over 22 years experience in the insurance industry, encompassing a variety of products and responsibilities. She has worked with a range of small to large premium accounts. Some of Alison’s strengths include risk analysis, agency relationship skills, multi-tasking, and quickly assimilating new products and coverages. We are very pleased to have Alison join our team, and add to our underwriting prowess.

• astrother@ciuins.com
• (904) 834-4753

Nick has over 6 years experience working with commercial insurance as an underwriter. His background includes a variety of coverages from property, liability, inland marine, auto, umbrella, crime and professional. Nick also has experience collaborating with agents on renewals to help maintain retention for both the agent and the company.

Nick’s underwriting experience has proven to be a great asset to Coastal and we are pleased to have him on our team, helping to provide high quality resources for your agency needs.

• nsanzotta@ciuins.com
• (904) 395-5910

John received a Bachelor of Science, Risk Management degree from Florida State in 2002 and since has worked both in an agency and MGU environment, focusing on managing commercial insurance operations. His strengths include the ability to assimilate complex issues quickly, as well as the ability to solve problems logically. The experience of working in an insurance agency is valuable to the Coastal Insurance underwriting team, since he understands the view of the retail agent regarding the value of Coastal’s products and services.

• jcotton@ciuins.com
• (904) 442-2955

Scott has over 13 years experience working in the insurance industry. Since most of Scott’s experience is at the carrier level, his understanding and perspective for growth and loss trends gives him a healthy understanding of risk and what it takes to write profitable business for both Coastal and the agent. Some of Scott’s keen skills include analysis, compliance management, agency relationship building, vendor systems, and state regulations and forms knowledge.

• sancil@ciuins.com
• (904) 395-5913

Toni has been working with Coastal since 2009. Toni has a diverse background on both the carrier side and the agency side of the house, over the course of her 40+ years of experience. She has years of experience with claims, marketing, account management, and renewal underwriting. Our agents prize Toni for her generous and attentive helpfulness.

• arobbins@ciuins.com
• (904) 395-5914

Heidi has been working with Coastal since 2010. Heidi is extremely efficient in her processing skills and document delivery. Heidi has a tremendous eye for detail and workflow. Heidi is very dedicated to providing our agents with quality and timeliness.

• hgruber@ciuins.com
• (904) 567-3972

Alex started her career with Coastal by interning in the summer while still completing her degree. Using the skills gained through studying quantitative economics, Alex has proved a great asset in contributing to our predictive analytics tools. A high level of attention to detail and ability to track trending, sets Alex on her path to assisting in the underwriting of our niche business. Alex is also skilled at using a statistical cube to analyze our internal loss triangles and historical loss experience to gain useful insight.

• aunderwood@ciuins.com
• (904) 395-5911