News
Progressive Insurance® Continued Growth Leads to More Than 10,000 Open Roles in 2024
The insurance provider is deepening its commitment to flexible workplace offerings to support company growth
To help support several years of continued year-over-year growth, today, Progressive Insurance announced plans to hire thousands of job seekers for numerous roles across the country in 2024. Available positions will be a mix of in-office, remote and hybrid workplace roles across claims, customer care, IT and analyst, legal, and corporate functions.
Over the past decade, the organization has produced year-over-year increases in the number of policies in force and total revenue—with the latter seeing an increase of 25% in 2023 versus the prior year. The company has maintained this growth into the new calendar year; at the end of March, the company reported year-over-year increases in policies in force across all parts of the business compared to the same date last year. With these continued positive trends, the company is actively seeking qualified candidates to fill a multitude of roles to help support its growing customer base.
Progressive offers an award-winning, purpose-driven, and forward-thinking company culture. Its inclusive environment, core values, and the dedication of its people make the company one of the best places to work. In 2024, Progressive was named one of FORTUNE's 100 Best Companies to Work For®.
"Our talented group of more than 60,000 employees across the country are at the forefront of what we do, and we're committed to meeting the needs of our current employees as well as job seekers through a reimagined workforce," said Bill Clawson, Progressive Chief Human Resources Officer. "Building upon our inclusive culture, in this post-Covid era we offer a flexible workplace approach and will continue to grow nationally with our expansive in-office, remote, and hybrid workplace options."
How American Modern is attracting the next generation of insurance
By 2026, the insurance labor force could lose around 400,000 workers according to The Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Attracting and retaining new talent to the industry has become a top priority for carriers, and many are centering digital innovation and offering educational opportunities in their talent acquisition efforts.
American Modern Insurance Group, a Munich Re subsidiary that provides specialty property and casualty coverage, has gone through a multi-million-dollar digital transformation. Its updated tech systems and digital tools are now integrated across product lines, and its claims department incorporates insurtech solutions that streamline its processes.
American Modern is also boosting its talent development program, American Modern University. The program, conducted at a real training campus, prepares workers for the industry by improving data literacy and also enables adjusters to conduct real-world simulations.
Digital Insurance conducted an email interview with Mike Williams, global HR learning and development expert at Munich Re, who oversees American Modern University, to learn more about the program.full interview
Allstate says it is considering return to California homeowners’ insurance market
But there is one major caveat…
Allstate says it is considering return to California homeowners’ insurance market Catastrophe & Flood
Like those in a number of other catastrophe hit states, California’s policyholders are watching their pool of available carriers shrinking at a concerning rate.
Victoria Roach, president of the California FAIR plan confirmed yesterday that the state fire insurer of last resort is now one of the largest insurers of residential property in the state, despite the insurer’s aim to divest itself of as many policies as possible to private sector carriers.
But in what could be good news for the state, two years after halting the issuance of new homeowners policies in California, Allstate has said it is considering a return to the market. The company's reentry hinges on the California Department of Insurance's approval to incorporate catastrophic modeling in their rate increase proposals.
The insurer paused new policy offerings in 2022 due to increased wildfire risks, the escalating costs of home reconstruction, and rising reinsurance prices, though it maintained renewals for existing customers.
Allstate expressed in a statement, "Once home insurance rates fully reflect the cost of providing protection to consumers, we’ll be able to offer home insurance policies to more Californians with timely rate approvals, the use of our advanced wildfire modeling and reinsurance costs."
30% of Business Leaders Say Global Political Risk Is Their Biggest Threat
Sixty-five percent of North American business leaders fear this election year will impact their ability to trade internationally, with 32% of U.S. leaders saying political risk is their number one threat.
In January, Beazley surveyed over 3,500 business leaders in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Singapore, France, Germany and Spain.
The results, published in Beazley’s Risk & Resilience Report: Geopolitical Risk Snapshot 2024, found that 30% of international business leaders believe that political risk is the biggest threat they face this year, with 36% believing they are operating in a high-risk environment.full article
Claims Journal
Global Real-Time Payments Growth “Sustainable” As New Use Cases Push Transactions to Record Highs
Global real-time payments growth has reached sustainable levels with 266.2 billion real-time payments transactions recorded in 2023—a year-over-year (YoY) growth of 42.2%—according to the 2024 Prime Time for Real-Time report, published by ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a global leader in mission-critical, real-time payments software, in partnership with GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
North America is a major growth market to watch—primarily due to the launch of the FedNow service in the U.S. in 2023—with a projected 2023-2028 CAGR of 27.1%.
Key Findings: - 266.2 billion real-time payments transactions were recorded globally in 2023, a YoY growth of 42.2% - 49% of all real-time transactions worldwide were made in India, followed by Brazil (14%), Thailand (8%), China (7%) and South Korea (3%) - Report highlights lessons learned from five of the world’s most successful real-time payments markets: India, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia and Netherlands
All key facts and figures at a glance can be found in our Prime Time for Real-Time 2024 Infographic
ACI Worldwide Report
Surging auto insurance rates squeeze drivers, fuel inflation
Relentlessly rising auto insurance rates are squeezing car owners and stoking inflation.
Auto insurance rates rose 2.6% in March and are up 22% from a year ago. Premium costs have been marching steadily higher since 2022, even as inflation at the consumer level steadily cooled from its 9.1% peak in the middle of that year. Consumers have had some relief as the rate of cost increases for food and energy, two key components of most budgets, has eased greatly.
