Research
How Coastal Habitats Can Reduce Flood Losses and Create More Resilient Communities
Coral reefs, mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass meadows can significantly reduce flood losses in coastal areas, according to a Swiss Re Institute analysis of data from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
Swiss Re examined flood insurance losses in Florida from 2009 to 2022 that were caused by lower-severity events, such as storms up to Category 3 hurricanes, which constituted 40% of the NFIP coastal claims.
Swiss Re found that coastal habitats, like reefs, marshes and meadows, reduce insurance loss frequency from lower-severity storms by between 42% and 65%. “The mitigating effects of coastal habitats are significant, even when accounting for other flood risk factors, such as base flood elevation, property type and construction indicators," says Doris Pöpplein, sustainability markets lead at Swiss Re.
“Coastal habitats can attenuate wave energy during storm surges, acting as a natural barrier and defense against floods, reducing storm surge impacts and ultimately flood losses," Pöpplein explains.
In areas that enjoy a healthy coastal habitat, an average of 1% of insurance policyholders report a claim in a month of a flood event, compared to 2.8% of areas with less coastal protection, according to Swiss Re Institute's analysis.
Auto Insurance Pricing Is Outdated — And Policyholders Are Paying the Price
Safe drivers continue to see their rates creep up.
Ana Staples is a good driver: she’s defensive behind the wheel, hasn’t been in an accident and has no tickets on her record. But when her auto insurance policy renewed, she was hit with a 50 percent rate increase. Her monthly car insurance payment ballooned from $100 to $150. “My car was paid off, my driving record squeaky clean and my annual mileage low,” says Staples. “I was so mad.”
A Seattle resident, Staples began to consider whether it was even worth it to keep a car in a city with good public transportation. “I figured it wasn’t, so I sold my car last November,” she says.
Staples is exactly the kind of driver insurance companies should reward, or at the very least, not slap with a major rate increase. She’s careful, didn’t put a lot of miles on her car, has great credit and drove a modest vehicle (a 2016 Chevy Volt hybrid). Nevertheless, her rate went up — and she’s not alone. According to Bankrate’s analysis, drivers with good credit and clean driving records pay an average of $625 more per year for a full coverage policy than they did in 2023.
Your car insurance premium is supposed to be a measure of your risk as a driver: high-risk drivers pay more; low-risk drivers pay less. If that’s the case, why are safe drivers, like Staples, seeing their rates creep up?
Rating factors are highly personalized. Not all of them have to do with driving
“Folks are paying hundreds, even thousands of dollars more, even if they have a perfect driving record,” says Micheal DeLong, a research and advocacy associate for the Consumer Federation of America. A large part of this has to do with how auto insurance is priced. Insurance companies do consider individual factors like your accident history, the kind of car you drive and how much driving experience you have when setting your rate. But, an insurance company can (and often does) look at other factors — ones that have nothing to do with how you drive.
News
S&P Global Announces Intent to Separate Mobility Segment into Standalone Public Company - S&P Global
- S&P Global Strongly Positioned to Drive Continued Profitable Growth and Value Creation Across Four Core Businesses
- S&P Global Mobility to Be an Automotive Data and Technology Leader with Flexibility to Pursue Near- and Long-Term Growth Opportunities
- Company Separately Reports First Quarter 2025 Results; Conference Call Today at 8:30 a.m. ET
S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) today announced its intent to separate S&P Global Mobility ("Mobility") from S&P Global to drive long-term value creation. The planned separation is expected to result in Mobility becoming a standalone public company.
"S&P Global is a leader providing essential intelligence with a proven history of strong financial performance and durable growth. Separating Mobility will allow us to continue to focus on our core businesses and pursue our growth strategy," said Martina L. Cheung, President and CEO of S&P Global.
S&P Global will continue as a leading provider of credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions and will consist of its four highly synergistic core businesses
- S&P Global Market Intelligence
- S&P Global Ratings
- S&P Global Commodity Insights
- S&P Dow Jones Indices.
Following the separation, S&P Global will benefit from simplified operations, increased focus on its enterprise strategy and a unified approach to powering public and private markets. With a strong leadership team bringing relevant industry experience, S&P Global will be optimally positioned to build on positive momentum in its product innovation and AI initiatives, as well as its proven track record of driving profitable growth among leading global brands.
Mobility: Delivering Insights and Solutions Throughout the Vehicle Lifecycle
Mobility is an automotive data and technology leader with three divisions – Used Vehicle Sales & Service (including CARFAX), Strategy & Product Planning and New Vehicle Sales & Marketing.
