IBAMAG.COM ISSUE 8.05 | $12.95
SPECIAL REPORT
INSURTECH 2020
How agents and brokers can take advantage of the technology that’s transforming insurance A CULTURE OF INNOVATION
Crawford & Company’s new CEO on what’s next for claims
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EVENT CANCELLATION IN THE SPOTLIGHT
How the pandemic is changing the demand, availability and appetite for this coverage
HITTING PAUSE ON M&A
Will COVID-19 drastically reshape the insurance M&A landscape?
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ISSUE 8.05
CONNECT WITH US
CONTENTS
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UPFRONT 04 Editorial
Insurers are pivoting with businesses to address the impact of COVID-19
06 Statistics
Key data that should be on your radar this month
10 Intelligence UPFRONT
NEWS ANALYSIS
After a strong first quarter, industry M&As are largely on pause as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on
42 SPECIAL REPORT
PEOPLE
INDUSTRY ICON
As the newly installed CEO of Crawford & Company, Rohit Verma is steering the claims management giant on a course of constant innovation
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12 Workers’ comp update
Crisis resources employers can use to respond to the pandemic
14 Technology update
Lloyd’s announces its newest insurtech accelerator participants
21 Opinion
Insurers using only a commercial credit score to underwrite small businesses are missing half of the picture
PEOPLE
INSURTECH 2020
IBA takes a deep dive into where the insurtech sector is headed and how agents and brokers can capitalize on its opportunities to better engage customers
This month’s big movers, shakers and new products
FEATURES
THE SHOW MUST GO ON
48 Other life
Hanging ten with underwriter and newbie surfer Traci Brooks Reyes
What brokers need to know about event cancellation insurance in light of the pandemic
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FEATURES
PUBLIC DEFENDER
David Poms tells IBA how he built his brokerage on a foundation of fostering cultural change
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UPFRONT
EDITORIAL
All for one and one for all
I
t was as long ago as 1844 when Alexandre Dumas coined the phrase “all for one and one for all, united we stand, divided we fall” in his literary classic The Three Musketeers, but the sentiment rings true today as the entire world rallies to battle the coronavirus pandemic. Despite being asked by governments across the globe to practice physical distancing, society has become more unified than ever. Everyone is doing their part for the greater good. Over the past six weeks, a number of key industries have made operational pivots to their production facilities and supply chains to help address the global shortage of personal protective equipment, hand sanitizer and life-saving medical equipment like ventilators and respirators. Fashion brands large and small have been churning out protective lenses, face shields, masks and hospital gowns. Distilleries, breweries and wineries have altered their production to address widespread shortages in hand sanitizer. Automotive manufacturers have been using their plants to produce ventilators and respirators, rather than brand-new vehicles that would likely sit in the showroom until the crisis is over.
www.ibamag.com MAY 2017 EDITORIAL
Managing Editor Paul Lucas Editor Bethan Moorcraft Journalists Alicja Grzadkowska, Ksenia Stepanova, Camilla Theakstone, Mia Wallace News Writers Lyle Adriano, Terry Gangcuangco, Roxanne Libatique, Gabriel Olano Staff Writers Ellen Burkhardt, Tom Goodwin, Kasi Johnston, Ryan Smith Copy Editor Clare Alexander
CONTRIBUTORS Sharon Maloney
ART & PRODUCTION Designer Joenel Salvador Production Manager Alicia Chin Production Coordinator Kim Kandravy Traffic Manager Ella Dayandante
SALES & MARKETING Vice President, US Market Cathy Masek Vice President, Sales John Mackenzie Media Sales Manager Desiree McCue Global Head of Media Marketing Adrijana Monevska
CORPORATE
Insurers around the world have kicked into overdrive to facilitate operational changes by reworking insurance policies and risk management plans The hospitality sector has also seen some enormous pivots. Sports stadiums, hotels, conference centers and many other large venues have been transformed into temporary hospitals and quarantine zones. The amount of action going on when the world has essentially been asked to shut down for an extended period of time is quite extraordinary. And what’s underpinning all of this? Insurance, of course. When companies alter their operations in this manner, more often than not, they will experience a material change in risk, which means they need to get their brokers and underwriters back in the picture right away. Insurers around the world have kicked into overdrive to facilitate operational changes by reworking insurance policies and risk management plans, introducing policy endorsements, and offering premium credit where risk has been absolved. The industry has shown flexibility that could well be crucial in the fight against COVID-19. It’s often a thankless task, but IBA salutes you. The team at Insurance Business America
Chief Executive Officer Mike Shipley Chief Operating Officer George Walmsley President Tim Duce Chief Information Officer Colin Chan Human Resources Manager Julia Bookallil
Editorial Inquiries paul.lucas@keymedia.com Subscription Inquiries subscriptions@keymedia.com Advertising Inquiries cathy.masek@keymedia.com, desiree.mccue@keymedia.com
Key Media 78O7 E. Peakview Ave., Suite 115 Centennial, CO 80111, USA tel: +1 720 316 0151 keymedia.com Offices in Denver, London, Toronto, Sydney, Auckland, Manila, Singapore, Seoul
Insurance Business America is part of an international family of B2B publications, websites and events for the insurance industry Insurance Business Canada john.mackenzie@kmimedia.ca T +1 416 644 874O Insurance Business UK gemma.powell@keymedia.com T +44 20 7193 0935 Insurance Business Australia peter.smith@keymedia.com.au T +61 2 8437 47OO Insurance Business NZ peter.smith@keymedia.com.au T +61 2 8437 47OO Insurance Business Asia peter.smith@keymedia.com.au T +61 2 8437 47OO Printed in Canada
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UPFRONT
STATISTICS ALTERNATIVE RISK TRANSFER UPTAKE GROWS
$93 billion
Total alternative reinsurance capital as of the end of 2019
15%
Proportion of total P&C catastrophe reinsurance capacity represented by alternative risk transfer
High risk Medium/high risk Medium risk Low/medium risk Low risk
SECURITIES CLASS ACTIONS A GROWING D&O RISK Among the five mega-trends in D&O insurance recently identified by Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty is a global rise in securities class actions – lawsuits filed against a company by a group of investors – particularly in response to data breaches and other cyber incidents. Driving this trend is a concurrent increase in litigation funding, which has emerged as a popular investment class due to its high average returns. According to AGCS, companies in the US, Canada and Australia are most at risk for securities class actions, due in part to those countries’ strong litigation funding markets and developed class action mechanisms.
