Chartwell Inc. Launches Arrears Management Leadership Council
North American Utility Leaders to Collaborate on Affordability and Financial Resilience
We are pleased to announce the launch of the Arrears Management Leadership Council, a new peer community dedicated to helping utilities address the growing challenges of customer affordability, arrears management, collections performance, and financial resilience. Scheduled to launch in 2027, the Arrears Management Leadership Council will give utility professionals a trusted forum to collaborate, benchmark performance, share proven practices, and develop practical solutions to one of the industry’s most pressing customer and operational challenges.
Across North America, consumers face rising household costs, economic uncertainty, and a need for more personalized support and assistance. A 2025 Chartwell survey of more than 2,000 consumers in the U.S. and Canada revealed that 19 percent made one or more late payments of their utility bill and 6 to 9 percent across income levels were disconnected for non-payment. Arrears management now requires coordinated strategies across customer engagement, affordability programs, analytics, operations, regulatory compliance, and financial performance. The Arrears Management Leadership Council will help utility leaders address these challenges through collaboration and shared learning.
“Utilities are asked to achieve outcomes that are financially responsible and customer-centered,” said Carisa Woolstenhulme, Senior Consultant at Chartwell with over 20 years of direct utility experience, who will lead the Arrears Management Leadership Council. “Success increasingly depends on identifying risks earlier, engaging customers more effectively, using data more strategically, and aligning affordability goals with operational performance. The Arrears Management Leadership Council will help utility leaders learn from one another and advance solutions that benefit customers and utilities.”
“We’re all dealing with very similar issues. To know another utility who’s already gone through it, some of the experiences they can share, and some of the tools that they used is really helpful.” –Customer Credit and Collections Leader, Large Western Municipal Utility
A New Focus Area Within the Utility Affordability Ecosystem
The Arrears Management Leadership Council fills a distinct and emerging need within Chartwell’s utility leadership council portfolio. While Chartwell’s Billing and Payment Leadership Council focuses on billing operations, payment channels, and customer payment experiences, and the Vulnerable Customer Leadership Council focuses on customer assistance programs and support for at-risk populations, the Arrears Management Leadership Council will focus on the critical space where affordability pressures, billing and payment operations, credit policy, customer support, regulatory expectations, and financial performance intersect.
The council will serve professionals responsible for arrears prevention, collections strategy, payment recovery programs, customer risk identification, affordability operations, credit practices, write-off reduction, and financial performance optimization. Members will explore both the customer and business dimensions of arrears management, helping utilities coordinate across internal teams, assistance partners, community resources, and policy requirements to support customers while improving operational outcomes.
Advancing a More Proactive Approach to Affordability
A central focus of the Arrears Management Leadership Council will be helping utilities shift from reactive collections activity toward proactive affordability and arrears management strategies. Council members will examine how utilities can identify payment challenges sooner, engage customers before financial hardship escalates, strengthen payment assistance pathways, improve communications, and use data-driven insights to intervene more effectively. Discussions will also explore how emerging technologies, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence can improve decision-making across the arrears lifecycle.
Built on Chartwell’s Proven Collaboration Model
Like Chartwell’s established leadership councils, the Arrears Management Leadership Council will provide ongoing opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, problem solving, and industry benchmarking. Members will participate in virtual meetings, collaborative working sessions, annual in-person gatherings, and member-driven discussions, with exclusive access to research and best practices. Council priorities and content will be shaped directly by participating utilities to ensure discussions remain practical, timely, and relevant.
The council’s development has been informed by industry research and interviews with utility leaders across customer operations, billing, payment, credit, collections, and customer assistance functions. Those conversations consistently identified the need for a dedicated community focused specifically on managing arrears in a rapidly changing customer environment.
Before the official 2027 launch, Chartwell will continue engaging prospective members through working sessions, charter-member discussions, and industry events to help define the council’s inaugural priorities, benchmarking activities, and content roadmap.
To find out more about the benefits of being a charter member of the new Arrears Management Leadership Council, please email Tim Herrick, Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
