About
Dan Wentz
The translator on your side of the table.
Commercial real estate insurance broker in Birmingham, placing nationwide. Eleven years on the wholesale side at CRC Group and CAC Group before that.
ACRE 100 Leadership Council · Rotary Club of Hoover, AL
Clearspan CRE is the commercial real estate practice of Dan Wentz, a commercial lines risk consultant at a large national insurance agency in Birmingham. Dan works with owners and operators of hotels, multifamily, self-storage, retail centers, offices, condo associations, and more, building insurance programs for accounts with $50,000 and up in annual premium. His job is to help you understand your program well enough to make your own calls.
Dan came up on the wholesale side of the business: nine years at CRC Group and two at CAC Group, marketing and placing the risk standard agents send out when they can't write it themselves. So the E&S and specialty capacity this site keeps mentioning comes from working relationships Dan built over those years.
Before insurance, he spent 14 years in radio, seven of them at iHeartMedia.
Which is why you'll get your renewal explained in plain English instead of a 40-page proposal nobody reads.
Clearspan CRE is a separate business from ClearSpan Structures, the building manufacturer.
He writes on commercial insurance for the Alabama Center for Real Estate (ACRE) at the University of Alabama and is a member of the ACRE 100 Leadership Council.
Clearspan CRE is Dan's practice name. It isn't affiliated with ClearSpan Structures, the building manufacturer.
Why he does this
The problem
Insurance is one of a commercial real estate owner's three biggest expenses and the one they understand least. Renewals arrive vague and full of jargon, with a number that goes up every year and no real explanation of why.
Where he comes from
Dan started in radio in 2000, then led marketing at iHeartMedia, CRC Group, and CAC Group. That work taught him to take something complicated and make it land fast. He now points that skill at insurance.
How he works
He shows you what's driving your price, what a claim actually cost you in dollars, and what to do about it over the next several years. You get all the information, sometimes more than you asked for.
What that looks like
For every renewal: what caused the change, what it cost you, and the plan to fix it.
01 · Cause
~$150K
A group of hotels had the same type of slip-and-fall claim two or three times in under five years.
02 · Cost
~$17K
One of those claims added about $17,000 to their premium. Without it, that renewal would have come in lower.
03 · Plan
5 years
Stop the repeat claims, let the old ones age off the loss runs, and build toward a stronger program by year five.
Results depend on each account’s exposures, loss history, and market conditions at renewal. Past results don’t guarantee future savings.
What he publishes
AL Renewal Index
Commercial insurance pricing, renewal trends, and what's driving them, pulled from multiple sources into plain charts.
Southeast Verdicts
Jury verdicts against property owners across the Southeast.
OneThree4
Dan's personal site: expertise, background, and Signal, his notes on CRE risk and insurance.
The work
Where the exposures get addressed
Through the agency's analytics platform, which pairs analytics with specialist resources, the work covers:
- Property & general liability
- Umbrella & excess
- Management & professional liability
- Environmental risk
- Workers' compensation
- Claims advocacy & risk control
Free renewal review
Put a name to the account
We'll reply within one business day with when to start marketing it and what to have ready. Built for accounts with $50,000+ in annual premium.
- A second set of expert eyes on your program, free.
- Marketed to the carriers that actually want your risk.
- No obligation, fully confidential.
Book 20 minutes or call (205) 999-4884