THE IMPACT OF AUTO INSURANCE RELIEF
$4 billion
Approximate value of reinsurance sidecar issuances in 2019
According to the Consumer Federation of America, as of April 13, insurers that sell more than 82% of the auto insurance in the US plan to refund or offer credit worth a collective $6.5 billion to drivers in April and May. The country’s 10 largest auto insurers are shouldering $5.9 billion of that total.
$2bn $1.96 billion
$1.5bn
$1bn
$6 billion
Approximate value of catastrophe bonds issued in 2019 Source: Sidley Global Insurance Review 2020
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$1 billion
$862 million
$586 million
$500m
$0
State Farm Progressive
GEICO
Allstate
$502 million
USAA
$292 million
$220 million
$202 million
$158 million
$120 million
Liberty Farmers/ American Nationwide Travelers Mutual/ 21st Century Family Safeco
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TOP COVID-19 COMORBIDITIES The World Health Organization has identified several pre-existing conditions that have contributed to higher mortality among COVID-19 patients; the organization has also found that men have a higher mortality rate than women (4.7% versus 2.8%).
14%
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2% 13.2%
0%
9.2%
8.4%
8%
7.6%
Cardiovascular Diabetes Hypertension Chronic disease respiratory disease
Source: WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease 2019
Source: Directors and Officers Insurance Insights 2020, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty
WHAT’S DRIVING MEDICAL INFLATION? Willis Towers Watson’s latest survey of health insurers around the globe found that the cost of medical care rose around 6.7% in 2019. Overuse of medical care is far and away the most significant factor driving the cost increase, according to insurers.
Overuse of care due to medical practitioners recommending too many services 73% Overuse of care by insured members 66% Insured member’s poor health habits 41% Underuse of preventive services 28% Poor quality or misuse of care because primary, specialty and facility care aren’t integrated 24% Poor understanding of how to use the insurance plan 12% Source: Willis Towers Watson 2020 Global Medical Trends Survey Report
Cancer
A LACK OF COVERAGE FOR MENTAL HEALTH Willis Towers Watson’s report identified mental health as a key area that’s likely to drive medical costs up in the coming years. Currently, more than half of group plans offer mental health coverage, although it varies widely by region – in Latin America, an average of 82% of plans provide coverage; in the Middle East and Africa, it’s only around 36%. Yes, we offer mental health coverage
No, and we do not plan to offer within the next three years
No, but we plan to offer within the next three years
23%
56%
31% GROUP PLANS FOR LESS THAN 50 EMPLOYEES
13%
15%
GROUP PLANS FOR UP TO 500 EMPLOYEES
62%
Source: Willis Towers Watson 2020 Global Medical Trends Survey Report
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UPFRONT
NEWS ANALYSIS
M&A plays the long game After confirmation of the Aon-Willis Towers Watson mega-merger in March, expectations for further insurance M&As are high. But how will future deals be affected by the coronavirus pandemic?
WHEN THE merger between brokerage giants Aon and Willis Towers Watson, with its implied combined equity value of nearly $80 billion, was announced on March 9, it seemed that the insurance M&A market was kicking off 2020 with the energy that has been its trademark for several consecutive years. According to Deloitte, 2019 was the most active year on record for M&A deal volume in the brokerage sector, and MarshBerry had predicted a record-setting number of transactions for 2020. However, the COVID-19 outbreak and the resulting global lockdown have led to a rapid
Consulting, who highlights several specific trends that will likely shape the M&A strategies implemented this year. A core trend he hopes to see flourishing is the development of powerful business continuity programs that companies can use once a deal has occurred. The coronavirus has likely forced most of the corporate world to implement such business continuity programs, Purowitz says, but these strategies are currently not often part of M&As. “We don’t see that people are prepared in general to do a transaction,” he says, “and … we’ve been encouraging our clients to get
“[Business continuity] is certainly going to be a consistent imperative, especially with the potential market opportunities coming out of the pandemic recovery cycle” Mark Purowitz, Deloitte Consulting slowdown in the M&A market. Data from Refinitiv indicates that the total number of transactions across all industries has fallen sharply since the pandemic. In terms of deal numbers, M&As in insurance are, by nature, very episodic, says Mark Purowitz, a principal with Deloitte
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ready to do this. That’s certainly going to be a consistent imperative, especially with the potential market opportunities coming out of the pandemic recovery cycle.” Phil Trem, president of financial advisory at MarshBerry, says COVID-19 will undoubtedly dampen the amount of deal activity in
the market following the strong first quarter of 2020. While the rapid pace at which the pandemic is unfolding will continue to invalidate any forecasts regarding the outlook of the 2020 M&A market, Trem says the fundamental tenets of the insurance industry won’t change, even as the situation progresses. “We still think that the insurance industry is very durable,” he says. “We believe that investors see the insurance distribution marketplace as a safe place to invest their money during a down economy and that it can still generate good returns when the economy returns to a more positive form.” Although it’s too early to say how deeply the pandemic will hit the industry and what downstream impact it will have on M&A activity, Trem points out that several of the key factors that have led to recent recordsetting quarters for the M&A market still exist within insurance. The fragmented supply of agents and brokers that exists today will still exist following the pandemic, he says. This, combined with robust demand
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M&A BY THE NUMBERS
28% Year-over-year drop in overall M&A deal value across all industries in the first quarter of 2020
59.6% Proportion of all M&A deals in 2019 completed by private-equity-backed buyers
70.6% Year-over-year drop in the number of announced transactions valued at more than $5 billion during the first six weeks of 2020
