Agent Profile: Missouri Maven Liz Spink and Symphony Risk Solutions Break Down Barriers to Service and Success

If you’ve paid attention to the evolution of corporate language during the past couple decades, you’ve probably seen dozens of overused buzzwords and phrases come and go: cash cow, think outside the box, FYI, move the needle, low-hanging fruit, take this offline . . . you get the idea. These buzzy terms can still be found in the workplace today, but “innovative” still seems the most ubiquitous, continuing to permeate boardrooms, industry conferences, marketing campaigns, and mission statements on a daily basis. It’s practically become the success mantra for every modern business.

But how do companies actually back up their claims of being innovative?

When evaluating the innovation of Symphony Risk Solutions, look no further than Liz Spink, CIC, CISR, RN, Director of Symphony Health. Her leadership has shown that numbers don’t lie when measuring success through innovation: Symphony Health has almost doubled in size each and every year since she joined the brokerage as a leader four years ago.

“If I were to tell you much of Symphony’s success is built from removing structure, you’d probably look at me like I’m crazy, but it’s truly what makes us different in this industry,” Liz said. “Our CEO Michael Marcon started this brokerage based on one foundational belief: ‘Clients first, always.’ In order to achieve that, he broke down barriers to client service. So, we’ve removed impediments to resources, like individual expenditure accounts and geographical boundaries. We are encouraged to go out and get whatever resources we need to provide exceptional service to our clients under just one set of financials—the company’s. And we have offices all over the country, but we have no geography. We’re strictly a national firm. If I need a resource for a client in Portland, Maine, and there’s a specialized resource in Birmingham, Alabama, I’ll bring that resource in and nobody is going to question it. Symphony has removed the bureaucracy and given us the freedom to do whatever it takes to serve our clients.”

Even though Liz makes it sound as if the success of Symphony Health—and the entire brokerage—comes easy, the infectious positive energy she constantly puts behind the healthcare division plays a major role in driving results.

“I’m a nurse by background and education. Most nurses never slow down; we just continue, and we certainly don’t do downtime well.”

Pivot

Surrounded by family members in the insurance business—her mother, and later her sister, on the underwriting side, and her father in claims—Liz grew up in Missouri basically taking insurance lingo in through osmosis. But it wasn’t until a transformative event occurred that she made her own way into the professional liability sector of the market.

“I graduated college with a degree in business, and after working retail jobs in college, I wanted to get into a more comfortable office setting. My mom knew an agency principal and helped me get a job with a regional firm doing administrative tasks like generating loss runs and working on ACORD applications for coverage. After about a year, I moved over to Lockton, pretty much doing the same thing, mainly in general liability and workers’ compensation. At the time, they started building out a healthcare practice that I became a part of, and that area of insurance really began to pique my interest. I always had a fascination with nursing and healthcare, so that just amplified my desire to be a part of it.”

With the flexibility Lockton offered, Liz made the decision to apply for nursing school, and used the money she was making at the brokerage to fund the next two years of school to graduate and become a nurse.

“I started working the floor, doing full-time nursing and part-time insurance, and my passion just kept growing for healthcare.”

As if she wasn’t busy enough, Liz and her husband, who she met while in college, had just had their third child in three years.

“Raising little boys and working more than full-time, it is taxing. And then one day, my son wound up in the pediatric ICU where I was, and that was a turning point for me. I love, love, love healthcare, but it’s extremely difficult to decide to be both a mom and a nurse in that situation—I admire those that do it really well. So, I thought to myself, ‘What I need to do now for my family is take the path where I can appreciate healthcare, and provide it with a different service while I allow others to be caregivers in that space.’ And being part of a brokerage was a great avenue to have a stable job that allowed me to love healthcare and be in more of an advocacy and consulting role.”

Disruptive

When she returned to a full-time role as an Account Executive with Lockton, Liz immersed herself in learning all she could about medical professional liability scenarios.

“For the next two to three years, I was on a quest for knowledge—to understand what happens when something allegedly goes wrong for a doctor treating a patient, and how do you navigate that? I read periodicals and medical journals every day, absorbing case studies, outcomes, and trends. I attended conferences and joined panel discussions. I found a lot of great mentors in the brokerage and I would ask to listen in on their calls with clients. I also relied heavily on carriers, asking so many questions. I just tried to surround myself with as many experienced individuals that touched healthcare as I could. And luckily, people were very gracious with my stick-to-it-ness and thirst for new information.”

Putting all that time and effort into honing her craft paid off and did not go unnoticed: Starting in 2013, Liz was promoted every three years to a higher position. She progressively moved up the ladder by transitioning from Account Executive to Team Lead of Healthcare Risk Management, to Vice President of a dual-functioning Healthcare and Higher Education Practice, and then later as Senior Vice President of that division.

Then, in June of 2021, a seemingly out-of-the-blue phone call changed everything.

“My phone rang and it was Mike Marcon, the CEO and Founder of Symphony Risk Solutions,” Liz explained. “He told me, ‘I’m building this Symphony Health, and I’ve got a great team led by Frank McKenna.’ And I looked up to Frank because I considered him to be one of the godfathers of healthcare brokerages. It sounded interesting and Mike said if I wanted more details, to meet him to discuss over breakfast. At first, I thought, ‘Well, this is weird—I’m not even looking for a new job.’ So, because I was intrigued by his call, I decided to meet with Mike and I just loved his story and vision of ‘clients first, always.’ I could tell by his conviction that there would be no wavering on that.”

Value Proposition

So, after over 21 years with Lockton, Liz took a leap of faith and decided to join Symphony Health as a Director—but not without a cost.

“Joining Symphony Health was like being selected to be a part of an all-star team. Everybody has at least 20 years’ experience either in a brokerage or underwriting in healthcare liability. But I had a significant noncompete agreement for two years. Because of that, I spent a lot of my time being a second set of eyes for my teammates evaluating risks for their clients. I would also dedicate much of my days building best-in-class coverage forms by comparing each insurer’s forms. For example, if one excess form was 22 pages and the industry accepts 4 pages, I’d try to get it down to 4 pages to be more time efficient with our clients.”

Above all, though, Liz looked at the noncompete period as a way to capitalize on marketing and branding opportunities.

“I became a brand ambassador for our firm because I believe in it so much. We live and breathe ‘clients first, always,’ and I wanted others to know what separates us from other brokerages. And the minute my noncompete was up, I was on the phone with many of my loyal clients who had waited for me. I’ve been very fortunate to bring some of them back over, and make plenty of new relationships as well. It felt wonderful to go back to really servicing and building again.”

Now in her fourth year with Symphony, Liz was rightfully recognized by Risk & Insurance as a Power Broker® Finalist in 2025. One of her main goals for the future of the brokerage is to continue to prove to everyone that Symphony doesn’t just talk the talk, they walk it too.

“If we can build a story that both our clients and our peer groups and competitors recognize that says ‘clients first, always’ is not just lip service, it’s what they genuinely do, that would be a spectacular achievement. Every single day, we can go toe to toe in a competitive environment and I can always have confidence in our internal resources for knowledge, skills, and abilities. But I also know if I hit a wall, and I don’t have something I need, I can go out and get it without having to ask permission. There are no obstacles to taking care of the client. And that’s what, four years in? The proof is in the pudding at this point of what makes us so different, and why I have so much energy around the firm.”