Evolving dynamics, including growing consumer demand for vehicle information, the rise of electrification and software-defined vehicles, direct-to-customer retail models and the supply chain disruptions related to tariffs are driving an increased need for Mobility's data and decisioning tools. With trusted, market-leading brands such as CARFAX, automotive Mastermind, Polk Automotive Solutions and Market Scan, unique data sets and demonstrated resilience through business cycles, Mobility is well positioned to meet customer demand in the fast-moving environment.
A separation will allow Mobility more flexibility to pursue near- and long-term growth opportunities, including in used car offerings and expanding both geographically and into adjacent markets.
Claims
RMIS Platforms Evolve Beyond Claims Management to Strategic Decision Support - Risk & Insurance : Risk & Insurance
Claims management continues to be the dominant use for risk management information systems (RMIS), but organizations are expanding use of the platforms for other purposes, such as providing strategic insights to support risk management decisions, according to a new report from Redhand Advisors.
The 2025 RMIS Report Technology Survey of risk management professionals also finds that organizations increasingly are leveraging AI and automation despite integration challenges and budget constraints, while the RMIS market shows significant growth with over half of recent implementations being first-time RMIS buyers and 25% of adopting organizations coming from the middle-market segment.
RMIS platforms are experiencing significant evolution as organizations expand their application beyond traditional uses, Redhand Advisors found. While claims management remains the dominant use case at 82%, the survey shows substantial adoption for incident management (62%) and claims administration (53%). Notably, organizations are increasingly implementing these systems for strategic functions like policy management (29%), insurance renewal activities (24%), and exposure tracking (19%).
Commentary/Opinion
Auto Insurance Market Stays Rational Despite Improved Trends, Says Allstate
Allstate Corp. CEO Tom Wilson said he does not expect auto insurers to get more aggressive on pricing as the industry’s increases seem to have leveled off.
For the most part, Wilson explained to analysts during a call to discuss first quarter earnings, insurers seem to be where they need to be from a profitability standpoint in the auto line, but he doesn’t see insurers losing any discipline because each are looking to maintain profitable growth.
AI in Insurance
AI Gone Wrong? Now There's Insurance For That
In an era where AI is increasingly providing more interaction with people, new risks are emerging that demand a new approach to insurance. In some of the insurance industry’s first moves, insurance companies are announcing new insurance policies that cover risks like AI hallucinations and model drift, marking a significant step in AI risk management.
In a move to address the evolving risks associated with artificial intelligence (AI), Chaucer Group, a global specialty reinsurance company, has partnered with Armilla AI to launch a new third-party liability (TPL) insurance product. This policy is designed to cover liabilities arising from the mechanical under-performance of AI systems, including issues like AI hallucinations, model drift, and other deviations from expected behavior.
Understanding the Need for AI Liability Insurance
As AI technologies become increasingly integrated into various industries, the potential for unforeseen failures and associated liabilities has grown. Traditional insurance policies often lack specific provisions for AI-related risks, leaving businesses exposed to significant financial and legal challenges.
“At Chaucer, we believe that AI is reshaping the risk landscape, and that requires fresh thinking from the insurance market, " said Tom Graham, Head of Partnership and Innovation at Chaucer.
The company recently announced a partnership with Armilla AI that enabled them to co-develop a product that “not only recognises the complexities of AI underperformance but provides meaningful coverage that supports innovation, transparency, and accountability," as stated by Graham.
UnitedHealth Now Has 1,000 AI Use Cases, Including in Claims - WSJ
UnitedHealth Group said it now has a thousand artificial-intelligence applications in production, leaning into a technology that’s dragged it and other insurers into controversy over how claims are processed.
The AI applications span across UnitedHealth’s insurance, health delivery and pharmacy units, transcribing conversations from clinician visits, summarizing data, helping process claims and powering customer-facing chatbots. Some 20,000 of the company’s engineers also use AI to write software.
Chief Digital and Technology Officer Sandeep Dadlani said that half of these applications leverage generative AI and half use a more traditional form of AI, all in pursuit of making healthcare more accessible.
“We’re acutely aware of our responsibility to help fix the healthcare system. We are part of it,” said Dadlani, who joined UnitedHealth in 2022 from snackmaker Mars, where he was chief digital officer.
But UnitedHealth’s dive into AI comes as the insurer, and the broader industry, face growing scrutiny.
The December 2024 killing of a top UnitedHealth Group executive inspired an outpouring of public rage against health insurers. Separately, The Wall Street Journal in February reported that the Justice Department had launched a civil fraud investigation into UnitedHealth’s Medicare billing practices.
The insurer’s AI initiatives also have attracted legal attention. A 2023 class action lawsuit accused it of using a flawed AI algorithm to evaluate and, critics allege, unfairly deny claims. A federal judge in February allowed the lawsuit to continue despite dismissing five out of seven counts.