that will exist as long as the financial sources supplying it don’t dry up, is a key driver of M&A activity. The coronavirus will likely prompt new dialogue regarding how much risk a buyer is willing to take and whether they will ask
and have historically had good track records of running good businesses will still be able to command high valuations.” Purowitz also highlights how portfolio optimization might be impacted by COVID-19. The pandemic is testing portfolio
“The key is that we’ll come out of this at some point, so firms that are strong fundamentally will still be able to command high valuations” Phil Trem, MarshBerry a seller to share in some of that risk, as well as an examination of the new question of whether a business is considered ‘essential.’ “Those of the kinds of things buyers are going to be looking at,” Trem says. “And the key is that we’ll come out of this at some point, so firms that are strong fundamentally
structures, he says, to see if assets put together under different conditions still stand in today’s environment or if divesting is a way to free up capital that’s not offering needed returns to reinvest in something else. Purowitz says he wouldn’t be surprised to see additional portfolio optimization
2.9% Increase in broker deal volume between 2018 and 2019 (the most active year for insurance broker M&As based on deal volume) Sources: The Financial Times; MarshBerry; The Institute for Mergers, Acquisitions and Alliances; Deloitte
and restructuring activities throughout the year as businesses revisit their strategies. Depending on their expectations, operating models and corresponding cost structures, businesses might see significant changes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, he says, and the crisis could potentially be a catalyst for unintended M&A. Though a pause in the M&A market is inevitable, Trem says deals are still getting done, and buyers are taking still taking new meetings – albeit virtually. It’s not business as usual, but the market hasn’t frozen, he says. Though this could potentially change depending on the impact of the pandemic on the industry overall, right now, M&As are suspended in a game of ‘wait and see.’
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UPFRONT
INTELLIGENCE CORPORATE ACQUIRER
TARGET
PRODUCTS COMMENTS
Alera Group
Trilogy Group Benefits
Pennsylvania-based Trilogy specializes in group healthcare, dental and vision, as well as ancillary benefits
Anvil Group
FlightSafe
FlightSafe will supply airline risk information to the international risk manager
BKS Partners
Insurance Risk Partners
Oklahoma-based IRP provides P&C insurance and additional consulting services, with annual revenues of around $7 million
HGGC
PCF Insurance
Private equity firm HGGC has purchased the brokerage, but management, employee owners and existing investor BHMS Investments have retained minority stakes
The Hilb Group
Healthcare Liability Consultants Agency
Owner and medical malpractice specialist Julie Paton will become part of THG’s Central/Midwest operations
Hull & Company
The Colonial Group
The Colonial Group is an MGA for independent P&C insurance agents, mainly in the Southeast
Marsh & McLennan Agency
Assurance Holdings
Assurance will operate as MMA’s Midwest regional headquarters, led by its current CEO, Anthony Chimino
Randall & Quilter
ICI Insurance Company
R&Q has acquired the captive insurer of Imperial Chemical Industries, which has a workers’ comp and general liability book
Ryan Specialty Group
Myron F. Steves & Company
Texas-based Myron F. Steves will become part of RT Specialty, RSG’s wholesale brokerage unit
Marsh & McLennan snaps up Chicago-area independent agency
Marsh subsidiary Marsh & McLennan Agency (MMA) has acquired Assurance Holdings, an independent insurance agency based in Schaumburg, Illinois. Founded in 1961, Assurance is a full-service brokerage that provides business insurance, employee benefits, private client insurance and retirement services to businesses and individuals across the US. It will operate as MMA’s Midwest regional headquarters, led by Assurance CEO Anthony Chimino. “By joining MMA, we have the opportunity to provide innovative resources and solutions for our clients, as well as new growth opportunities for our colleagues,” Chimino said. “Equally important, MMA shares our passion for building and maintaining an award-winning workplace culture. My team is excited to play a role in the ongoing growth of this dynamic national firm.”
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Zurich North America debuts COVID-19 reimbursement
Zurich North America has launched a COVID-19 reimbursement product that will allow employers to provide cash benefits to eligible employees hospitalized for more than five consecutive days as a result of the virus. The product is a surplus lines policy available to large employers, typically those with 5,000 or more eligible employees. The cash benefit can help employees cope with the financial stresses of extended hospitalization, including costs that might not be covered by their primary health insurance. In the US, Zurich plans to donate net profits from the offering to hunger relief charities.
RPS launches online quoting platform for standard lines
Risk Placement Services has launched RPS Standard Express, an online submission platform that allows agents to quickly rate, quote and request to bind standard lines coverage for both commercial and personal accounts. The platform allows agents to obtain quotes from multiple carriers at once and features tools that improve the efficiency of the quoting process, including geolocation and a prefill function. Agents can also see the carriers RPS works with, including coverage availability by state, and upload commercial applications directly from any agency management system.
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PEOPLE Corvus provides free cyber risk analysis to healthcare firms
Commercial insurance provider Corvus is providing free cyber risk analysis to hospitals, healthcare organizations and other entities on the front line of the COVID-19 response. Available through the insurer’s website, the analysis is produced through a non-intrusive scan of an organization’s externalfacing IT security systems and includes an overall IT security score and a benchmark based on the industry class and size of the organization. It also provides specific recommendations on things like out-of-date software or the use of certain security tools.
