Commentary/Opinion
How Smart Homes Are Changing Insurance
Insurers and homeowners are using IoT devices to optimize housing efficiency, streamline daily tasks and reduce urban household risks.
KEY TAKEAWAY:
--Smart homes offer a vast array of benefits in: risk mitigation and prevention, data collection and analysis, personalized premiums, faster claims processing, home monitoring services, liability coverage, premium discounts, the environment and health and wellness.
Smart homes, equipped with various Internet of Things (IoT) devices and technologies, have the potential to change the insurance industry.
Insurers have a natural synergy with smart home technologies. With almost 69% of U.S. households owning at least one smart home device, it is clear that such technologies help consumers manage, protect and efficiently run their homes via mobile applications.
While smart home technology is not a new concept, many insurance companies and homeowners are adopting it like never before to optimize housing efficiency, streamline daily tasks, improve quality of life and well-being and reduce urban household risks.
Mike de Waal is president and founder of Global IQX
The Key to Transformation? It’s Not Technology
Insurers can overcome the many challenges of digital transformation by dropping their technology-first mindset and adopting a people-centric one.
KEY TAKEAWAY:
--For transformation to occur, key stakeholders must have the five C's in place: customer, capacity, competency, culture and communication.
Sixty-one percent of people say resources (a category that includes both cost and people) are the biggest challenge to digital transformation, according to a poll during an Accelerate webinar hosted by Equisoft. But life insurance companies can overcome this challenge by dropping their technology-first mindset and adopting a people-centric attitude.
For change to be successful at life insurance companies, key stakeholders must have the five C's in place: customer, capacity, competency, culture and communication. For life insurance companies looking to extract the anticipated value from their digital transformation, here are a few suggestions on how to improve each of the five.
Brian Carey is senior director, insurance industry principal, Equisoft
IBHS’s Roy Wright on Natural Peril Property Resiliency, Part 1 : Risk & Insurance
Since 1977, the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety has used a scientific approach to expand our understanding of how property damage occurs — and how it can be prevented.
In testing individual materials and building products, IBHS is unique in its dedication to replicating the effects of natural perils as precisely as possible, even going so far as to develop its own methods for creating more natural irregularly shaped faux hailstones.
It’s unique in that it also tests structures holistically at 1:1 scale, too.
At its 90-acre research facility in South Carolina, IBHS constructs entire buildings, then subjects them to simulated windstorms, hailstorms, ember storms and other perils to test their resilience in situations that mimic real-world conditions.
Risk & Insurance® recently spoke with Roy Wright, IBHS’s president and CEO, to learn more about how the organization studies building resilience and translates its insights into practical guidance for designers, builders, consumers and their insurers. What follows is part one of that interview, edited for clarity.
How insurtech is shaping the future of workers' compensation
Workers' compensation insurance has been around for more than a century in the United States as a way to safeguard both employees and their employers in the event of an accident or injury. For most of this period, it remained largely unchanged. In recent years, though, technology and innovation are transforming the way it protects workers and the companies that employ them.
With new technology solutions emerging seemingly every day, there's a lot to be excited about.
Improve customer experience with automated claims processing
New solutions couldn't have come at a better time as the workers' compensation market faces challenges related to stubborn inflation, increased wages and rising medical costs.
At the same time, competition has increased. New players have emerged, and many carriers in this space are going after the same market share. Increased competition has brought down rates, too, as insurers compete for the same business.
Workers' comp, reimagined by technology
Innovation is happening at a rapid clip, thanks to emerging insurance technologies, or insurtechs, that are enhancing the way insurers select risk, underwrite policies, manage the claims process, support insureds and more.
Insurtech is transforming the workers' compensation segment through big data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, wearable technology and more. It's adding value for both insurers and insureds by increasing efficiency, improving pricing accuracy and enhancing safety. Technology now offers us a way to analyze risk characteristics and make informed decisions about risks more quickly and effectively.
Ultimately, with more competitors in the workers' comp space than ever before, insurers are leaning into insurtech to gain an advantage over the competition.
