Industry Insights

Roanoke Insurance Group is delighted to once again sponsor  a $5,000 scholarship to students intending to join the trade industry. The National Customs Broker and Forwarder Association of America (NCBFAA) offers this $5,000 scholarship award yearly and will be presented to the winner at the NCBFAA annual conference in April 2024. The topic for this year’s scholarship will be “What are the key steps an organization should take to ensure that training, auditing, and engagement with a licensed customs broker and the sharing of industry information are effectively relayed to all employees, as well as properly documented to substantiate compliance […]

Roanoke has appointed two key leaders to new roles, effective November 1, 2023. Please join us in congratulating Patrice Lafayette for accepting the position of Regional Vice President, Western Region, and Grant Goldsmith, who has accepted a position as Head of Sales. Patrice has been a steadfast leader of Roanoke’s Western Region for more than 17 years. She started her career as a Bond Account Manager and has held several roles during her tenure, including Bond Manager and Director of Sales for the Long Beach Sales team, and most recently, has been responsible for managing relationships with many of our […]

Karen has been a part of Roanoke for nearly 20 years. During this time, she has shown exceptional leadership skills and technical expertise in multiple customer-facing positions, such as Head of Marine & Liability Underwriting and Head of Liability Claims. Her most recent role was SVP, Chief Underwriting Officer, Marine at Munich Re Specialty Group N.A. where she was responsible for leading our inland, ocean and cargo liability underwriting teams. One of her notable contributions was developing essential insurance policies for our clients in the logistics sector. She also demonstrated outstanding dedication in promptly and favorably settling complex liability claims. […]

We have important news to share with you. Karen Groff, President of Roanoke Insurance Group, has decided to leave the organization. Although our hearts are heavy with this news, we respect her decision and wish her all the best in her future endeavors. Karen played an integral role in Roanoke’s success over the past 30 years and solidified “The Roanoke Way” during her tenure as President. In her own words, Karen shares: “I will always treasure my time spent with Roanoke colleagues, clients and partners. The strong engagement and sense of community shared in this industry have been a constant inspiration […]

Roanoke Insurance Group is excited to announce the formation of our Client Experience department. This new department will be led by Amanda Barlow, who has served our clients in a variety of capacities throughout her tenure at Roanoke. Most recently as the Regional Vice President of our Western region. Roanoke’s Kylie Reinert will join Amanda in building our Client Experience Department as Client Success Enablement Manager, which is a role she has been performing for the past year. The Client Experience team will be laser-focused on one overarching goal—to identify and implement strategies which make it easy and enjoyable for […]

The National Safety Council(NSC) recognizes April as Distracted Driving Awareness Month. They estimate that 4,000 deaths and 276,000 injuries occur yearly because of distracted driving crashes. Additionally, distracted driving is the cause of 10% of all fatal crashes. Many of these accidents and fatalities are attributed to drivers engaging in risky behavior such as cell phone use, eating/drinking, reaching for an object, talking to a passenger or reading GPS. Not wearing seatbelts, speeding and use of alcohol makes these accidents much worse. Additionally, the stressors of the pandemic, returning to work, and other social factors have increased the cognitive distraction […]