InsuraGuest introduces agent/broker program
InsuraGuest Insurance Agency has launched a new program focused on agencies and brokers that write general liability policies for hotels and vacation rental properties. InsuraGuest’s platform automatically delivers hospitality liability coverage to properties through the property’s management system. The coverage addresses claims from guests and their room occupants during a stay at a hotel or vacation rental property. InsuraGuest’s platform is currently capable of integrating with more than 70 different hotel and vacation rental property management systems.
Ironshore Environmental to offer commercial auto cover
Ironshore Environmental has added commercial auto coverage to its Environmental Protection Insurance Coverage (EPIC) package. The EPIC package is a combined general and pollution liability product that provides cover for fixed-site manufacturing, distribution and processing facilities with potential environmental risk exposures. EPIC policyholders can now secure admitted commercial auto insurance coverage on a $1 million combined single limit, with available excess capacity. Backed by Liberty Mutual, the commercial auto cover is available for small, medium and large businesses.
NAME
LEAVING
JOINING
NEW POSITION
Steve Bitar
Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
Olympus Insurance Company
CEO
Michael Garamoni
Ryan Specialty Group
Orchid Underwriters Agency
CFO
Beth Greenwood
N/A
Beazley
Global head of cyber and executive risk
Bill Hazelton
N/A
Chubb
Head of claims, North America
James Heath
Keoghs
Davies Group
Chief risk officer
Scott Kreuzer
Axis Reinsurance
Aspen Insurance Holdings
Senior managing director, Americas
Loeiz LimonDuparcmeur
N/A
Euler Hermes
Group CFO
Christopher Miskel
N/A
Gallagher
Member, board of directors
Nick Pastor
AIG
Tokio Marine HCC
Senior vice president and chief actuary
Vijaya Singh
Russell Reynolds Associates
Guy Carpenter
Global head of marketing and communications
Megan Watt
N/A
Chubb
Head of North America complex claims
Chubb creates new role focused on complex claims
Chubb has expanded its North America claims team, appointing Megan Watt to the newly created role of head of North America complex claims. A three-decade industry veteran, Watt will lead a team that complements Chubb’s underwriters and business partners, relying on her experience in casualty, mass tort and other complex claims to ensure the best outcomes for clients. “The insurance landscape is becoming more complex, and navigating claims has become more difficult for our clients,” said Chubb global claims officer Mike Smith. “Chubb is committed to investing in the right people and resources to address these complexities.”
Olympus Insurance Company names new CEO
Florida-based Olympus Insurance Company has appointed Steve Bitar as its new CEO, succeeding interim CEO James McDermott. Bitar has more than 20 years of insurance experience, most recently serving as chief of underwriting and agency services for Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. “Olympus has navigated difficult Florida property insurance conditions while successfully adding to surplus and maintaining their best-inclass reputation for underwriting and claims,” Bitar said. “In uncertain times like these, I appreciate the opportunity to join a forward-thinking company that values and executes on stability, consistency, and service.”
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UPFRONT
WORKERS’ COMP UPDATE NEWS BRIEFS Xybion launches app to manage post-COVID-19 return to work
Software and consulting company Xybion has launched Exigency-ERT, a new cloud-based software application designed to help employers document and manage employees’ return to work post-COVID-19 and comply with emerging government mandates and safe-workplace rules. Exigency-ERT enables employees to self-report their status for potential COVID-19 infection and automatically notifies supervisors and executive teams. It also traces, tracks and notifies all those who might have come in contact with the infected employee at the workplace.
Texas Mutual pays annual dividends two months early
Texas Mutual’s board of directors has voted unanimously to distribute $330 million in policyholder dividends two months early. The company has historically paid dividends in June but decided to distribute them to qualifying policyholders early in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. More than 57,000 business owners are set to receive dividends this year. President and CEO Rich Gergasko said Texas Mutual is aware that its dividend program provides an “economic boost” for the state and that early distribution will help many policyholders during this critical time.
Transparent Health Marketplace launches online
Transparent Health Marketplace (THM), a new digital marketplace that’s aiming to disrupt network contract models by connecting payers and workers’ comp healthcare service providers, has launched as a pilot in several states. THM combines automated billing,
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payments and scheduling to deliver cost savings and efficiencies for payers while also providing growth opportunities and contract certainty for healthcare service providers. THM president Jim Mayhall said the marketplace leverages “technology that’s been used in auctiontype models, such as eBay, Hotels.com or other sites where you’re pushing out opportunities for providers of services.”
InsurePay touts ability to improve cash flow during COVID-19
InsurePay has highlighted how its services can improve cash flow during the COVID-19 outbreak by helping businesses pay for workers’ compensation premiums based on real-time payroll wages. The platform calculates workers’ comp premiums based on actual payroll data rather than estimated annual payroll amounts, which results in more accurate premium payments, allowing customers’ insurance expenses to match their cash flow. InsurePay can integrate with 1,400 different payroll providers, allowing employers to transition smoothly to a “more dynamic payment program,” according to COO Kevin Littlejohn.
NY workers’ comp group demands COVID-19 protections
The New York Workers’ Compensation Alliance is calling on the state government to guarantee that workers’ comp insurance will cover COVID-19 workplace exposure for all workers. The organization is requesting several changes to legislation, including broadening the definition of hazardous employment to include any job with potential exposure to COVID-19; increasing coverage for first responders; and expanding benefits for those who are unable to work, become disabled or die as a result of COVID-19 exposure on the job.