Jacob Geyer, Chief Insurance Officer, CompScience Dale Hoppe, Vice President, Workers' Compensation E&S/S Programs, Nationwide
News
State Farm rolls out crash detection tech
State Farm has now joined USAA in incorporating crash detection capabilities into their respective mobile applications.
While USAA was ahead of the curve, introducing the feature in August 2022, State Farm has recently followed suit with the launch of an Accident Assistance feature in its Drive Safe & Save app, initially rolling it out to customers in Texas and Florida. Upon detecting an accident, the service automatically sends assistance and contacts the driver to see if he would like to file a claim.
By enabling the feature, which isn’t bulletproof (“Accident Assistance may not detect all accidents and is not a replacement for directly contacting emergency services,” according to the terms), the policyholders are granting State Farm and its vendors explicit permissions, including contacting emergency services or towing, reaching out via various means such as phone, text, or push notifications, and recording phone calls made to emergency services.
“Accident Assistance will only detect potential accidents when the Application is actively running. State Farm does not guarantee the uninterrupted availability of the Applications and its services, including Accident Assistance. The availability of the Accident Assistance functionality is not a guarantee of emergency assistances or towing services and State Farm shall not have responsibility for any actions taken or not taken by third parties in response to an accident alert, including but not limited to towing and emergency response services.”
What is Vehicle Complexity Really Costing Us? | CCC Intelligent Solutions
The recent uptick in electric vehicle adoption and subsidization has elevated the conversation around car complexity and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) technology, but there are more than 60 million ICE vehicles in America that also tout ADAS safety and technology features designed for both protection and convenience.
As car complexity increases across the board, so too do the costs associated with repairing them –– and not just the monetary costs, but also the amount of time spent working (and waiting) on repairs and claims. According to CCC data, the cumulative annual cycle time for auto claims in the U.S. increased to more than 2 billion days in 2022, which begs the question: what is vehicle complexity really costing us?
Let’s break it down.
Kyle Krumlauf, Director Industry Analytics, CCC Intelligent Solutions
More than 80% of home shoppers consider climate risks when looking for a new home
More than 4 out of 5 prospective home buyers consider climate risks as they shop, new Zillow research shows. Most say their major concern is flood risk, followed by wildfires, extreme temperatures, hurricanes and drought.
"Climate risks impact where most prospective buyers shop for a home," said Zillow senior population scientist Manny Garcia. "While all generations juggle trade-offs like budget, floor plans and commute times, younger home shoppers are more likely to face another consideration: They want to know if their home will be safe from rising waters, extreme temperatures and wildfires."
A clear majority of prospective buyers in each region of the United States consider at least one climate risk when shopping for a home. People in the West are most likely to report climate risk as very or extremely impactful in their home search, followed by those in the Northeast. On the flip side, one-third of Midwestern and Southern shoppers say climate risks are not very impactful or not at all impactful to their real estate journey.
California Lawsuit Alleges Safelite Committed Insurance Fraud
The lawsuit filed by a former employee alleges auto glass company charged for OEM or aftermarket moldings but instead installed a “universal” molding, also alleges company charged for cleaning and sanitization services not performed during pandemic.
A lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of California by a former employee of Safelite AutoGlass and Belron, its parent company, alleges the auto glass installation and repair company violated the California Insurance Frauds Prevention Act (IFPA) and other laws. The lawsuit, brought by Brian Williams on behalf of the People of the State of California against Safelite Groups, Inc. and Safelite Fulfillment Inc., was originally filed under seal on January 5.
California’s IFPA, included in Section 1871.7 of the California Insurance Code, allows the public to file lawsuits against anyone who commits violations of the insurance fraud statutes.
In the complaint, Williams alleges that Safelite produced false and misleading bills to insurance companies, including Allstate Insurance Company, GEICO, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, Progressive Corporation and The Travelers Companies, Inc., concerning window moldings Safelite used to repair automobile glass, as well as cleaning and sanitization services that Defendants only provided for a small number of customers.
InsurTech/M&A/Finance💰/Collaboration
ClearCover shrinks workforce by a further 28% after April workforce cull | The Insurer
Auto-focused insurtech ClearCover cut its workforce by an additional 28 percent last week, marking the third and deepest round of job cuts the firm has undertaken in the past year.
