ISC is a managed general agency that partners with carriers and brokers to underwrite specialty insurance. In the last several years, the company has nearly doubled, going from roughly 230 owners to 435 today, and scaled past $1B in gross written premium. With employee owners spread across 35 states and the UK, Integrated Specialty Coverages (ISC) treats financial wellness as a foundational pillar of its ownership culture. ISC also partners with Ownership Works to learn and share best practices across portfolio companies committed to creating broad-based employee ownership.
ISC partners with Addition Wealth to deliver personalized financial guidance, education, and one-on-one support to every owner, regardless of role or compensation level. The partnership was established well before ISC's exit from KKR in late 2025 and proved central when owners navigated the largest financial moment of their professional lives, receiving significant cash payouts at exit (see the video here for more details).
Today, that partnership anchors a year-round financial wellness program that includes personalized guidance, monthly webinars, tax services, and on-the-ground support at sites across the country, which underpins ISC's ownership culture.
What ISC Was Looking For in a Financial Wellness Program
Long before the company’s exit, ISC made the deliberate decision to refer to every employee as an owner because every owner had a real stake in the business.
"When KKR took ownership of ISC, every employee was given a stake in the company. There was a strong commitment to employee ownership, ensuring that every single employee felt engaged and motivated to deliver results," explained Sabrina Fry, Vice President of Human Resources at ISC.
The HR team at ISC wanted to make sure owners were thriving in the workplace every day, through their most joyful moments and their hardest ones. That meant building out a benefits program that could meet owners across the full arc of their lives, with financial wellness as a foundational pillar.
ISC's benefits stack reflects that philosophy. The company offers a comprehensive 401(k) program, an FTO schedule that trusts owners to take the time they need, paid parental leave, comprehensive medical and dental coverage with a concierge service, and the Canary program, an owner-funded grant that supports colleagues facing financial hardship.
ISC had tried a different financial wellness program in the past, but it created segmentation, offering different levels of service to different employees. That approach was at odds with the ownership philosophy the company was working to build. KKR's Capstone team had also challenged portfolio companies to invest more deeply in financial literacy, and ISC went looking for a partner that could meet every owner equally, regardless of role or compensation level.
Why Addition Wealth
ISC's 435 owners are spread across 35 states, from urban centers like Los Angeles to small towns like Grass Valley, California. The workforce is split roughly evenly between exempt and non-exempt roles, with an average tenure of three years and an average age in the early 40s. Reaching a population that distributed, with that range of financial lives, meant finding a partner who could show up for everyone, in person and at scale, across whatever topic an owner happened to be navigating.
That breadth is what set Addition Wealth apart. ISC wanted holistic, unbiased support that could meet a 25-year-old paying down student debt and a 55-year-old planning for retirement with the same level of care, and the agnostic, no-product-to-sell approach mirrored the ownership philosophy ISC had built its culture around.
"We chose Addition because of the reach across the US, but also because it's an agnostic philosophy and approach. They weren’t trying to sell anything, and that mattered to us,” explained Fry.
The relationship also started before it had to. ISC began working with Addition Wealth ahead of the company's exit, so financial wellness was already part of how owners experienced the business rather than a benefit bolted on after a liquidity event.
"We started to build our relationship with Addition prior to the exit, and that was really key. It wasn't, 'we have Addition because now we've exited.' We have Addition because financial literacy and ensuring that our owners are thriving personally and professionally is really important."
Working with Addition Wealth
Addition Wealth onboarded with ISC far ahead of the exit, giving owners time to build a habit of using the program before the most consequential financial moment in the company's history arrived. From the start, the rollout was designed around how ISC actually works: in person, across sites, with high-touch communication and flexibility on scheduling.
Addition Wealth visited ISC's main offices in three separate waves of onsite support, starting shortly after launch, continuing through the payout announcement, and again during tax season. That early in-person presence built trust and familiarity with owners well before the most consequential financial moment of their careers.
"At ISC, the best way to get people engaged is to go into the field. Addition worked with us on that and were just really key partners and just worked with us on understanding our needs and meeting those needs,” said Fry.
Owners gained access to financial professionals for 1:1 sessions, monthly group education sessions on different financial topics, and tax services that included support from CPAs and enrolled agents. Engagement was strong from day one, including close to 100% participation on the sessions held during the exit announcement window. Owners loved the 1:1 sessions, the scheduling tool was intuitive, and the platform's AI agent earned high marks for handling fast questions in the middle of tax season.