Handling the crisis response One insurance solutions provider is stepping up to the challenge of COVID-19 with expanded crisis care offerings
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused serious damage to public health and the global economy, and it didn’t take long for businesses to realize its potential severity. As far back as February, risk experts were urging businesses to prepare for the worst as the virus began to spread. But while business continuity plans are vital, they’re only one part of the coronavirus response puzzle. Arguably the top priority is protecting employees’ health and safety, which is why industry service provider Sedgwick recently expanded its crisis service offerings in response to the pandemic. Originally created to manage crises such as violent workplace events and catastrophic incidents, Sedgwick’s expanded offerings now include services to help clients and their employees address issues related to COVID19, including 24/7 access to nurse triage services for employees diagnosed with the virus and to emergency repair contractors who can clean and disinfect affected buildings. “The crisis care program was started with the intention of helping Sedgwick clients respond to the unexpected so they could feel completely supported amidst stressful situations and complex crises,” says Teresa Bartlett, managing director and senior medical officer at Sedgwick. “As the COVID-19 outbreak became a pandemic, it only made sense to expand our services, given the fact that there’s
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Q&A
not much of a difference in managing crises in the event of a general health emergency involving an infectious disease [than] workplace violence or catastrophic incidents such as a hurricane.”
“It is of utmost importance that employers show support to employees during times of crisis” Regardless of whether they’re handling COVID-19 or another crisis, Sedgwick’s teams are always willing to address complex concerns, Bartlett adds. “The response and support are similar in that you need to be prepared, create a plan and be ready to put that into action in the event of a crisis,” she says. Bartlett stresses that, in addition to the support Sedgwick provides, businesses still need to do their part in safeguarding their workers from coronavirus risk. Some of the ways businesses can protect their employees’ health, she says, include restricting nonessential travel, spreading awareness about COVID-19 and how it infects, accommodating work-from-home-arrangements, maintaining communication among managers and colleagues, reviewing illness and absence policies, and encouraging employees to continue leading healthy lifestyles amid the pandemic. “It is of utmost importance that employers show support to employees during times of crisis,” she says. “This includes both supporting their well-being and maintaining a sense of order in the organization.”
Dr. John W. Ruser President and CEO WORKERS’ COMPENSATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Years in the industry 35+ Fast fact Before heading up the WCRI, Ruser worked for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, where he focused on statistics measuring productivity and occupational health and safety
Workers’ comp and COVID-19 Is COVID-19 generally covered under workers’ compensation policies? Historically, communicable diseases like the flu have generally not been covered. Workers’ compensation covers injuries and illnesses that arise out of and in the course of employment. It is generally difficult to establish a work relationship for a disease that could be contracted anywhere. Indeed, some states’ statutes bar compensation for communicable diseases. In the past few weeks, though, a number of states have taken steps to expand workers’ compensation coverage to include COVID-19 for certain groups of workers.
What’s the course of action for states seeking to cover essential workers impacted by COVID-19? Some states consider that their current laws, regulations and procedures are sufficient to provide compensation for workers who can demonstrate that they contracted COVID-19 at work. Other states have changed their rules, either by executive order or by legislation, to increase the likelihood that a worker who contracts COVID-19 may be eligible for workers’ compensation. The states vary in terms of the scope of workers covered and in terms of the burden of proof required by an ill worker to establish work-relatedness. A number of states’ laws and orders cover only first responders or healthcare workers. Others expand coverage to include other groups of workers deemed to be essential, e.g. grocery workers. In some states, the worker may be eligible for workers’ compensation if they can demonstrate that their illness was the result of their employment or occupation. In other states, for the workers covered, there is a presumption that their illness arose from work, though that presumption can be rebutted.
Is this pandemic the first time coverage has been expanded for conditions that might arise outside of work? No – for example, we have seen workers’ compensation coverage expanded to include those, particularly first responders, who witness a traumatic experience and, as a result, have post-traumatic stress disorder and can no longer perform their duties.
Is WCRI working on any research that will help illuminate the impact of COVID-19 on state workers’ comp systems? WCRI has a wealth of studies that provide a pre-COVID-19 baseline for evaluating the impact of the virus on workers’ compensation claims. This includes WCRI’s CompScope Benchmarks studies, which compare a range of workers’ compensation performance metrics across 18 states. In the future, we will evaluate the impact of the virus on the composition of claims and their costs, how the virus may have affected the delivery of care to injured workers, and the impact of that on worker and claims outcomes, including duration of disability.
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UPFRONT
TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
Making a difference with insurtech Against the backdrop of a pandemic, Lloyd’s is bringing tech startups together to develop solutions
future of transportation, and cyber. “I am thrilled to be working with some of the brightest and best talent from the insurtech sector to help the Lloyd’s market develop new ideas that better serve our customers by developing solutions to the problems they face today,” said Trevor Maynard, head of innovation at Lloyd’s. Beyond solving issues within the four themes, Maynard believes the Lloyd’s accelerator is an important way for the entire
“It has never been more important for us to pull together … to make a difference”
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Lloyd’s of London has selected the insurtechs that will participate in the fourth cohort of its Lloyd’s Lab accelerator program. Of the 12 insurtechs chosen to participate in the accelerator, three are based in the US: Parametrix, which creates index-based insurance for external IT software downtime incidents such as cloud outages, network crashes and platform failures; Koffie, a transportation insurance company that offers instant
NEWS BRIEFS
quotes facilitated by vehicle-specific artificial intelligence; and Kovrr, a modeling platform that allows insurers and reinsurers to financially quantify cyber risk. The 12 Lloyd’s Lab participants will spend 10 weeks working with insurers to develop and test innovative ideas addressing some of the biggest issues in the industry. For this cohort, Lloyd’s has identified four themes the insurtechs must focus on: data and models, new insurance products and markets, the
Allstate launches telematics-based personalized pricing
Allstate has begun offering personalized week-to-week pricing through its popular telematics-powered Milewise insurance policy. Milewise uses a plug-in dongle to collect driving data, recording how many miles a driver has traveled and then deducting a set amount of premium for every mile driven using a prepaid billing system. The latest version of Milewise, which was first introduced in Arizona in September 2019, assigns drivers a pay-per-mile rate that flexes on a week-by-week basis, based on how safely they drive.
