Why Finance Leadership Gaps Require More Than a Hiring Plan

The CFO of a mid-size property and casualty insurer resigns in early November. Year-end close is six weeks away. Auditors are circling, board materials are in development, and the finance team is resolving several open reinsurance items. Human resources begins its search for a new CFO the next morning.

The organization now faces two timelines: the hiring process and the finance calendar.

The search for a permanent hire may run for weeks or months. During that time, statutory filings, GAAP reporting, audit requests, board meetings, reinsurance settlements, and day-to-day questions continue on schedule. The organization must answer three questions: How quickly can we replace them? What work did they own? And who owns that work tomorrow?

A finance leadership departure creates more than a vacant position. In a 2026 survey by The Institutes, 73% of risk management and insurance professionals identified the loss of institutional knowledge as the most significant effect of the industry’s approaching retirement wave. Within the finance function, that knowledge may include statutory reporting requirements, regulatory relationships, reinsurance processes, and close procedures that exist outside formal documentation. Organizations should identify how those responsibilities and insights will be preserved before an experienced leader leaves.

The role is larger than the job description

A job description for a senior finance position includes formal duties such as reporting, planning, oversight, and team management. The less visible work behind those duties often receives limited documentation.

For a CFO, that may include shaping the financial story for the board, guiding capital decisions, and maintaining key external relationships. Other finance leaders may hold equally valuable knowledge that never appears in a job description. The controller may know which reconciliations require additional review and how the close sequence changes at year-end. A statutory accounting leader may remember state-specific filing requirements that never made it onto a shared calendar. A reinsurance manager may carry the history behind a disputed recoverable or understand the manual step connecting bordereaux data to the ledger.

Some of this information may live in emails or spreadsheets. Much of it depends on memory, judgment, and experience accumulated over time.

What leaves with the finance leader

When a finance leader departs, the organization can lose the context behind prior decisions, the history of key relationships, and the person responsible for driving initiatives forward. That loss may delay a filing or audit response, leave external stakeholders with incomplete answers, and shift decisions to employees without the same authority or experience.

Strategic initiatives may also lose ownership. A system implementation, transaction, or board priority can slow while the remaining team focuses on reporting and other immediate obligations.

The immediate task is to preserve the knowledge and context that remain available and establish temporary ownership before deadlines begin to slip.

A 90-day CFO transition plan 

The continuity plan should proceed alongside the permanent search. The first month focuses on knowledge capture and ownership. The following two months test those assignments and prepare the finance function for its next leader.

First 30 days: Capture knowledge and assign ownership

When a finance leader gives notice, that period offers the best opportunity to document how the role functions in daily operations. Scheduled meetings and informal shadowing provide a starting point. The organization also needs usable records of near-term deadlines, unresolved matters, manual entries, system dependencies, external contacts, and decisions awaiting approval.

The most consequential gaps may involve small details that never reached formal procedures. A reinsurance settlement may depend on a spreadsheet maintained by one person. A state-specific schedule may sit outside the shared reporting calendar. A close activity may require access that ends when the departing employee’s account is closed.

Leadership should map the next reporting cycle and assign an owner to every significant obligation. A regulator request, disputed recoverable, unresolved audit matter, or material accounting judgment also needs an escalation path and someone with authority to make the final call.

Temporary owners should be introduced to the auditors, actuaries, regulators, reinsurers, investment managers, and board contacts involved in active matters. Those conversations help preserve relationship history and establish where future questions should go.

Days 31 through 60: Test the coverage plan and protect the team

By the second month, leaders can see where temporary assignments are working and where gaps remain. Delayed reviews, repeated questions, overdue bills, or unresolved issues may indicate that a responsibility needs a more experienced owner or added oversight.

The remaining team’s workload also requires attention. Employees absorbing parts of the vacant position still carry close activities, reconciliations, reporting, and other recurring responsibilities. Leadership should determine what can pause, where added resources are needed, and which matters still require executive involvement.

Strategic initiatives need named owners during this period as well. A system project, transaction, or board priority can lose direction while the finance team concentrates on immediate reporting demands.

