News
Triple-I to Mark Hurricane Preparedness Week (April 30-May 6)
The start of what is forecast to be a “slightly below-average” Atlantic hurricane season is weeks away and the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) is recommending homeowners, condo owners, renters and business owners prepare now.
“Any hurricane season will likely cause devastation as we witnessed with 2022’s Hurricane Ian having record-level claims and losses, despite only three named storms making landfall,” said Sean Kevelighan, CEO, Triple-I. “During Hurricane Preparedness Week, everyone who lives in a hurricane-prone community should take a few moments to ensure they have adequate financial protection for their property and possessions while also taking steps to make their home or business more resilient to the impacts of wind and water.”
Wait ‘Til Next Year: Auto Profit Unlikely to Return in ’23, S&P Says
In spite of continued actions to raise prices of coverage, auto loss cost continue to climb and profits will continue to elude personal auto insurers—probably until 2024, analysts at Standard & Poor’s said this week.
John Iten, senior analyst and P/C sector lead for S&P Global Ratings and Tim Zawacki, principal research analyst, S&P Global Market Intelligence both made the prediction during the webinar titled, “IN/sights: Outlook and Trends for U.S. Insurers 2023,” which also covered property/casualty reinsurance and life insurance trends.
After Iten noted inflationary spikes in labor and vehicle repair parts costs that “took off at unexpected levels” to impact personal auto insurers’ profit margins last year, he described what currently continues to be a losing battle for insurers that “started putting through rate increases frequently and in as many states as they could.”
US commercial insurance pricing up 4% in Q1: Marsh
U.S. commercial insurance pricing increased by 4% in the first quarter, compared with a 3% increase in the fourth quarter of 2022 and matching the global rate of increase, according to a report Thursday from Marsh LLC.
U.S. property insurance pricing increased by 17% in the first quarter, up from 11% in the fourth quarter and 7% a year earlier. It was the 22nd consecutive quarter in which pricing rose, the report said.
Casualty insurance pricing rose 2% compared with 1% in the fourth quarter and 4% in the year-earlier period.
Financial and professional lines pricing declined 9%, compared with a 10% decline in the fourth quarter and a 28% increase in last year’s first quarter.
Insurers continued to express concern about inflation and valuations as total insured values increased by 9% on average in the quarter, the report said. They also continued to restrict coverage terms for some clients.
A perspective: 3 things the P&C Insurance Industry must bet on to win with customers…today and in the future
Your current customers and #future #customers are changing. But what will you do to secure their future and make them loyal to your brand? 10 years ago, when I joined my first Property & Casualty carrier,
I was a bit biased about whether a century old organization could really change and transform into a digitally enabled and #customercentric organization. What I found out, is that the P&C #insurance industry is sizzling with #talent and the pace of change is faster than any other industry that I have worked alongside.
Like many of you, I thought that P&C Insurance jobs were Agents who sell Insurance, #claims who help you recover from a loss and then I struggled to really name any other roles. Today, I recognize that Insurance is a talent hub for many types of skillsets including, #datascientists , Actuaries, Agile and #leansixsigma roles, #technologists , #innovation pioneers, along with traditional roles of servicing, claims handling, underwriting/risk and developing new products. It’s a place where #change is happening every day and I encourage you to help drive the industry into the #future!
Samantha Santiago, Vice President, Head of Claims Strategy & Automation, Farmers Insurance
Chubb exploring artificial intelligence, preparing for rollout 'at scale'
Last December, Chubb announced it would launch a new technology services center in Thessaloniki, Greece in early 2023. It joins other Chubb development centers in the US, India, and Mexico.
The hub is expected to deliver innovative technologies to “enhance customer experience, increase efficiency, and accelerate the company’s digital transformation,” a news release said.
Tech experts will head initiatives in intelligent process automation, machine learning, cloud, and data analytics, as well as cybersecurity and systems modernization at the Thessaloniki site. Chubb will also partner with local technology firms to bolster the hub’s capabilities.
How is AI impacting the insurance industry?
Business leaders who had hoped to be bouncing back from the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic were instead presented with complex and unforeseen challenged that put a strain on their bottom lines. This forced them to rethink their fundamental processes and operating standards. As such, advancements in technologies such as AI have been greater in an effort to navigate these challenges.
Industries from banking to healthcare, auto insurance to art, have begun to use AI in real life situations. It is already bringing real value, enabling businesses in these sectors to work more effectively, make decisions more quickly and optimise entire processes.
Tractable has been focussed on applied AI since day one, aiming to transform the speed and ease in which people recover from accidents and natural disasters. Tractable’s AI leverages deep learning for computer vision, as well as other machine learning techniques to make accurate decisions. The technology is also able to make recommended repair operations and guides the claims management process.
Sedgwick unveils artificial intelligence tool Sidekick
Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc. announced Wednesday the introduction of its artificial intelligence tool, Sidekick, a Microsoft OpenAI GPT-4 integration designed to improve workflow for insurance claims professionals.
