Commentary/Opinion
Where Can’t We Sell? The Case for Rapid Distribution Channel Expansion
In 2018, revenues for the online sales site, Craigslist, peaked at $1.03 billion and then began a rapid descent. It is still a viable company (2022 revenues were $694m) but it suffers from a case of channel calcification. Craigslist hasn’t changed much of its functionality since it started, and users find that other options offer a much better experience.
On October 4, 2016 (note the timing), Facebook Marketplace hit the scene. Even though Facebook itself is in decline, its offshoots such as Marketplace and Instagram are thriving. Marketplace is perhaps Craigslist’s most relevant competitor since it allows users to search and buy locally with ease. eBay, another competitor, does less local business, but eBay sellers benefit from integrated shipping options that make it easier for buyers and sellers. And most recently is Etsy, where sellers can offer high-quality, artisanal products and developed an amazing loyal customer base with an estimated 40 percent are sales from repeat buyers. I know I have bought from all of these depending on what I am looking for—I am a multi-channel buyer.
Facebook Marketplace has some clear advantages over Craigslist, most having to do with the customer experience. First, there’s security. Buyers and sellers can see each other and interact far more easily, removing some of the purchase’s uncertainty. They can comment on each other on the platform, which makes both parties responsible for completing a good and fair transaction. The seller dashboard is easy to use. Payment can be made through the platform if both parties agree to it with multiple different payment options. Sellers can also pay a premium to get “pushed” to the top of the listings.
So, the Craigslist downturn has two components to it: Lack of customer experience improvements and loss of seller preference. If sellers find that they are selling more through a better channel, they’ll move. Buyers will then move with them because the selection improves through the new channel.
There are a dozen lessons in this situation for insurers, but let’s look closely at five.
Denise Garth, Chief Strategy Officer, Majesco
Social Media Investigations Are a Winning Strategy for Insurers
If you’re a plaintiff in an injury lawsuit against your insurer, you might want to ask your wife not to post videos online of you frolicking in a swimming pool.
An Instagram post by a woman that showed her husband, an auto injury claimant, jumping onto a boogie board floating in a backyard pool torpedoed the couple’s injury claims. Both husband and wife had claimed they required spinal surgeries to repair their grave injuries.
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth 10,000,” said Joseph Jones, president of Bosco Legal Services in Riverside, California.
Jones and Irene Messina, an attorney for Wawanesa Insurance Co., told the tale during a presentation Wednesday at the Combined Claims Conference. They said social media can be a gold mine for insurers disputing false claims, but information must be collected properly and verified for accuracy to ensure that it is admissible.
Jones said investigations that include searches of social media are usually far more productive than sub rosa surveillance. But he cautioned the claims professionals in the audience that there are pitfalls.
He said investigators should never use their personal social media accounts or email addresses because doing so may invite retribution or tip off the subject that he or she is being investigated. He said investigators should use “sock puppet accounts” instead. Or better yet, an investigator can ask to use a social media account of a friend or follower of the person being investigated. Jones said he is often able to get around privacy settings by finding friends or family members who had a falling out with the subject.
News
Hurricane Idalia expected to bring ‘catastrophic’ storm surge to Florida | The Hill
Hurricane Idalia was downgraded to a Category 3 storm early Wednesday morning as it approaches Florida’s Gulf coast.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC), however, stressed that the technical change in category did not change the threat posed by the storm.
“This change in wind speed does not diminish the threat of catastrophic storm surge and damaging winds,” the latest 7 a.m. NHC update read, warning still of a “catastrophic storm surge” and “destructive winds occurring in the Florida Big Bend region.”
By 7 a.m. EDT Wednesday, the maximum sustained winds of Hurricane Idalia reached 125 mph, a slight dip from the 130 mph recorded at 5 a.m. EDT, which briefly made the storm a Category 4 hurricane.
The National Hurricane Center considers storms to be Category 3 if sustained winds are at 111-129 mph. A Category 4 storm is categorized by sustained winds of 130-156 mph. There are five categories of storms, with categories 3-5 considered “major.”
As of 7 a.m. Wednesday, the storm was located about 55 miles northwest of Cedar Key, Florida and about 65 miles south-southeast of Tallahassee, Florida.
Storm surge remains a key concern as the hurricane approaches the coast. The NOAA National Ocean Service tide gauge reported a water level higher than normal.
“The combination of storm surge and tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline,” NHC’s 5 a.m. bulletin read.
Vehicle technology is causing bad driving, study says | Repairer Driven News
Nearly one-third of drivers whose vehicles are equipped with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) believe new technologies are worsening their behind-the-wheel skills, according to new data from the United Kingdom.