"Our owners love it, and we still have great engagement. Quarter over quarter, our numbers are still going up,” said Julie Glodowski, Benefits Manager at ISC.
The partnership also held up when ISC needed creative problem-solving. When questions came up around 83(b) filings for the MAP (unit-based) payouts, Addition Wealth and ISC mapped out a process together within a day.
"We didn't have a solution for 83(b), and we brainstormed a solution with Addition Wealth and worked together. Within a day, Addition came to us and said, 'Here's what we're going to do and here's how we're going to solve for it.' That's what I love about Addition. They speak to our needs and they get to our needs."
The Impact
In November 2025, ISC's exit from KKR turned a long-running commitment into a defining moment. Owners gathered to learn what they would receive from a cash payout shared broadly across the company, not just at the executive level. It was a life-changing moment, with some owners opening their envelopes alone in a quiet room or others waiting until they got home to share the moment with their families.
"We heard from owners thanking the CEO because they were able to take care of their mom or pay for hospice care that was needed,” Fry shared. “Another owner said, 'We have a real estate agent now, and we're going to go search for our first house to purchase.'"
Addition Wealth was on site the day of the announcement, and the team facilitated sessions, ran dedicated sessions for the smaller group of owners affected by the more complex payout structures, and stayed in communication with ISC through Q4 and through tax season.
The cultural impact has been measurable. In ISC's annual Gallup survey, the share of owners reporting more than one month of savings rose to 77% from 40%, a significant increase from prior years. The ownership index in the Gallup survey also moved up meaningfully. Even more telling, attrition has remained stable in the months following the exit, a result that runs against the typical post-exit pattern.
"Attrition did not go up like you'd figure, post-exit, that a lot of people would resign and move on. It's not what we see here because there's this stickiness, helping our owners and providing programs that really help our owners thrive,” said Fry.
For other HR leaders at portfolio companies looking ahead to an exit, Fry’s advice is straightforward.
"The financial piece is the program that you have to start with. By investing the time to invest in financial literacy, financial education, financial partnering with Addition, that will have a direct correlation to engagement and therefore a direct correlation to the business. I wouldn't change that approach. Start with financial."
ISC is a managed general agency that partners with carriers and brokers to underwrite specialty insurance. In the last several years, the company has nearly doubled, going from roughly 230 owners to 435 today, and scaled past $1B in gross written premium. With employee owners spread across 35 states and the UK, Integrated Specialty Coverages (ISC) treats financial wellness as a foundational pillar of its ownership culture. ISC also partners with Ownership Works to learn and share best practices across portfolio companies committed to creating broad-based employee ownership.
ISC partners with Addition Wealth to deliver personalized financial guidance, education, and one-on-one support to every owner, regardless of role or compensation level. The partnership was established well before ISC's exit from KKR in late 2025 and proved central when owners navigated the largest financial moment of their professional lives, receiving significant cash payouts at exit (see the video here for more details).
Today, that partnership anchors a year-round financial wellness program that includes personalized guidance, monthly webinars, tax services, and on-the-ground support at sites across the country, which underpins ISC's ownership culture.
What ISC Was Looking For in a Financial Wellness Program
Long before the company’s exit, ISC made the deliberate decision to refer to every employee as an owner because every owner had a real stake in the business.
"When KKR took ownership of ISC, every employee was given a stake in the company. There was a strong commitment to employee ownership, ensuring that every single employee felt engaged and motivated to deliver results," explained Sabrina Fry, Vice President of Human Resources at ISC.
The HR team at ISC wanted to make sure owners were thriving in the workplace every day, through their most joyful moments and their hardest ones. That meant building out a benefits program that could meet owners across the full arc of their lives, with financial wellness as a foundational pillar.
ISC's benefits stack reflects that philosophy. The company offers a comprehensive 401(k) program, an FTO schedule that trusts owners to take the time they need, paid parental leave, comprehensive medical and dental coverage with a concierge service, and the Canary program, an owner-funded grant that supports colleagues facing financial hardship.
ISC had tried a different financial wellness program in the past, but it created segmentation, offering different levels of service to different employees. That approach was at odds with the ownership philosophy the company was working to build. KKR's Capstone team had also challenged portfolio companies to invest more deeply in financial literacy, and ISC went looking for a partner that could meet every owner equally, regardless of role or compensation level.
