Tariffs/Insurance
U of South Carolina’s Hartwig: Tariffs May Drive Up Costs, Disrupt Insurance Industry
Robert Hartwig, University of South Carolina, discussed how tariff expansion could impact the insurance industry: from rising costs to supply chain disruptions; and offers strategies to address these challenges.
Los Angeles Wildfires
State Farm executive fired over comments about rate hikes - Los Angeles Times
A top State Farm executive was fired this week after saying the insurer’s California rate hikes are “kind of” orchestrated and after making disparaging remarks about Pacific Palisades homeowners that were caught on an undercover video.
Haden Kirkpatrick, State Farm Mutual’s vice president for innovation and venture capital, was recorded saying that the request by its California subsidiary for rate hikes was “kind of” orchestrated “but not in the way you would think,” according to a video published by O’Keefe Media Group, a conservative outlet.
“Our people look at this and say, ‘S—, we’ve got like maybe $5 billion that we’re short if something happens.’ We’ll go to the Department of Insurance and say, ‘We’re overexposed here, you have to let us catch up our [rates]’. ... He’ll say ‘Nah.’ And we’ll say, ‘OK, then we are going to cancel these policies,’ ” he said in the video, recorded surreptitiously in January after the fires.
State Farm released a statement that “the individual in the video is no longer associated with State Farm” and his assertions are “inaccurate and in no way represent the views of State Farm. They do not reflect our position regarding the victims of this tragedy, the commitment we have demonstrated to the people of California, or our hiring practices across the company.”
Consumer Watchdog's Rate Hike Challenge Saves $25 Million for General Ins. Co. Homeowner Policyholders
Consumer Watchdog reached a settlement this week with General Insurance Company of America and the California Department of Insurance, resolving the company's application with the Department for a rate increase of 7.33% to its homeowners line of insurance and saving California policyholders a total of $25 million.
General originally sought a rate increase of 13.7%. Consumer Watchdog challenged the rate hike as excessive under Prop 103 and the Department's ratemaking regulations, which require insurers to justify all rate changes prior to implementation.
Read Consumer Watchdog's Petition here.
Specifically, Consumer Watchdog challenged General's trend selections as overstating projected losses, resulting in an inflated rate indication.
"Public involvement plays a vital role in keeping insurance companies in check and preventing excessive rate hikes," said Consumer Watchdog Staff Attorney Benjamin Powell. "This case demonstrates that when companies are challenged on their unjustified rate increase requests, consumers see tangible financial benefits."
Consumer Watchdog requested that General provide further information in order to substantiate its claims about projected losses and other information in its application. Answers to multiple rounds of questions Consumer Watchdog posed to the company showed a lower rate increase of 7.4% was warranted. General's newly-approved rate will have an effective date of May 28, 2025, and will affect more than 200,000 policyholders.
Hippo's $42m LA wildfire loss includes $15m gross savings from sale of subrogation rights - Reinsurance News
Home insurance carrier Hippo has announced estimated losses from the January 2025 Los Angeles, California wildfires of $42 million pre-tax, net of reinsurance recoveries and subrogation, also revealing that it has agreed to sell its subrogation rights specific to its portion of losses from the Eaton wildfire.
The insurer’s $42 million wildfire loss estimate includes assessments from the California FAIR Plan, and also includes around $12 million related to non-Hippo programs supported by its Spinnaker fronting operation, with $30 million attributed to the Hippo Home Insurance Program.
This month, Hippo signed an agreement to sell its subrogation rights specific to losses from the Eaton outbreak, which the firm expects to result in gross savings of approximately $15 million and $11 million on a net basis, which is included in the above loss estimate.
“We believe the proceeds from this sale compare favorably with what we could have achieved by pursuing our subrogation claims through the legal system,” confirms Hippo.
AI in Insurance
Manulife Rolls Out GenAI Capabilities to 100 Percent of Its Workforce | Insurance Innovation Reporter
The company expects its multi-billion-dollar investment in digital capabilities, including AI-enabled enhancements, to generate a threefold return on investment over five years through 2027.
Manulife (Toronto) announced today that it has rolled out GenAI capabilities to its entire workforce and that currently over 75 percent of its global workforce is engaged with GenAI through learning, immersive experiences and tools, including ChatMFC, the company’s proprietary GenAI assistant introduced in 2024. Manulife reports that it has been actively investing in AI tools to embed across its workforce since the AI practice was introduced nearly ten years ago.
