Regulatory demands are rising, core systems are aging, and competition is moving faster than most
organizations can respond to. We work with banks, carriers, and financial institutions on the strategy,
systems, and organizational change it takes to modernize without losing control of the business.
Financial Services & Insurance
This industry doesn't
have the luxury of
waiting for stability.
Where we do our best work
Financial Services & Insurance challenges we know from the inside out.
The pressures in this industry are specific and the margin for error is real. We've worked alongside financial services and insurance organizations long enough to understand what's actually driving these challenges and what it takes to address them.
COMMON CHALLENGES
1.
Core System Modernization
Core system modernization is inevitable. Few organizations plan for how much of the business moves with it.
Most insurance and financial services organizations know their core platforms need to be replaced. What they underestimate is how much of the business rides on those systems. Customer records, claims, billing, integrations, and every portal that connects the business to the people it serves all have to move together. These are multi-year programs, and the complexity compounds fast once the work begins.
How We Help
- Assess core system readiness before scope and timeline are locked, including business case development and gap analysis
- Build the enterprise architecture and data migration strategy needed to sequence the work and manage risk across a multi-year program
- Design the program governance and organizational structure in order to sustain a transformation of this scale
- Manage the vendor relationships and implementation partners involved in the modernization
- Lead the change management and training work that determines whether new systems get adopted
2.
Technology Architecture & Roadmapping
If every new initiative feels harder than it should, your architecture is probably why.
Technology architecture evolves over time. A vendor gets added here. A workaround gets accepted there. Reasonable decisions compound quietly until the architecture stops being an enabler and becomes the reason things take longer, cost more, and require more coordination than they should. By the time that friction becomes visible to leadership, it’s already shaping what the organization can and can’t do.
How We Help
- Assess the current technology landscape against what the business actually needs to accomplish, including identifying architectural gaps and dependencies creating risk
- Build enterprise, solution, and data architecture capabilities that enable the organization to make change without disrupting what’s already working
- Develop a clear technology vision and roadmap that translates the value of modernization into terms that resonate with business leadership
- Establish governance and portfolio management structures that allow the organization to execute against the roadmap effectively over time
- Lead or support specific programs and initiatives to modernize the technology stack
3.
Strategic Initiative Leadership
There’s no shortage of critical initiatives within this sector. Having the capacity to see them through is another matter.
Complex organizations in this sector often run more initiatives than they have the capacity to execute well. Without the right governance and ownership in place, priorities start to compete. Accountability blurs, resources get stretched, and the work that was supposed to matter most never quite delivers. What compounds isn’t just the financial cost, but the organizational trust that erodes every time important work stalls.
How We Help
- Provide the senior program leadership capacity needed to own critical initiatives and drive them forward when internal teams are stretched too thin
- Build the program structure, governance, and accountability needed to keep complex initiatives on track across multiple workstreams
- Step in to assess and stabilize initiatives that have lost momentum or are no longer delivering what they were intended to
- Keep leadership informed across the program so decisions get made before problems compound.
- Manage the organizational and people side of large initiatives so the work lands the way it was intended
4.
Strategic Planning & Execution
Most organizations have a strategy. Far fewer have one the rest of the organization can follow.
Many leaders have clear aspirations but struggle to translate them into a clear direction the rest of the organization can act on. Business units move on their own priorities, governance structures slow things down, and initiatives multiply without shared intent. Over time, the distance between the plan at the top and the work happening everywhere else just keeps growing.
How We Help
- Facilitate leadership alignment before planning work begins so the strategy reflects how the organization actually works
- Build enterprise and functional strategies that connect organizational direction to how decisions get made day to day
- Design the governance structures and cadences needed to keep priorities visible and accountable over time
- Establish or strengthen an Office of Strategy Management (OSM) to ensure the strategy stays connected to the work being done across the organization
- Support business unit and functional level strategy so every operating division has a clear strategic picture that ladders up to the enterprise
5.
Enterprise System Implementation & Migration
Most system implementations struggle with what surrounds the technology, not the technology itself.
The technology is rarely what breaks an enterprise system implementation. Program structure breaks it. Organizational change breaks it. So does the gap between a system going live and people actually using it the way it was intended. Financial services and insurance organizations carry deep complexity in the form of regulatory requirements, interdependent systems, and embedded processes that standard implementation approaches don’t account for.