Why Addition Wealth
ISC's 435 owners are spread across 35 states, from urban centers like Los Angeles to small towns like Grass Valley, California. The workforce is split roughly evenly between exempt and non-exempt roles, with an average tenure of three years and an average age in the early 40s. Reaching a population that distributed, with that range of financial lives, meant finding a partner who could show up for everyone, in person and at scale, across whatever topic an owner happened to be navigating.
That breadth is what set Addition Wealth apart. ISC wanted holistic, unbiased support that could meet a 25-year-old paying down student debt and a 55-year-old planning for retirement with the same level of care, and the agnostic, no-product-to-sell approach mirrored the ownership philosophy ISC had built its culture around.
"We chose Addition because of the reach across the US, but also because it's an agnostic philosophy and approach. They weren’t trying to sell anything, and that mattered to us,” explained Fry.
The relationship also started before it had to. ISC began working with Addition Wealth ahead of the company's exit, so financial wellness was already part of how owners experienced the business rather than a benefit bolted on after a liquidity event.
"We started to build our relationship with Addition prior to the exit, and that was really key. It wasn't, 'we have Addition because now we've exited.' We have Addition because financial literacy and ensuring that our owners are thriving personally and professionally is really important."
Working with Addition Wealth
Addition Wealth onboarded with ISC far ahead of the exit, giving owners time to build a habit of using the program before the most consequential financial moment in the company's history arrived. From the start, the rollout was designed around how ISC actually works: in person, across sites, with high-touch communication and flexibility on scheduling.
Addition Wealth visited ISC's main offices in three separate waves of onsite support, starting shortly after launch, continuing through the payout announcement, and again during tax season. That early in-person presence built trust and familiarity with owners well before the most consequential financial moment of their careers.
"At ISC, the best way to get people engaged is to go into the field. Addition worked with us on that and were just really key partners and just worked with us on understanding our needs and meeting those needs,” said Fry.
Owners gained access to financial professionals for 1:1 sessions, monthly group education sessions on different financial topics, and tax services that included support from CPAs and enrolled agents. Engagement was strong from day one, including close to 100% participation on the sessions held during the exit announcement window. Owners loved the 1:1 sessions, the scheduling tool was intuitive, and the platform's AI agent earned high marks for handling fast questions in the middle of tax season.
"Our owners love it, and we still have great engagement. Quarter over quarter, our numbers are still going up,” said Julie Glodowski, Benefits Manager at ISC.
The partnership also held up when ISC needed creative problem-solving. When questions came up around 83(b) filings for the MAP (unit-based) payouts, Addition Wealth and ISC mapped out a process together within a day.
"We didn't have a solution for 83(b), and we brainstormed a solution with Addition Wealth and worked together. Within a day, Addition came to us and said, 'Here's what we're going to do and here's how we're going to solve for it.' That's what I love about Addition. They speak to our needs and they get to our needs."
The Impact
In November 2025, ISC's exit from KKR turned a long-running commitment into a defining moment. Owners gathered to learn what they would receive from a cash payout shared broadly across the company, not just at the executive level. It was a life-changing moment, with some owners opening their envelopes alone in a quiet room or others waiting until they got home to share the moment with their families.
"We heard from owners thanking the CEO because they were able to take care of their mom or pay for hospice care that was needed,” Fry shared. “Another owner said, 'We have a real estate agent now, and we're going to go search for our first house to purchase.'"
Addition Wealth was on site the day of the announcement, and the team facilitated sessions, ran dedicated sessions for the smaller group of owners affected by the more complex payout structures, and stayed in communication with ISC through Q4 and through tax season.
The cultural impact has been measurable. In ISC's annual Gallup survey, the share of owners reporting more than one month of savings rose to 77% from 40%, a significant increase from prior years. The ownership index in the Gallup survey also moved up meaningfully. Even more telling, attrition has remained stable in the months following the exit, a result that runs against the typical post-exit pattern.
"Attrition did not go up like you'd figure, post-exit, that a lot of people would resign and move on. It's not what we see here because there's this stickiness, helping our owners and providing programs that really help our owners thrive,” said Fry.
For other HR leaders at portfolio companies looking ahead to an exit, Fry’s advice is straightforward.
"The financial piece is the program that you have to start with. By investing the time to invest in financial literacy, financial education, financial partnering with Addition, that will have a direct correlation to engagement and therefore a direct correlation to the business. I wouldn't change that approach. Start with financial."