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industry to pool the talents of its best and brightest in the face of a global health crisis. “As the COVID-19 crisis continues its devastating march around the world, it has never been more important for us to pull together to use our combined resources and creativity to make a difference,” he said. Kovrr CEO Yakir Golan told IBA his team is thrilled to be part of the Lloyd’s accelerator. “This is a great opportunity for us to closely work with insurance industry leaders and showcase our cyber risk modeling platform to the Lloyd’s syndicates,” he said. “We plan to use the program to further advance our models and products to support cyber insurance underwriting, cyber risk exposure and accumulation management.”
Zywave launches coronavirus resource center
Insurtech provider Zywave has launched an online library for insurance professionals that offers access to free compliance, HR, and employee content and resources related to COVID-19. Developed by Zywave’s own attorneys, the resources are designed to serve as a guide for insurers and their clients to help them mitigate disruptions and ensure their workers are safe. The employee resources can also help insurers answer any COVID-19-related questions to help dispel any misinformation employees might have.
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8/05/2020 10:49:19 4:03:49 AM 14/03/2018 PM
UPFRONT
TECHNOLOGY UPDATE Q&A
Laird Rixford CEO INSURANCE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION (ITC)
Years in the industry 18 Fast fact Rixford was once told he could never fly an airplane; today, he’s a licensed pilot
Helping agents and brokers work remotely How is ITC helping insurance agents and brokers continue their work remotely amid the COVID-19 pandemic? The entirety of ITC’s products are cloud-based, so our agents have been able to run their businesses from anywhere for years now. Whether it’s updating their insurance website, sending an email to their clients, quoting a policy or updating a client’s policy, our agents are able to do all of this and more from wherever they happen to be. This anywhere access has allowed our agents and brokers to be ready for this unprecedented change in how the industry works. With the technology side handled, ITC has focused on providing analytical insight to all agents and brokers, detailing the impact COVID-19 is having on the industry in terms of quoting activity and website traffic. This insight allows agents and brokers to set their own baseline of how they are handling things.
What other advice do you have for insurance agencies that continue to work remotely? Remember that while you are working remotely, so are your clients. Find ways to allow the insurance transaction to continue, no matter where the client is located. They might not have access to scanners or printers. Agents should use e-signature and document management solutions to remove the friction within the insurance-buying process. Be a resource for your clients. That could be a series of blog posts about local news or how to help the local community. Or send emails to your clients to let them know how they can contact you if they need anything.
With government-mandated shutdowns limiting business operations, can automation help keep insurance businesses afloat?
What new technology-related risk exposures are emerging as more people work from home?
Absolutely. The technology has been available for agents and brokers to run their businesses remotely for years. The current situation is no different than someone who chooses to a have a home-based agency or a call-center agent who never meets their clients directly. What really needs to change is the mindset. Agents and brokers must use technology to connect with their clients. Many people see technology as a replacement for the agent-client relationship, but it is an extension
The number of phishing attempts has increased with more people working from home. This is where technology vendors can assist their clients through the use of complex passwords and multi-factor authentication. Check out the security features your technology offers. If they offer multi-factor authentication, make sure you’ve turned that on for your entire team. Remind your team to be vigilant and stay aware of potential phishing and scam attempts.
LexisNexis adds fraud risk signal to ThreatMatrix
LexisNexis Risk Solutions has added LexisNexis Behavioral Biometrics, a fraud risk signal, to its LexisNexis ThreatMetrix product. The new functionality, which analyzes the way a user interacts with a device and reliably differentiates between different user profiles, allows organizations to make more reliable fraud and risk decisions. Behavioral Biometrics offers additional risk signals for account openings, high-risk pages and payments, and helps organizations distinguish between trusted and malicious users in real time.
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of the insurance agency. Technology supplements what makes an independent agency great: the relationship. That can be maintained anywhere. We’ve seen in our own data how online traffic and online quote requests have actually increased during this situation.
AAAtraq debuts compliance management system
Amid a rise in digital accessibility lawsuits in the US, AAAtraq has launched an automated compliance identification management system to help organizations define their accessibility noncompliance risk exposure. AAAtraq assesses current levels of risk, provides guidance on reasonable adjustments and enables ongoing certification. Organizations can receive a complimentary risk profile from AAAtraq online to quickly assess if their website is compliant and the precise level of risk they face.
Wellfleet and EIS Group team up on benefits platform
Berkshire Hathaway insurance company Wellfleet has partnered with industry technology firm EIS Group to build an insurance administration platform for the employee benefits market. The open-architecture, cloud-based platform aims to offer a digitally unified solution to support the full broker and customer life cycle, including rating and quoting, policy issuance and administration, and billing and claims management, in addition to allowing for the creation of multi-channel touchpoints.
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PEOPLE
INDUSTRY ICON
POISED FOR TRANSFORMATION Crawford & Company CEO Rohit Verma tells IBA how the 79-year-old organization has put innovation at the center of its evolution
ROHIT VERMA, Crawford & Company’s CEO, has always had a passion for building things. The child of two scientists, Verma was just 11 years old when he built his first solar projector; as he got older, that passion evolved into building insurance businesses. Today, he has more than 20 years of international strategic and leadership experience gained from working for two insurance giants, but Verma started his career in research and development. Within a few years, he had become a consultant at Deloitte and later moved to McKinsey & Company. While there, he got his first taste of insurance while working with clients in the industry. He developed an enthusiasm for it that’s only grown since. “Insurance is a business that has a great combination of the emotional side, because you’re working with people, and at the end of the day, you’re helping them,” he says. “But then there’s a whole technical side to it, which is very interesting.” Verma enjoyed insurance so much that he wanted to go beyond advising clients and put his recommendations into action at an insurance company. In 2007, he found the opportunity to do so at Zurich, where he started out as head of strategy for specialty products before transitioning to roles ranging from finance to underwriting and eventually general management.