The findings emerged from a survey by Quotezone, an auto insurance comparison site, and were reported on by a number of outlets.
The survey found that among the 66% of respondents whose vehicles contain ADAS features, 31% believe things, like assisted parking, speed control, and braking assist, are making them worse drivers.
“Our survey results show the majority of people have some sort of automated technology in their cars, and many of them are relying on it regularly when it comes to basic driving skills,” Greg Wilson, Quotezone CEO, told news outlets. “Things like parallel parking, timely braking, cruise control and navigation have all been taken out of the drivers control by automated car systems. This raises a question around whether this is making us worse drivers, considering many of us are no longer practicing driving skills to complete these, sometimes tricky, maneuvers.”
The survey found that among drivers:
- 15% admitted to “heavily relying” on ADAS features while on the road;
- 37% use advanced technologies because it makes driving easier;
- 50% use ADAS features every time they slip behind the wheel; and
- 25% rely on it to park.
California Casualty is shrinking its footprint
Home and auto insurer California Casualty is in the process of shrinking its footprint.
The insurer, which distributes its products through affinity groups in the fields of education, law enforcement, and public safety, has submitted withdrawal notices in 22 states and the District of Columbia.
“Over the last 23 years, California Casualty has grown our footprint in an effort to meet the needs of our national partner the National Education Association, and now serve members in 43 states and the District of Columbia,” California Casualty stated in one of the filings. “However, this expansion has strained our resources and we simply have not achieved the economic scale necessary to maintain a reasonable expense ratio and generate a consistent underwriting profit.”
CCG’s personal lines combined ratio increased from 102.9% in 2021 to 118.5% in 2022, primarily due to accelerating inflationary pressures. The company recorded a net loss of $80.3 million in 2022 compared to net income of $41.5 million in 2021.
InsurTech/M&A/Finance💰/Collaboration
One Inc and Origami Risk Expand Alliance with Integrated ClaimsPay® Solution
One Inc today announced Origami Risk is enhancing their partnership by integrating One Inc’s best-in-class digital payments solution, ClaimsPay®.
One Inc, the leading digital payments network for the insurance industry, today announced Origami Risk, a leading provider of SaaS-based solutions for the risk and insurance industry, is enhancing their partnership by integrating One Inc’s best-in-class digital payments solution, ClaimsPay®. Integrating One Inc's ClaimsPay into Origami’s unified cloud-based platform empowers insurance carriers to easily distribute claims payments to their policyholders using widely adopted consumer payment platforms including Venmo and PayPal.
Following the initial partnership announcement in 2022, One Inc was designated as Origami's preferred digital payments infrastructure provider for its customers in the insurance industry. The successful implementation of One Inc’s digital payments solution, PremiumPay® marked an initial step in this collaboration.
Planitar Inc. and Verisk Join Forces to Revolutionize Insurance Adjusters' Workflow with iGUIDE Instant Sketch |
Planitar Inc., the creators of iGUIDE, and Verisk (Nasdaq: VRSK) announced today a strategic integration aimed at accelerating the insurance industry's claims process.
“We are proud to be at the forefront of this transformation and of our commitment to an open ecosystem designed to drive efficiency and deliver solutions that make a real difference for our customers.”
Leveraging the market-leading technology of both providers, the collaboration introduces a groundbreaking solution, iGUIDE Instant Sketch. This integration of iGUIDE and Verisk’s Xactimate platform is designed to enable insurance adjusters to process claims with unprecedented accuracy, speed and increased efficiency.
Planitar is a proptech company providing a secure solution for comprehensive pre- and post-loss property documentation. Verisk is a leading global data analytics and technology provider to the insurance industry.
iGUIDE Instant Sketch is designed to significantly improve the accuracy and speed of creating a comprehensive property loss documentation package. The product fully automates the floor plan sketch creation, an essential first step in the claims and restoration process. By combining optical imaging, laser (Lidar) measurements and deep learning AI technology, the iGUIDE Instant Sketch product provides the insurance industry with an essential tool to document an interior loss more quickly, consistently and comprehensively.
Planitar’s iGUIDE technology can automatically create room(s) or entire floor plan drawings and translate those directly to a Sketch™ within the Xactimate software platform in minutes.
Saving Time with Accuracy
This solution can help eliminate hours spent manually measuring, photographing and annotating property damage, helping to streamline the initial claim estimating process. AI-generated floorplans improve the accuracy and consistency of claim sketches used to create replacement material estimates.
Joyn Insurance Chooses Quorum Cyber for Robust Cybersecurity amid Rapid Expansion | Insurance Innovation Reporter
The Delaware-domiciled MGA tapped the Scottish InsurTech to meet New York State cyber regulations and ensure overall network security.
