Nicholas Severson
Employee Benefits & Client Strategy Leader | 10+ years in Benefits, Account Management & Client Relations
Greater Los Angeles, California, United States
Validated traits
Artifacts
Nava Benefits · Senior Client ManagerWhen I joined Nava Benefits as Client Manager, the company was facing critical growing pains in how we managed client relationships. Client onboarding was almost entirely ad hoc, with no standardized processes in place. Each Client Manager handled onboarding differently, which created inconsistent client experiences and made it nearly impossible to scale efficiently as the company grew. This lack of structure posed a real risk to our ability to deliver quality service and expand our client base. I took ownership of solving this problem by first documenting the current state across all clients, systematically identifying common pain points and extracting best practices from what was working. From there, I led the development of a standardized checklist and comprehensive template library that would create consistency across the entire client onboarding experience. I piloted these new tools with incoming clients to refine the approach, then rolled them out to the full team with structured training sessions to ensure adoption. The impact was substantial and measurable. We reduced average onboarding time from several weeks down to just 3 weeks, dramatically improving the client experience during that critical early phase. The efficiency gains from the templates and standardized processes enabled us to onboard 50% more clients that year without adding any headcount to my team. Throughout this period of growth and operational transformation, I maintained a 100% client retention rate across my book of business, demonstrating that the new processes enhanced rather than compromised the quality of client relationships.
James P. Bennett & Company · Director of Client Strategy · May 2026Our team was manually auditing premium statements line-by-line, a process that took roughly four hours per client and often failed to catch discrepancies before renewal season — or worse, before a client caught them first. Recognizing the need for a faster, more accurate solution, I set out to build an AI-enabled audit engine that could systematically flag billing errors while maintaining the rigor of a human review. Using our firm's pilot AI program, I built a full framework encompassing testing protocols, data security standards, and audit peer review. I selected Claude Pro as the core LLM and personally built the templates and supporting documents needed to structure the audits. To validate the approach, I manually cross-checked flagged discrepancies against two separate case studies, then led internal meetings to walk the team through the testing process before rolling the tool out more broadly. The results were immediate and significant: audit time dropped from about four hours to just 30 minutes per client, and the tool surfaced thousands of dollars in billing discrepancies in the first two audits alone. Within two months, other members of the client services team had adopted the tool into their own workflows, validating both its accuracy and its ease of use. Beyond the initial launch, the audit engine has become a blueprint for our team's broader AI strategy — we're now using it as a model to develop additional AI-enabled support systems, including tools for benchmarking and financial feasibility analysis, extending the impact of this work well beyond its original scope.
Testimonials
Work history
Sep 2025 - Present · 1.2 years · Director of Client Strategy
Oct 2021 - Sep 2025 · 4 years · Senior Client Manager, Client Manager
Feb 2018 - Oct 2021 · 3.8 years · Employee Benefits Account Manager (Large Group)
Mar 2017 - Jan 2018 · 11 months · Account Executive
Jun 2015 - Mar 2017 · 1.8 years · Client Executive
Jul 2013 - May 2015 · 1.9 years · Editor
Nov 2010 - Jun 2013 · 2.7 years · Genius
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