Announcements
Avalon Introduces a Game-Changing Approach to Commercial Property Insurance
Avalon Risk Management is redefining commercial property insurance by moving away from outdated, one-size-fits-all coverage. Built for today's real estate owners, the Avalon approach combines risk analysis with targeted solutions that reflect each property's real exposures.
Coverage is based on a full review of construction costs, probable maximum-loss studies, historical claims, loss statistics, predictive models, reconstruction estimates, and marketplace comparables. These insights help property owners avoid unnecessary coverage, reduce premiums, and protect their net operating income.
Avalon's team comprises the nation's top commercial property insurance brokers, collaborating with industry experts to back each claim with knowledge and data. This ensures every client receives smart, reliable support from risk analysis to claims resolution.
Avalon partners with A-rated carriers and McLarens' international claims adjusters to deliver dependable protection. Clients also gain access to services like construction consulting, waste management, tenant legal liability, emergency remediation, and optional solar energy programs.
This model is built for commercial, industrial, and multifamily property owners who need risk management that actually works in practice.
Data Privacy
GM Argues It Can Sell Your Data Because You Drive on Public Roads
The battle over who owns and controls your driving data is being fought in court.
General Motors is facing a multi-district lawsuit that claims the Detroit-based automaker allegedly violated its customers' privacy by collecting and selling their driving information without proper consent. However, GM is arguing it did not violate their privacy because “driving a vehicle—which necessarily involves conduct that takes place on public roads—cannot form the basis for any privacy-based claim.”
According to GM’s filing to dismiss the case, “states do not permit invasion of privacy claims that are based on public conduct,” even though specific state laws vary regarding invasion of privacy claims. In Georgia, where this case is filed, observing someone “in a public place is not an intrusion upon one’s privacy.”
Also, many states follow the Restatement of Torts, which says that observing a person’s public conduct, even on a “public highway,” cannot constitute a violation of that person’s policy because their “conduct is public and open to the public eye.”
For example: if someone films you publicly breaking the law in a car, it can be used against you in court.
As GM notes, “Driving data includes vehicle location, driving routes, braking events, and speed, all of which occur on “public thoroughfares,”” citing a 2015 case where a court determined that someone being surveilled by drone did not have their privacy violated because the surveillance occurred in a public place.
While the plaintiffs claim in their filing that they had a “reasonable expectation of privacy” regarding their driving behavior, GM states “roadways are public, and these behaviors are observed by all.”
Tariffs/Insurance
We'll be proactive to ensure appropriate loss costs & margin amid tariff uncertainty: AIG CEO
*There is still significant uncertainty around the topic of tariffs and as the potential implications for insurers and reinsurers continues to evolve, in terms of what line of business and what part of the world, global carrier AIG is going to be proactive and ensure it has the appropriate loss costs and margin built into its pricing, according to Chief Executive Officer, Peter Zaffino**.
Speaking recently on AIG’s first quarter 2025 earnings call, following the release of a solid set of quarterly results, AIG’s Zaffino discussed the uncertain and constantly evolving tariff situation.
He began by providing some facts around exports to the US, explaining that only seven countries worldwide export more than $100 billion to the country, with China, Canada, and Mexico being the only countries that export more than $250 billion.
“Altogether, tariffs create uncertainty, which may lead to lower levels of transactional activity in the near term, impacting certain commercial businesses. But it’s premature to predict any specific outcomes related to these emerging macro trends,” said Zaffino.
For companies in all sectors, continued the CEO, the greatest challenge is understanding the real impact of tariffs and how they are changing.
People
Sentry Insurance announced that Pete Anhalt will lead The General
Sentry Insurance has appointed Pete Anhalt to lead The General following its acquisition of the brand from American Family. Anhalt, who currently heads Sentry’s Dairyland brand, extensive experience in the non-standard auto (NSA) market, which serves drivers who struggle to obtain traditional auto insurance.
The move combines Dairyland’s national independent agent network with The General’s direct-to-consumer platform, positioning Sentry to scale its reach and improve access for NSA customers. The unified operation is expected to become one of the largest providers in the segment and will eventually consolidate under The General brand for both agent and direct channels.
Tiku Raval, who led The General since 2020, has exited the company. Sentry’s workforce now exceeds 6,000 employees, with The General maintaining operations in Nashville and Dairyland continuing to operate from Middleton, Wisconsin.
Webinars/Podcasts/Interviews
Insurers at InsurTech Hartford: Collaboration Is Key to Innovation
Attendees to the InsurTech Hartford Symposium 2025 said insurers are in a period of rapid change, driven by AI implementation, digital transformation and emerging trends.
View complete AM Best TV coverage of InsurTech Hartford Symposium 2025
Sign Up for AM Best TV Alerts