AI in Insurance
Fortitude Re inks $450 million AI deal with IBM
Fortitude Re and IBM have entered into a substantial $450 million agreement aimed at revolutionizing the insurance group's life insurance policy servicing operations through the implementation of AI technology and other automation tools. These advancements are designed to provide an enhanced customer experience for policyholders and insurers.
The reinsurer has chosen IBM's subsidiary, IBM Insurance Solutions, to harness IBM's global capabilities to offer third-party administration (TPA) services for over 4 million policyholders. IBM will create and manage a tailored solution for administering life and annuity insurance policies, enhancing Fortitude Re's third-party administration operations. Simultaneously, this collaboration is expected to yield operational expense reductions.
This partnership also highlights the company’s ability to provide comprehensive reinsurance solutions, encompassing policy administration and related operational capabilities.
IBM will assist Fortitude Re in optimizing end-to-end processes within its insurance customer service operations, providing adaptability and scalability to seize new business growth opportunities through an open ecosystem approach. IBM Consulting will spearhead these efforts, incorporating AI for automation, hybrid cloud solutions, and main-frame-as-a-service technolog
Advancing Claims Processing: The Impact of Generative AI in Medical Summary Creation
In what seemed like a matter of months across the end of 2022, talk of artificial intelligence (AI) flooded the globe. While AI has been around since the 1950s, the last part of 2022 brought more high-profile technologies to the fore, including generative AI “chatbots” such as ChatGPT. In general, the term ‘generative AI’ refers to the AI tools designed to create something new. Whether that ‘new’ is a digitally rendered painting of a rabbit or a summary of recent medical reports, generative AI uses its existing knowledge to create something that didn’t exist before.
What does this mean for the future of claims? When it comes to the claims process, AI in general is a welcome change. Artificial intelligence can be used to speed up the manual job of paperwork, without compromising the accuracy of the task. Through human in the loop processes, organizations can maintain human checkpoints for AI-automated work. This means more paperwork in less time.
AI helps with manual tasks like indexing documents or removing duplicates. AI tools can recognize written documents in a way traditional automation can’t, pulling out handwritten scribbles or an unstructured page. When used to prepare documents for workflows, AI makes it possible to deal with massive quantities of data – while a human worker ensures attention to detail. This means less time spent on paperwork, more files per day, faster processes, and more effective claims: for the industry, it benefits every level.
Connor Atchison is the Founder and CEO of Wisedocs
People
Kyle Thompson named Vice President-Client Services at Gerber Collision and Glass.
Last week marked a major change in my professional career. I have taken the role of Vice President-Client Services at Gerber Collision and Glass.
Last week marked a major change in my professional career. I have taken the role of **Vice President-Client Services at Gerber Collision and Glass&&. I am excited about this opportunity and ready to get to work with this amazing team.
After 16 1/2 years at USAA it was a difficult decision to make this change. USAA has an incredible Membership and Mission, one that carries forward with my many former talented teammates and teams.
Thank you!
Kyle Thompson, Vice President-Client Services at Gerber Collision and Glass.
HUB INTERNATIONAL NAMES ROBERT HARTMAN EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, STRATEGIC CLIENT SERVICE OPERATIONS
Hartman joins HUB's Executive Management Team Expanding Firm's Leadership
Hub International Limited (HUB), a leading global insurance brokerage and financial services firm, announced today Robert Hartman has joined a newly created position as Executive Vice President of Strategic Client Service Operations and the firm's Executive Management Team to focus on elevating HUB's client experience.
"HUB has experienced fivefold growth over the last 10 years, driven by both organic growth and broadened client relationships as well as our active M&A strategy," said Marc Cohen, President and CEO of HUB. "It is that growth that is fueling the opportunity to leverage Rob's talent to elevate our client experiences across borders, lines of business, industries and services to advance our organic growth. We look forward to working with Rob to help drive efficiency that benefits our clients and our employees."
In recent years HUB has achieved historical levels of organic growth. To help maintain and accelerate that momentum, Hartman will be responsible for elevating client service processes that create a seamless client experience and strengthens their relationships with HUB