The Super Bowl Is Coming… Are Your Clients Planning Accordingly?  February 10th 2023

The Super Bowl Is Coming… Are Your Clients Planning Accordingly?

The Super Bowl Is Coming… Are Your Clients Planning Accordingly?

Hurts will try and put the hurt on Mahomes. The brothers Kelce will battle it out. The pregame show will last six hours. People will watch commercials they will actually remember. Rihanna at the half. Confetti and champagne at the end.

It is time for the biggest football game of them all. You, your family and your friends will be among 100 million viewers doing their annual search for the biggest screen. Perhaps it is just you, uninterrupted, watching the game. Maybe family or friends nearby. Maybe you are at a party. Maybe you are hosting one. Maybe you are hoping for an invitation.

One thing is for sure: you and your insurance customers probably will not be thinking about insurance and safety while watching the action on the field. But if you think about it in advance – for you and your clients – you can be prepared in case accidents happen.

Bill Martin is CEO of Plymouth Rock Home Assurance Corporation

What Apple Crash Detection means for auto insurers & their partners

Key Takeaways

• Apple released Apple Crash Detection, which detects severe car crashes and immediately alerts emergency services and contacts.
• While it's a step toward improving road safety, the feature is limited and its accuracy has yet to be verified (there have been false positives reported).
• The release of the feature like means that crash detection will become table stakes for auto insurers, and that OEMs and insurers should follow the customer via smartphone-centric

Why are Accident Reconstruction Experts Always Looking for Dash Camera Videos?

The use of dashcams in vehicle accident reconstruction for insurance claims has become increasingly popular in recent years. Dashcams, or in-car cameras, are devices that record video and audio from inside a vehicle and are typically mounted on the dashboard or windscreen. These cameras can provide valuable evidence in the event of a collision, helping to establish the sequence of events and determine who was at fault.

Data from dashcams is becoming an increasingly valuable resource for vehicle accident reconstruction experts, as it can provide a wealth of information about the events leading up to and during an accident. Dashcams are in-car cameras that capture video and audio of the driver’s view of the road. This data can be used to analyze an accident and help determine its cause.

Allstate will modify claims as it eyes higher profits in auto sector -

“Claim practices have been modified to deal with the higher loss cost environment,” said Mario Rizzo, Allstate’s chief financial officer. “For example, we have strategic partnerships with part suppliers and repair facilities to mitigate the cost of repair and use predictive modeling to optimize repair versus total loss decisions and likelihood of injury and attorney representation.”

Tom Wilson, Allstate’s CEO, said the company uses predictive models to determine whether there’s a better way to settle a claim, or if a damaged car should be repaired or totaled. 

“We’re a data-driven company, so we use predictive models as you know well, for just about everything,” Wilson said. “It could be fraud, [or] do we think this claim might end up being severe enough where it gets represented by a lawyer?”

Returning to the fundamentals of risk management

The beginning of the year marked the return of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, with the theme of “Cooperation in a Fragmented World”. For more than 50 years, the Davos Forum has brought together business leaders, governments, academics, and civil society experts to address and discuss the world’s most pressing challenges. Coinciding with this global event is the publication of the Allianz Risk Barometer 2023, an annual survey of more than 2,700 business leaders, risk managers, brokers and insurance specialists around the world that we have been producing for the past 12 years.

Like last year, this year’s survey sees cyber incidents and business interruption, including supply chain disruption, rank high on the list of concerns for one in three companies. Macroeconomic hazards such as the return of inflation, financial market volatility and recession move from 10th to third place, while the energy crisis is a new entry to the survey, going straight in at the fourth position. These two threats represent a major risk for a quarter of the companies surveyed, replacing in many executives’ eyes the perils of natural catastrophes, which drops from third to sixth position year-on-year, and climate change, which falls to 7th place.

Erie Insurance earns top ranking in J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Independent Agent Satisfaction Study

Erie Insurance (NASDAQ: ERIE) is ranked highest among personal lines insurers in the J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Independent Agent Satisfaction Study. This is the second year in a row that independent P&C insurance agents have rated ERIE highest in satisfaction.

Erie Insurance was ranked #1 in all six study factors: claims process, quoting, product offerings, servicing policies, support and communication, and commission. ERIE led all personal lines (auto and home) carriers in the study, earning a score of 838 on J.D. Power's 1,000-point scale, during a year that also saw overall agent satisfaction in the study reach an all-time high. ERIE's total score was more than 80 points higher than the personal lines segment average for 2022.

"This recognition has special meaning for ERIE because of our agent-centric model," said Doug Smith, executive vice president of sales and products for Erie Insurance. "Our relationship with our agents is our most important asset, and we provide a robust support system to help them grow their businesses and deliver on our shared promise of service."

Assurant launches auto product suite, digital experience

Assurant announced the introduction of its new suite of vehicle products, Assurant Vehicle Care, that offers legacy protection products and digital tools to help customers manage their policies and protect their vehicles, including vehicle service contracts, guaranteed asset protection and prepaid vehicle maintenance. The new portfolio of products brings about an enhanced digital experience with the Vehicle Care by Assurant app and the Assurant Vehicle Care website.

Insurer trade groups respond to Illinois’ rate regulation bill

“The Illinois bill limiting insurers’ ability to use proven factors in setting rates, to put it simply, is bad public policy. This bill is a combination of prohibitions and requirements that will harm consumers, reduce competition, and increase litigation. To enforce the provisions of this legislation a massively expanded state bureaucracy to carry out these regulations will be necessary, the cost of which is also borne by consumers. The legislation will have exactly the opposite effect that the proponents seek.”

Joint statement from APCIA, IIA, and NAMIC