Nicky Fuhrmann knows that getting insurance can be a grind for tradespeople who work commercial construction. It’s why she focused her career on this sector, and why she opened her own independent brokerage in Lethbridge to serve them better.
Everyone’s got a story, that much is certain. It’s as true in business as it is in life. And yet, who tells that story and how it’s perceived is where the rubber meets the road: is it believable? Is it honest? Is it true? Or more the point, is the story told clearly so that its message is understood?
Nicky Fuhrmann says that in the world of commercial construction trades – the electricians, plumbers, welders, roofers and more who do the unseen technical work that ensures our buildings function as we expect them to – individual stories often get lost in a forest of statistical data, which is why having a good storyteller in their corner can make the difference between having insurance that works for them or not.
“Insurance can be hard to place for a lot of these industries,” says Fuhrmann, branch president of CMB Lethbridge, explaining that it’s not personal, but just that many of the things tradespeople do are simply hard to insure.
Take hot work, for instance. Buildings don’t get built without arc cutting, welding, roof torching, soldering, grinding and the like. It’s inherently risky work that some underwriters say is a leading cause of insurance claims in the construction sector. And while that might be true in the aggregate, it doesn’t tell the story of a roofer, say, who’s been 25 years in the job without incident.
Fuhrmann says it can be difficult for tradespeople like this to get the right insurance at the right price because they don’t fit neatly into insurance forms or checklists that come with built in assumptions. If a broker doesn’t take the time to understand the intricacies of a tradesperson’s business, how it physically works and what the actual risks are, those checklists can miss a lot.
In other words, if that experienced roofer’s story is not told fully and well by the broker, is it any wonder an underwriter comes back with a policy that doesn’t quite match the realities of the business leaving the roofer over or, worse, under-insured?
For over a decade, Fuhrmann has been walking that walk with commercial tradespeople in Lethbridge – building relationships, building trust and building a reputation for hands-on, face-to-face service and attention to detail. In November 2026, she stepped it up by launching a new CMB Insurance Brokers office in her hometown with the goal of giving clients a dedicated, experienced local partner they can grow with, and herself greater latitude to build the customized policies they need.
That local commitment to tradespeople is important to Fuhrmann. “I want to tell their stories,” she says. “I want to show how they’re best in class at what they do, that they deserve the best rates, and the right coverage. I want to work with people who don’t fit into the boxes.”
Adam Thomson, President, CMB Insurance Brokers Saskatoon
A policy maven is born
The story of how Fuhrmann came to insurance in the first place is almost legendary. At loose ends when her daughter started school, her then-husband, who owns a local insurance brokerage, said he could use her help. “He had a woman in his office who’d failed her licensing exam twice, so he asked if I could help her study for it,” says Fuhrmann. She did and, in the process, learned the manual back to front. “I thought I may as well write the exam now because I’d learned it all anyway, and I passed with flying colours!”
It turns out that Nicky Fuhrmann + insurance is a match made in heaven. “It’s the puzzle of it all,” she says. “I love the complexities; I love sorting everything out.” Indeed, early in her career, she went on a course where she did nothing but read policy wording for an entire week. “I loved it! It just all made sense to me.”
Fuhrmann started in personal lines, as many brokers do, and ultimately moved into commercial insurance around 2015, working at local brokerages in Lethbridge. “I got an opportunity to build a book of business from zero dollars, strictly on commission,” she says. “I learned how to hustle, to build from referrals, to do what you say you will and be there for clients.”
She gravitated quickly and naturally to commercial construction and the trades associated with it. “Construction is where I feel the happiest,” says Fuhrmann, adding that the trades have always been a touchstone in her life. “My parents were always in the blue-collar world. I saw that people worked hard and wanted to protect their assets. I want to partner with them and build insurance packages that work for them. I want to be there for them.”
“Construction is where I feel the happiest. My parents were always in the blue-collar world. I saw that people worked hard and wanted to protect their assets. I want to partner with them and build insurance packages that work for them. I want to be there for them.”