But auto insurance and car ownership costs have become a sticking point for consumers and the Federal Reserve in its battle to rein inflation back to its goal of 2%.
Typically, individuals would see a noticeable increase in their premiums because of speeding tickets and other moving violations. Adding new drivers or a general increase in claims in the area were other reasons.
But the persistent rise in rates over the last two years has been far more sweeping. New vehicle prices starting spiking during the pandemic, mainly because of a worldwide shortage of computer chips amid production cuts and supply chain bottlenecks. Dealers spent much of 2021 with few or no cars in stock.
DAMIAN J. TROISE
Climate/Change/Sustainability/ESG
Surging weather disasters disrupt insurance models, driving up home insurance by 23%
Weather pattern changes are now affecting nearly every corner of the country as people face more severe hurricanes, flooding and wildfires.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there were 28 weather and climate disasters in 2023 with each costing at least $1 billion in losses.
When the trends go to the extremes, all the financial modeling that the insurance companies base their rates on gets disrupted,” said Travis Hodges, Managing Director at VIU by HUB . According to Bankrate, some home insurance premiums have jumped as much as 23% just from last year.
InsurTech/M&A/Finance💰/Collaboration
Allianz, Clearspeed partner to combat fraud
Emerging scams like moped fraud and shallow fakes pose new challenges to insurers, so more sophisticated detection systems are crucial
Allianz’s personal lines business saw a significant increase of 29% in its efforts to prevent fraud in 2023 compared to the previous year. This covers various types of insurance fraud, including motor and home claims, application fraud, and the alarming trend of ghost brokers using deceptive tactics to trap unsuspecting victims into fake insurance schemes.
Fraud is constantly evolving, so fraudsters are adapting quickly to exploit new opportunities.
This includes emerging scams like moped "crash for cash" fraud and the use of shallow fakes, where apps distort real-life images, videos, and documents. Incidents involving the manipulation of media through apps surged by 300% from 2022 to 2023, indicating a potential major threat to the insurance sector.
WTW partners with Riskonnect to introduce advanced risk diagnostic tool
WTW, a global insurance and reinsurance broker, has partnered with Riskonnect to launch a new analytical delivery tool that seamlessly connects claims and exposure data through the WTW Risk IQ API (application programming interface).
This collaboration aims to provide clients of both organisations with a deeper understanding of their claims data.
By utilising this tool, clients can efficiently identify inefficiencies, reduce errors, and pinpoint anomalies. It eliminates the need for laborious manual processes involved in uploading complex risk and claims data into analytical models, enabling clients to access real-time insights to inform their risk management strategies.
AI in Insurance
Insurance: An Industry Embracing AI | Insurance Thought Leadership
A broad survey found that 77% of senior executives said they are in some stage of adopting AI, up 16 percentage points from a year ago.
Insurance companies often struggle against the perception of being conservative institutions that are slow to change. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Since the 1960s, the insurance industry has embraced so many new technologies, from punch cards and mainframes to tablets and mobile phones. Technology is the backbone of the modern insurance industry.
Here’s an example of the industry’s technology commitment. In 2002, the life-annuity sector spent $1.4 billion on IT, and the P&C sector spent just under $3 billion. In 2022, those expenses were $5.7 billion for life and $9.3 billion for P&C. In our view, this investment is about industry transformation and platform modernization, not just administering business growth.
Scott Hawkins is a managing director and head of insurance research at Conning
Study finds AI and advanced predictive modeling needed to meet underwriting challenges
Capgemini Research Institute’s recently released World Property and Casualty Insurance Report 2024 explores technology advancements needed to meet the challenges facing the underwriting industry.
The research institute examines the use and need for technology throughout industries.
“The property and casualty insurance industry faces significant challenges, with global combined ratio reaching 103% in 2022,”Anirban Bose, Capgemini board member and CEO of Financial Services Strategic Business Unit, says in a foreword to the report. “Inflationary pressure and a volatile risk landscape have tossed traditional underwriting strategies into disarray.”
Bose says trailblazers are breaking free from legacy models and harnessing data through predictive analytics, AI, and cutting-edge technologies.
“Our report found that underwriting trailblazers rarely miss their business goals, sparking topline growth, positively impacting profits, and enhancing risk oversight,” Bose says.
Innovation
Flowcore: Synthetik Insurance Analytics announces successful demonstration of AI powered flood modeling and loss prediction tool
Synthetik has announced the successful demonstration of their "Flood Data Collection and Analysis" platform, Flowcore - an end-to-end tool for modeling of flood scenarios and prediction of resulting damage and financial/insurance losses. Flowcore incorporates Synthetik's proprietary GPU-accelerated flood simulation code, and uniquely leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver results in seconds on standard laptop systems – enabling measurement of cumulative events or high-volume probabilistic analysis.
Flowcore has undergone significant validation using real world events and was used to recreate a flash flooding event in Fort Lauderdale, FL from April 2023 with virtually perfect accuracy at unprecedented speeds.
Flowcore meets the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and National Flood Insurance Program's (NFIP) objectives of better understanding historical flood impact, real-time analysis and damage forecasting for future events across the country and represents a step-change in scalability for physics-based flood simulation. Flowcore is already being marketed and utilized by Synthetik's partners in the insurance industry.
Josh Hatfield, Director of Research and Development for Synthetik said:
'Climate change is rapidly and radically changing the landscape of risk in climate-related events, so we are delighted with the success of Flowcore and its potential to assist public and private sector partners in understanding and predicting flooding damage, and to help guide disaster mitigation efforts across impacted communities.'
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