The platform is aimed at improving claims documentation speed and accuracy and will automate other routine tasks. It is Sedgwick’s first use case of GPT technology.
“When you improve the speed and accuracy of completing repetitive and routine task-based activities, it allows our unbelievably talented claims professionals to both expedite the cycle time of a claim and spend more time on the things that are fundamental to both the claims experience and the claims outcome,” said Sedgwick CEO Michael Arbour.
The platform enables Sedgwick claims professionals to use generative artificial intelligence performance and language processing on daily tasks.
Interest in Life Insurance at All-Time High
While two-thirds of Americans report their lives have largely returned to normal following the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2023 Insurance Barometer Study shows a record-high proportion of consumers (39%) who say they intend to purchase life insurance coverage within the next year.
The intent to buy is even higher among Gen Z adults (44%) and Millennials (50%).
This year’s study, conducted jointly by nonprofit industry trade associations LIMRA and Life Happens, shows younger generations are less likely to have coverage and more likely to live with a life insurance coverage gap.
InsurTech/M&A/Finance💰/Collaboration
[Ed. note: Recommended] 2023 Insurtech Overview | PitchBook
Insurtech saw huge growth during the COVID-19 pandemic as newly emerging technology startups competed with traditional insurance carriers, but over the past 18 months, the vertical hasn’t fared as well.
How bumpy has insurtech’s ride been? Our 2023 Insurtech Overview lays it all out.
Key takeaways:
- Insurtech companies raised $9.4 billion across 617 deals in 2022, a 42% decline in deal value year-over-year.
- Exit activity also dwindled. Last year, $2.4 billion in exit value was generated, as opposed to $36.6 billion in 2021.
- Still, opportunities remain for investors in segments including underwriting and commercial insurance.
InsurTech Funding: Five Top Investment Rounds for April 2023
Investment might be sluggish, but innovative startups with solid offerings are still attracting new capital. April 2023 saw Nayms, Capitola, YellowBird, Axle, Justos and Arma Karma attract healthy funding rounds
Hub secures additional private-equity investment
Hub International Ltd. said Friday that Los Angeles-based private-equity firm Leonard Green & Partners LP would make “a substantial minority investment” that values the brokerage at $23 billion.
The money will used to buy out some shares of existing investors, and Hub plans to bring in further minority investors in the next few months, Hub CEO Marc Cohen said in an interview.
The brokerage, which is the largest private-equity-owned insurance brokerage and has been one of the most acquisitive brokers over the past 20 years, plans to continue acquiring rivals, he said.
Hellman & Friedman, which invested in the brokerage in 2013, will continue to hold a controlling interest in Hub, and Altas Corp., which invested in Hub in 2018, will remain a significant minority shareholder in the brokerage.
ITC LATAM 2023: The Most Interesting Place in the World
“Latin America is the most interesting place in the world, without question,” said Paola Neira, CEO of Latú Seguros (São Paulo), a provider of business coverage including D&O, tech E&O and cyber coverage, in her opening remarks during “Cybersecurity Threats: Insurers’ Response to a Global Threat,” a session at InsureTech Connect LATAM, held this week at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami.
It’s not hard to make the case that a region so vast and so diverse ecologically, economically and culturally as Latin America is interesting. ITC LATAM makes the case that not only does the region deserve its own InsurTech conference, but that it should be a matter of interest for the North American and global insurance community.
As Caribou Honig, investor, entrepreneur, prominent figure in the InsurTech movement and co-founder of ITC, summarized in a conversation with Insurance Innovation Reporter on the first night of the conference, “The frontier of innovation often happens in the frontier markets.”
On one level, ITC LATAM serves simply as a reminder of worldwide interest in the Latin American insurance markets. U.S. and European insurers have had significant operations in Latin America for many decades and continue to play a major role in the markets. In a top-25 list of insurance groups in Latin America based on premium volume from MAPFRE Economic Research relying on regional regulators, many of the most prominent global insurers appear, including MAPRFE, MetLife, Zurich, Allianz, MetLife, AXA, Chubb, Liberty Mutual and Tokio Marine. Many, if not all, of these insurers are represented at ITC LATAM in one way or another, along with other important global companies, such as Swiss Re, Aon, Assurant and MS&AD.
Events
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Canada
Auto insurers take note: Why this economic downturn is so unusual
Canada’s sluggish economy might be headed for a ‘shallow downturn,’ but it’s unique in the sense there’s also pent-up demand for motor vehicles, said BMO Financial Group chief economist Douglas Porter during an industry event last week.
“Anybody here who has tried to buy a car in the last couple of years has an idea of just how short supplies [are]…,” Porter said during the Centre for Study of Insurance Operations’ (CSIO) members’ meeting and reception. “So, we can have a very unusual situation of an outright, small downturn in the economy where auto sales actually rise.
“We’ve never seen that before,” Porter said during his keynote address, Outlook 2023 — Cold in the forecast. “Usually auto sales are at the leading edge of any kind of downturn; they’re usually the first things to go in any kind of economic downturn.”