Joyn Insurance (New York), a technology-focused commercial MGA, has selected Quorum Cyber (Edinburgh) to help meet New York State cyber regulations and ensure overall network security
Founded in 2020, Joyn Insurance provides commercial insurance for small and medium-sized companies in the U.S. Every year, the insurance company has to attest to the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) that it fully complies with their regulations–and these regulations become stricter as the company continues to grow.
“Insurance is heavily regulated in the U.S., and companies need to meet state-specific cyber regulations to operate,” comments Ed McGough, Co-founder and CTO, Joyn Insurance. “We initially ensured that we met the requirements of the New York regulators, as they were among the first to provide a mandate and remain one of the most stringent.”
In addition to Quorum Cyber’s compliance assistance, Joyn Insurance also contracted the company for penetration testing and Managed Detection & Response (MDR) services run by Quorum Cyber’s Security Operations Center (SOC) team, according to a Quorum Cyber statement.
AI in Insurance
Plnar Announces Virtual Desk Estimation as a Service - Plnar - Create 2D & 3D Plans of Any Room in Seconds
Plnar, the Leading AI-Powered Self-service Virtual Inspection Provider for the Property Insurance Market today announced a new Virtual Desk Estimation as a Service Solution. “Plnar Complete” delivers a completed estimate from a Plnar enabled self-service inspection. It is now easier than ever for Carriers to realize the massive expense reductions associated with Virtual Claims without impacting estimate accuracy or supplement rates.
The increase in claim volume, service fees, and scarcity of adjusters equipped to write estimates is driving the need for a policyholder self-service solution. It’s a key strategy for long term expense reduction, and a crucial step for the transformation to digital claims. Since 2020, Plnar has worked with over 40 Carriers and TPAs to deliver photos, reports and 3D models to their adjusting resources so they can create accurate estimates. Now we can provide estimates derived from a Plnar self-service inspection, faster, and cheaper than sending someone onsite, with the same level of accuracy.
Quantiphi and Unqork to Launch Fully-Automated and Integrated Intelligent Insurance Underwriting Platform on Google Cloud
Quantiphi, an Al-first digital engineering company, today announced the launch of its AI-led Intelligent Underwriting Platform (AiUP), which will be included in Google Cloud's Industry Value Network (IVN) solutions and combines the power of Dociphi, Quantiphi's intelligent document processing platform, Unqork's codeless platform and Google Cloud's services (Document Al) and infrastructure to assist with digitizing and automating the insurance underwriting process.
Quantiphi Global Head of Financial Services and Insurance, Bhaskar Kalita, said Quantiphi is committed to solving the most intricate business challenges in the financial services and insurance sector.
"Our vision for AiUP is to be the end-to-end platform helping carriers automate the complex underwriting process in commercial insurance," Kalita said. "Thereby improving application processing times, the user experience for brokers/agents and ultimately improving quote-to-bind ratios."
Built on Google Cloud, AiUP leverages Unqork's codeless platform with Dociphi's patent-pending, generative Al-enabled submission intake capabilities for a fully integrated, accelerated and more seamless underwriting experience. In doing so, insurers are empowered to significantly reduce the time it takes to complete the entire underwriting process, sometimes in a matter of hours instead of several weeks.
Unqork Global Head of Insurance, Farooq Sheikh, said the collaboration will change the very core of the underwriting process.
People
InsurTech Profile: InsurAware CEO Reflects on the Power of Change
At 40 years old, Rajesh Krishnan sat in a Baltimore intensive care unit, recovering from a brain aneurism and a stroke. His solution-oriented mind had driven him to academic and insurance industry success. But as he recovered, one thought returned repeatedly.
“All life is a gift,” he said recently while remembering the experience. “Everything that we have, every second, every day we have, is a gift given to us. And we need to use that for the betterment of people around you. The environment you are in, the country you are in, and the world we live in.”
Krishnan now sees every day as a second chance. In 2021, he co-founded InsurAware alongside Patrick Bowen. The software company positions itself as “the first InsurTech solution to complete the value chain from lead generation to enrollment.”
InsurAware uses artificial intelligence to identify who insurance agencies, carriers, and financial institutions should be contacting to sell their products. The company’s mission is to help insurance pros pinpoint potential customers and better reach their target audiences through digital marketing. The InsurTech operates primarily in the life insurance and annuity spaces.
Events
Live Webcast: Insurtech Rap with Dave Wechsler., Principal, OMERS Ventures 👍
Excited to announce this week's guests on Insurtech Rap - David McFarland and Bobbie Collies from Coterie Insurance.
Come listen to the insights of this OG insurtech team live, Thursday (8/31) from 2-2:30pm ET!
You must pre-register here