Delivering on the promise
Construction may seem an odd choice of insurance category for a woman to get into – even by today’s more enlightened attitudes. But Fuhrmann loves it and is warmly welcomed by her clients because she is actively interested in what they do. She’s known for getting out of the office, preferring to meet at a client’s workplace where she asks to be shown how things are done, what the work entails and think about how all of that affects individual risk profiles.
“The risk between an electrician who does electrical only on new homes compared to one who does electrical in new hospitals is vastly different,” says Fuhrmann, by way of example. “If you’re doing the hospital work, what does risk look like to you? I want to know. If you know that something going wrong on a job like that means you could lose your entire business, then we need to be clear about what you’re looking to protect.”
What she brings to the table is empathy, a seemingly endless capacity to listen and ask relevant questions, plus incredibly in-depth industry knowledge. That combination of deep expertise and fierce advocacy is kind of her superpower. “The world of commercial insurance is complex,” says Fuhrmann. “It’s not one-size-fits-all. It takes special knowledge to understand particular coverages, and I have that.”
It’s her job, she says, to figure out all those complexities and translate that into insurance that feels simple, controllable and predictable for her clients. “They want to know what they can do to help reduce risk and lower rates,” she says. “They want to know that if there is a claim, they’re covered, and that I’ll pick up the phone when they call.”
On top of all that, Fuhrmann also helps clients navigate through bonds – something many of them need before they can even bid on a job. “Finding a broker who can also do a bond for you as well as insurance – it’s difficult,” she says. “It’s an assurance product, not an insurance product, so it’s a different thing altogether.”
The trouble is that bonds can take months to put together, so if a tradesperson doesn’t start that process until they are ready to bid on a job, they could lose the opportunity to complete their bid because the bond wasn’t ready in time. To prevent that from happening Fuhrmann helps clients get a bonding facility – a kind of bond line of credit where the broad strokes are in place, ready and waiting, then the details filled in when they’re ready to bid on a job. “If you need a bond, it’s a lot quicker than starting from scratch,” she says.
While bonds aren’t insurance, per se, they are a key component of her clients’ ability to conduct business, which is why Fuhrmann sees this work as part of her overall promise to make the whole insurance process simple, controllable and predictable. “I’ve had clients say to me, ‘I’ve been getting bonds for years and never really understood them until you explained it to me.’”
“IGN wants to support local and that is very important to me. I love this community. I’ve stuck around here for a reason – it’s closeknit and it’s like everywhere you go, you meet a friend. “
Community first and always
Fuhrmann is an inherently cheerful and helpful person – the kind who finds great satisfaction and contentment in a job they like and are good at. So, when the Insurance Growth Network (IGN) first came calling back in June 2025 asking if she would like to head up her own CMB brokerage in Lethbridge, she was flattered but said no – she was happy where she was. She even offered to help connect IGN to others in the community.
But Nicole Hewson, VP of People at IGN, knew what she wanted – leadership, drive, integrity, skill, knowledge, strength, values – and knew she’d found it in Fuhrmann. It took three more calls, and another life move from her daughter, for Fuhrmann to pause and see what Hewson saw and what more she could offer to her community.
“My daughter graduated from high school and went off to UBCO in Kelowna,” she says, again finding herself at a loose end. “I struggled – what’s my purpose? I have a career but is it giving me what I want?” Opening a CMB branch office offered her ownership, yes. But more importantly, it offered Fuhrmann a step in a new direction with more autonomy and full support to do the job the way she knew it should be done – with her clients at the forefront. “You cannot let people down; I genuinely care about them.
“It’s the right time,” says Fuhrman about her decision to open the CMB Lethbridge office. “I’m looking for more, and I can share my skills. IGN wants to support local and that is very important to me. I love this community. I’ve stuck around here for a reason – it’s closeknit and it’s like everywhere you go, you meet a friend. I chose IGN for a reason – they aligned with my values.”
For Fuhrmann, launching CMB Lethbridge is one more way for her to give back to the community she loves so much; a way to help the city’s tradespeople achieve success so they can build together.
Click here for more information or to contact CMB Lethbridge.