By democratizing access to AI-enabled solutions, the Manulife says it is empowering colleagues to harness its potential in their daily workflows, enhancing efficiency and driving innovation. Rather than a standalone function at the company, AI is an integral part of how Manulife operates across teams, geographies, and business units, a company statement says.
A Culture of AI Democratization and Innovation
“AI is transformative, and it is creating efficiencies for how we work, create, and interact with one another,” said Jodie Wallis, Global Chief Analytics Officer, Manulife. “By equipping our teams with GenAI tools, we’re enabling them to work smarter, move faster, and make a bigger impact. We’ve doubled our AI-driven impact by diversifying and expanding solutions, strengthening data and AI platforms, and practicing responsible AI governance, proving that our teams see real value.”
Protection Gaps
88% protection gap persists despite growth in microinsurance coverage: MiN - Reinsurance News
Despite strong growth in microinsurance, an 88% protection gap remains, with 9 out of 10 people globally remaining unprotected from rising risks – including climate change, health crises, disasters, conflict, and nature loss – according to a recent report by the Microinsurance Network (MiN).
The Landscape of Microinsurance 2024’ report, done in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme’s Insurance and Risk Finance Facility (UNDP IRFF), drew on data from 294 insurers across 37 countries.
Participating countries in the study include Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean, and Asia & the Pacific region, and it covered 985 microinsurance products offered in 2023.
According to the report, microinsurance has been increasingly used as a tool to build financial resilience, particularly in response to climate risks, economic shocks, and health-related uncertainties.
The number of people covered by the reported products has increased by 70% over the past three years, reaching 344 million across 37 countries in three regions. For the year 2023, these products generated $6.2 billion in written premiums.
The World Is Getting Riskier. Americans Don’t Want to Pay for It
[Ed. Note: Excellent commentaries here from LinkedIn based on a January 2025 WSJ article by Greg Ip]}
Mark Montgomery, Founder & CEO of KYield. Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Data Physics and Knowledge Engineering.Founder & CEO of KYield. Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Data Physics and Knowledge Engineering.
Unusually good article on the growing insurance coverage gap, by Greg Ip. A very familiar topic long-warned by insurance and reinsurance executives, as well as ILS specialists.
"California is a microcosm of what happens when insurance breaks down: Either households face potential ruin, or the public is handed a financial time bomb."
"Hundreds of thousands of homeowners shifted to California’s state-run backstop, the Fair Plan, whose exposure has tripled since 2020 to $458 billion. It has only $2.5 billion in reinsurance and $200 million in cash."
"If the Fair Plan runs out of money, it can impose an assessment on private insurers to be partly passed on to all policyholders. In other words, the costs of the disaster will be socialized." California isn't too big to fail. It's too big to bail out. They better toss out the socialists and elect some leaders who have basic math skills, or it could get really ugly.
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Lorcán Hall, Insurance | Sustainable Development | Partnerships Insurance
“Insurance is one of finance’s great gifts to mankind. Through the statistical magic of risk pooling, an individual can obtain peace of mind and protection against devastating loss.”
The guiding principle at the heart of insurance is that many pay for the few, meaning that many people pay insurance premiums so that a few people receive financial support when they experience unforeseen shocks such as ill health and climate-related events. However, a recent article in the Wall Street Journal argues that “this remarkable invention shows signs of breaking down.
” Our world is becoming riskier. Conflicts and humanitarian crises, climate breakdown, rising inequalities, and geopolitical tensions are daily headlines across the world.
Put simply, insurance premiums rise to reflect growing risks and losses. This will cause affordability challenges, reducing insurance coverage and impacting the benefits of risk pooling. In some cases, insurance companies may exit markets, leaving households and businesses without financial risk protection. This will inevitably place greater pressure on governments’ already stretched budgets, impede economic growth, fuel greater inequalities, and reduce financing for the climate transition. Households, businesses, and governments must get better at understanding, preventing, reducing, preparing for, and managing the risks they are exposed to. Risk management is not optional. Risk pooling and insurance is not guaranteed.
“If the risk is to be socialized (via private insurance, social protection, or other government tax-and-spend programmes), society has a right to demand the insured mitigate their risk, such as making homes more flood, wind and fire proof or staying out of disaster-prone areas entirely.”