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Along the way, Verma realized that every industry is in some way touched by insurance, which further increased his passion. He was also introduced to Crawford & Company, where Zurich was a client. After 10 years at Zurich, Verma had the opportunity to work for the claims management giant, taking on the role of global COO in 2017. “I was excited about [the role] because I
for Crawford & Company. The company has shifted its structure, transforming from a geographic-based organization to one centered around service lines so it can go beyond claims to serve as a well-rounded advisor to clients. Crawford & Company has also evolved into a truly global organization, Verma says, and has defined its mission to restore and enhance lives, businesses, and communities.
“We’re proud of our legacy, but we’re also transforming ourselves to be a lot more forward-looking by using our experience and learning from the past as opposed to being rooted and not changing” felt that the claims space was truly poised for transformation,” he says. “The opportunity to lead a global organization was something that I felt would be extremely exciting to do – and three years into it, I feel every bit of that excitement.” In May, Verma’s ascent at Crawford & Company continued when he was named CEO.
Innovative at heart The past three years have been full of change
“It’s been an all-around transformation – a cultural transformation, an organizational transformation, a transformation of our go-to market and a transformation of how we build businesses,” he says. Innovation has been at the heart of this evolution, and every step the organization has taken has been with clients in mind. The leadership team injects innovation at two levels. The first is innovation that makes the company stronger, such as using robotic
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PROFILE Name: Rohit Verma Title: CEO Company: Crawford & Company Based in: Atlanta Years in the industry: 13 Fast fact: Verma holds a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, a master’s degree in IT management and has attended leadership programs at Harvard, Cambridge and the London Business School
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PEOPLE
INDUSTRY ICON
process automation and artificial intelligence to make internal processes more efficient. The second level of innovation is one that creates better outcomes for clients, seen in part through the company’s 2017 acquisition of WeGoLook, an on-demand field services provider powered by thousands of independent contractors. Crawford & Company is also working on a new digital first notice of loss (FNOL) capability that will allow its teams to receive an FNOL from anywhere, whether that’s a car with a telematics device or a home with a connected sensor. “This means that we will know when one of our clients is having a claim even before the client themselves knows,” Verma says.
Looking to the future When Verma looks at 2020 and beyond, he sees more innovation on the horizon for Crawford & Company, as well as the continued expansion of its capabilities and geographic footprint. He also sees the company’s experts driving thought leadership initiatives and providing crucial resources to clients around the world as they navigate the challenges facing their respective industries. This is especially important as the so-called ‘silver tsunami’ hits the insurance industry and experts with decades of knowledge retire, which will require companies to change with the times and not leave vital expertise behind. “We’re one of the oldest loss adjusting firms and TPAs in the world,” Verma says, “and we’re
“It’s been an all-around transformation – a cultural transformation, an organizational transformation, a transformation of our goto market and a transformation of how we build businesses” Other innovations include the use of 3D imaging to document and visualize losses, allowing team members to put on virtual reality goggles and ‘walk’ through a 3D rendering of a site. In addition, the company’s Total Property Solution ensures that the most efficient path is always used to handle a claim by analyzing each claim and routing it through one of three processes based on complexity, while also monitoring the claim as it progresses to ensure timely and accurate resolution. “We believe that through this process, not only can we save about 20% to 30% of loss adjusting expense for our clients,” Verma says, “but most importantly, we can make the experience for the policyholder better and the speed of settlement a lot faster.”
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proud of our tradition, we’re proud of our legacy, but we’re also transforming ourselves to be a lot more forward-looking by using our experience and learning from the past as opposed to being rooted and not changing.” The need for innovation will only grow as emerging risks impact insureds around the globe. “The world is getting more complicated, and anytime something gets more complicated, the risks increase,” Verma says, pointing to the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of a pertinent risk. “We’re an organization that has the global presence, that has 79 years under its belt and is the largest publicly traded [claims management] company today. We are best positioned to assist our clients in building capabilities and helping them with these emerging risks.”