This phase provides an opportunity to adjust the coverage plan before temporary assignments become unsustainable or important matters remain unattended.

Days 61 through 90: Prepare the finance function for its next leader

By the third month, initial notes should be converted to standard operating procedures. The handoff should also reflect current priorities, recent decisions, and the status of key relationships.

The vacancy may reveal that the former role carried too much. Leadership may decide to redistribute reporting ownership, strengthen the layer below the position, or revise the role before completing the search.

The incoming hire should receive a current view of the function rather than a backlog that must be reconstructed. A well-prepared handoff gives the new leader a stronger starting point and preserves the progress made during the transition.

Match temporary coverage to the work

The review conducted during the transition should reveal which responsibilities the internal team can manage and where outside coverage is warranted.

Interim CFO support may fit when the organization needs executive decision ownership, board communication, capital planning, or coordination across several finance workstreams. An interim controller may assume close management, reporting, and audit coordination. A statutory accounting or reinsurance specialist may be the best fit for a company whose most urgent needs sit within a defined area.

The resource should bring enough insurance experience to enter the assignment without asking the internal team to explain foundational reporting, regulatory, and reinsurance requirements. The engagement also needs defined authority, appropriate access, and a direct path to executive leadership.

Through its Strategic & CFO Advisory services, Johnson Lambert’s Financial & Operations Advisory team helps insurance organizations cover finance leadership transitions. Support may include interim leadership, board and executive communication, succession planning, or a specialist assigned to a defined workstream. The scope depends on what the outgoing leader owns and what the internal team can reasonably absorb.

Protect the work while the search continues

A finance leadership vacancy becomes an operating issue on its first day. By mapping the work and preserving its context, organizations give temporary owners a stronger basis for decisions and help the remaining team navigate the transition. That allows the permanent search to proceed with care.

Download Johnson Lambert’s Maintaining Momentum Through 6 Critical Business Moments: A Guide for Insurance Organizations to identify the responsibilities that need an owner first and consider other business moments that may be impacting you.

Need support now? Contact our Financial & Operations Advisory team to discuss interim leadership or targeted coverage for the work already underway.

Frequently Asked Questions About CFO Transitions

• What should an insurance company do when its CFO leaves? Start by identifying the reporting deadlines, open decisions, external relationships, system access, and recurring responsibilities owned by the departing CFO. Assign temporary owners, document the next reporting cycle, and establish escalation paths while the permanent search proceeds.
• What does an interim CFO do during a leadership transition? An interim CFO may assume executive decision authority, communicate with the board, coordinate reporting and audit work, support capital planning, and oversee several finance workstreams. The scope should reflect the responsibilities previously held by the departing leader and the experience available within the existing team.
• When should an insurance company hire an interim CFO? An interim CFO may be appropriate when the organization needs senior decision authority, board communication, capital planning, or coordination across several finance priorities. A controller or subject-matter specialist may be a better fit when the immediate need centers on close management, statutory reporting, reinsurance accounting, or another defined workstream.
• What should a CFO transition checklist include? A CFO transition checklist should cover near-term reporting deadlines, unresolved accounting matters, regulatory and audit contacts, reinsurance issues, recurring judgments, system access, manual processes, strategic initiatives, and decisions awaiting approval. Each item should have an owner and an escalation path.
• How can an insurer maintain statutory reporting continuity during a CFO vacancy? Map every filing, close requirement, review, and approval in the upcoming reporting cycle. Assign an accountable owner to each obligation, confirm access to the necessary systems and records, and add insurance-experienced support where the internal team lacks time, authority, or specialized knowledge.
• How long should a CFO transition plan cover? A 90-day plan provides a useful structure. The first 30 days focus on knowledge transfer and ownership, days 31 through 60 test the coverage plan, and days 61 through 90 convert transition notes into procedures and prepare the finance function for its next leader.
• How does CFO succession planning support finance continuity? CFO succession planning identifies who could assume key responsibilities, which knowledge needs documentation, and where the organization depends too heavily on one person. It also gives leadership time to strengthen internal resources, define temporary coverage options, and prepare for a future transition before a vacancy occurs.