Claims
Cars, trucks, SUVs increasingly totaled in crashes
Crashing a car is like crashing a computer these days — and the result is a higher share of vehicles being totaled.
Why it matters: When cars, pickups and SUVs are deemed a total loss, it leads to higher replacement costs and higher insurance premiums for everyone else.
Between the lines: The share of vehicles deemed totaled in collisions hit an all-time high of 27% in 2023, according to LexisNexis Risk Solutions data compiled for Axios.
That's up from 19% in 2018.
The big picture: Vehicles are stuffed with electronics these days — and even if they don't need to be replaced or repaired after a crash, the electronics need to be addressed.
Advanced driver assistance systems — such as lane-departure warning and rear-cross alerts — "have to be recalibrated with any accident," says Chris Rice, VP of strategic business intelligence for LexisNexis Risk Solutions.
Zoom in: Pandemic-era trends also accelerated the percentage of vehicles that are declared a total loss, for multiple reasons.
The cost of replacement parts spiked.
The amount of time needed to get repairs increased, which also increased the amount of time that insurers had to provide loaners to car owners.
The cost of loaners soared as car prices skyrocketed, when the chips shortage created production delays.
It's "almost a perfect storm," says Frank Cesario, senior director for claims at LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The upshot is that insurers often decide that they'd rather fund a replacement than go through the process of repairing a vehicle that's been damaged.
The average annual cost of full auto coverage increased 15% nationwide in 2024, per data from Insurify reported by Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick . Rates are likely to increase 5% nationwide this year, Insurify predicts.
The bottom line: If you're in an accident, don't be surprised if your vehicle doesn't make it.
Announcements
Hi Marley Introduces Conversational FNOL | Insurance Innovation Reporter
The solution simplifies the process by capturing data through a natural conversation, free of restrictive forms and lengthy phone calls requiring human attention.
Hi Marley (Boston), an SMS-driven conversational platform built for property/casualty insurance, has introduced Conversational FNOL, an AI-supported solution that simplifies first notice of loss (FNOL), allowing policyholders to explain what happened in their own words while Hi Marley’s technology gathers critical information, immediately and accurately, according to a company statement.
Hi Marley notes the enormous importance of FNOL to both carriers and policyholders, as it largely sets the tone from the entire lifecyle of a claim. Hi Marley shares recent internal research that found that 68 percent of policyholders’ initial reporting experiences impacted their overall claim satisfaction. Traditional FNOL intake channels, however, have limitations, the company statement notes: policyholders often prefer to use the phone versus form-based digital solutions when reporting losses, but voice calls are inefficient in capturing information and force customers to tell a story that they have to repeat throughout the claim.
Anthony O'Donnell is Executive Editor of Insurance Innovation Reporter
Embedded Insurance
In Focus: Are brokers at risk of losing market share as embedded insurance grows?
'If distribution is moving from analogue to digital - and the brokers aren't moving with it - that creates a vacuum,' says director
International Women’s Day 2025
What is International Women's Day?
International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global holiday that takes place during Women’s History Month.
According to the BBC, the first IWD was observed in 1911, after having been proposed and unanimously backed at an International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen the previous year. Now, the day is recognized across the globe annually on March 8.
"Significant activity is witnessed worldwide on March 8 as groups come together to celebrate women's achievements or rally for women's equality," said Beth Anderson, associate director of the Deborah L. Coffin Women’s Center at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). In addition to her role at SNHU, Anderson has a decade of experience working in community development.
She said IWD honors the social, economic, cultural and political accomplishments of women around the world.
Revealed – the American insurance industry's Elite Women of 2025
Ahead of International Women’s Day, Saturday, March 8, Insurance Business revealed the industry’s Elite Women for 2025.
What is the Elite Women list?
Each year, Insurance Business invites industry professionals from across each of its regions to nominate exceptional female performers. These are women who are leaders, breaking through barriers or inspiring those around them. Nominators were asked to outline their achievements over the last 12 months – and those achievements were then put to an independent panel of judges for assessment. In America, that panel consisted of:
- Jenna Kirkpatrick Howard, Lockton
- Jessica Hanson Hanna, American Property & Casualty Association
- Kathy Quintana, HUB International
- Jennifer Sharkey, Gallagher
- Joi R Blume, GenStar Insurance Services
- Nancy Mellard, Association of Professional Insurance Women
The judges reviewed the nominations and narrowed the list down to more than 60 Elite Women across the USA