How We Help
- Assess implementation readiness before scope and timeline are locked so the organization goes in with a clear picture of what it is taking on
- Build program structures capable of managing complexity across multiple workstreams, vendor relationships, and regulatory requirements
- Lead the change management and training work that determines whether systems get adopted after go-live
- Provide business analysis and process design support to make sure the system is configured around how the organization needs to work
- Step in to assess and stabilize implementations that are off track or no longer delivering what they need to
6.
M&A Readiness & Integration Management
The value of any merger or acquisition in this industry is determined long after the deal is signed.
Mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures in this industry are complex before the deal closes and significantly harder after. The operational, organizational, and people-side work of bringing two organizations together or separating one into parts is where most M&A value is won or lost. The organizations that come out ahead are the ones that treat integration as seriously as the deal itself.
How We Help
- Support business case development and readiness planning for organizations considering an acquisition or divestiture strategy
- Build the program structure and governance needed to manage the operational and organizational complexity of integration from day one
- Manage the vendor relationships and due diligence processes involved in the transition
- Lead the people-side and organizational design work that determines whether two organizations actually come together effectively
- Assess and stabilize integrations that are further along than expected but not coming together the way they were planned
7.
Product Development & Launch
New product launch in this industry looks straightforward on paper, but the operational and regulatory reality is another story.
Bringing a new product to market in this sector is unlike launching a product anywhere else. Regulatory requirements have to clear first. Policy administration systems, broker and employer portals, and billing infrastructure all have to be ready. Compliance workflows have to hold up before a product ever reaches a customer. Financial services organizations face similar complexity around the operational and technology infrastructure that has to be in place to support what they are bringing to market. The planning and coordination required to get it right is almost always underestimated.
How We Help
- Assess the operational, regulatory, and technology infrastructure needed to support a new product before development begins
- Build the program structure and governance needed to coordinate across the regulatory, technology, and business functions involved in a launch
- Design and manage the end to end planning process that gets a new product from concept to market
- Support the organizational change and training work needed to prepare internal teams, brokers, and distribution partners for launch
- Step in to assess and stabilize product launches that are off track or taking longer than they were intended to
8.
Organizational Change
Change is constant. People’s capacity to absorb it isn’t.
Organizations in this sector are rarely managing one change at a time. A system goes live while a regulatory shift lands. Workforce restructuring overlaps with an operational transformation that was already underway. Nobody planned for all of it to hit at once, but it does. Without deliberate attention to the people-side of change, initiative fatigue sets in, adoption suffers, and the organization starts moving slower than the market around it requires.
How We Help
- Assess organizational readiness before major changes go live
- Build change management strategies that account for the regulatory and operational realities of financial services environments
- Design training and adoption programs that reach people where they actually work
- Support organizational design work when structure is getting in the way of where the organization needs to go
>
The Gunter Group didn’t come in with a pre-determined answer. They spent the first few weeks asking questions–and that’s exactly what we needed. We had been solving the wrong problem for two years.”– VP of Digital Commerce Specialty Retail Company
Results that reflect the work behind them.
22K
Employees enabled during enterprise ERP deployment across regulated insurance operations
80+
Developers governed under structured Enterprise Architecture leadership to reduce technical debt
5
Business units aligned during ERP transformation delivered one month ahead of schedule
OUR IMPACT & PERSPECTIVES
Financial Services & Insurance Insights
Press
Treasury transformation succeeds or fails on trust, not technology
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Press
Three strategic ways financial services firms can adapt their workforce to new realities
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Resource
Actuarial transformation, unlock efficiency and strategic impact
Read more
Our Experts
Meet the people leading this work.
Every engagement is led by senior practitioners who have worked inside the complexity of financial services and insurance organizations and know what it takes to deliver.
Tony Schweiss
Managing Partner
Tony helps leaders navigate the decisions that matter most, especially when the path forward isn’t immediately clear. He brings experience leading engagements across a wide range of industries, with particular depth in financial services and insurance, helping organizations through growth, transformation, and other critical moments. As Managing Partner, Tony is a trusted advisor to executive teams, bringing thoughtful questions, steady leadership, and a practical approach that helps organizations build alignment and move forward with confidence.
Stephen Bacon
Principal,
Strategy Practice Leader
Stephen leads the Strategy practice and has spent more than two decades helping organizations make sharper decisions and follow through on them. His background sits at the intersection of organizational psychology and operating model design. He is known for getting leadership teams aligned on what actually matters before any plan goes on paper.
WORK WITH US
Knowing what needs to change is rarely the problem.
Most engagements start with a simple conversation. Tell us what you're working through and we'll tell you where we can help.