CRAWFORD & COMPANY BY THE NUMBERS
1941
Year Jim Crawford opened the first Crawford & Company office in Columbus, Georgia
9,000
Number of Crawford & Company employees across the globe
70
Countries Crawford & Company operates in
1.6 million
Number of claims Crawford & Company has handled worldwide
600+
Client programs Crawford & Company added in 2019
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UPFRONT
OPINION
GOT AN OPINION THAT COUNTS? Email iba@keymedia.com
Closing the information gap Using a single credit source to price insurance policies for small businesses creates a significant gap in underwriting data, writes Sharon Maloney WHEN INSURERS begin pricing a policy for a new small business customer, they often rely solely on a single financial data source. But did you know that using only one commercial credit source could give you only 50% coverage of your small businesses book? That could leave the other half of your book of business completely unknown when underwriting or rating, leaving you exposed to any competition that wants to move in on that business. Pricing in this way often results in small business owners paying for other business owners’ risks simply due to a lack of sufficient information, yet there’s so much data and analysis available to help overcome this problem. To properly protect a small business customer, insurance carriers need to make sure they’re collecting and analyzing all available data in order to accurately assess the risk and design and price the policy. One of the challenges facing insurers when underwriting a small business is finding sufficient financial performance information, leaving them to rely only on financial data about the business itself for underwriting and creating a gap in the full risk picture. While consumers start accumulating credit history any time they apply for credit, business credit is vastly different: According to an internal study conducted by LexisNexis Risk Solutions in 2019, only around half of small businesses have a credit profile with a single commercial credit bureau. As insurers began using commercial credit for commercial rating, it left a large gap, making half of an insurer’s book of
business completely unknown when underwriting or rating a small business. How can commercial insurers close this gap? The key is to determine a methodology that enables the insurer to accurately and confidently assess, predict and price the risks associated with each business. A multiple-source approach can help address the gap, but identifying and evaluating the right sources is critical. If risks are assessed and insurance policies are priced based on
they might otherwise over- or under-predict using only a business entity model. So, what are the steps to take? First, understand your current and future target market. How do these types of businesses compare to similar entities in your book of business, and what financial products do they use? Next, select the right sources of data for a particular business. Credit bureaus, nontraditional financial sources and personal financial data can all be used to better align to your book. Finally, design an underwriting program that leverages these data sources to better segment small businesses based on a more accurate view of the business’s financial performance. Taking advantage of this segmentation can increase the effectiveness of your program and positively impact your loss ratio relativities. To remain competitive within the growing small business insurance market, carriers need to evaluate the right mix of information on both the business and its owner to accurately price the risks of each small busi-
“To properly protect a small business customer, insurance carriers need to make sure they’re collecting and analyzing all available data in order to accurately assess the risk” only one view of financial data, the insurer is potentially missing other views and critical information. Our internal analysis shows that when you add three or more financial data sets to your underwriting, it results in an average rate of 74% of risks covered, compared to just 52% with only one source. When insurers layer in the business owner’s personal information, particularly for non-employer or sole proprietor firms, they increase not only their coverage, but also segmentation. Since both types of data effectively identify higher loss propensities when combined, there is additional segmentation available for the insurer to leverage. This overlaying segmentation can enable insurers to better identify areas of the population where
ness they insure. Embracing change and following the right models can help insurers provide a faster and more seamless underwriting experience. Working with this multi-source process can be a daunting task. Partnering with a trusted solutions provider can help insurers manage this effort by assisting with the move from one data set to another, providing better predictive modeling, and targeting and capturing new profit pools. Sharon Maloney is a director of commercial insurance at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, where she’s responsible for assessments, requirements and the design of data solutions and services focused on commercial insurance.
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SPECIAL REPORT
INSURTECH 2020
SPECIAL REPORT
INSURTECH 2020 How are insurtechs poised to transform the insurance ecosystem in 2020 and beyond? IBA spoke to leaders at four pioneering companies to find out FOREWORD BY APPLIED SYSTEMS INSURTECH IS extremely important to the advancement of the insurance industry, just as new technology is beneficial to any industry. Because insurtechs typically pinpoint a challenge in the market and create a solution, these businesses are critical to creating efficiency and connectivity for stakeholders in the industry. For this reason and several others, we at Applied Systems felt it was important to support and promote the following report, focused exclusively on technology in the insurance industry. Insurtechs bring innovation to the market and push insurance stakeholders to consistently evaluate their operations and provide solutions in areas that are challenged, enabling more efficiency within the ecosystem and more connectivity between each stakeholder. Through competition, they also drive more innovation among themselves, from which all stakeholders benefit. Some of the most successful insurtechs to date are the ones that focus on fixing broken processes within the existing insurance ecosystem, not the
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ones that are disintermediating agents. While insurtech used to have a negative reputation, being seen in the industry as a group of businesses looking to disintermediate the independent insurance agency channel, today we are seeing more insurtechs that are further enabling the agency channel. It’s important for agents and insurers to know the landscape so they can improve their businesses. It’s also important for software providers such as Applied to be aware of potential partner opportunities so that customers will always have access to the most valuable resources available. This report examines all aspects of insurtechs – where they’ve been, where they currently are and where they’re going – and provides valuable insight for our industry.
Taylor Rhodes CEO Applied Systems
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THE EXPERTS Taylor Rhodes CEO Applied Systems
As CEO of Applied Systems, Taylor Rhodes leads Team Applied and is responsible for the company’s overall strategy and operational execution. Rhodes joined Applied in 2019 after serving as CEO of SMS Assist, a cloud-based software platform for
Michael DeGusta CEO ClarionDoor
Michael DeGusta is CEO of ClarionDoor, a leading cloud digital distribution platform for insurance. After beginning his career building Apple.com, DeGusta
Laird Rixford CEO Insurance Technologies Corporation As CEO of Insurance Technologies Corporation (ITC), Laird Rixford is responsible for providing strategic direction and leadership for the company. He has a proven executive management track record and has
James Thom Senior vice president of corporate development and strategy Vertafore
multi-site property management. Prior to that, he was CEO of Rackspace, where he led the company’s growth from cloud pioneer to industry leader with more than $2 billion in revenue. Before heading up Rackspace, Rhodes served as a leader in enterprise, financial and corporate strategy roles at Electronic Data Systems Corporation. A former US Marine Corps infantry officer, Rhodes also serves on the boards of directors for Applied, Zenoss and Liquid Web.
has been a successful entrepreneur and consistent innovator in the insurance software industry. In 1998, he co-founded and served as chief technology officer of eCoverage, the nation’s first online auto insurance company. He then co-founded Steel Card, one of the world’s first insurtech companies, which was acquired by Insurity in 2006.
more than 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship and insurance technology. Rixford joined ITC in 2008 as vice president of product development and marketing when ITC acquired his company, Evolution Designs, and its product, Insurance Website Builder. An expert in insurance technology and marketing, Rixford is a recognized public speaker and has presented at industry events across the US.
James Thom leads Vertafore’s corporate development team and guides the company’s relationship with other insurtech companies through the Orange Partner program. Thom joined Vertafore in 2017 from McKinsey & Company, where he worked in the New York and San Francisco offices.
THE RISE of the insurtech sector has been nothing short of remarkable – insurtech investment reached an all-time high of $6.37 billion in 2019, according to Willis Towers Watson. That’s up from $347 million in 2012, when insurtech was just beginning to make waves in the industry. It also represents a considerable jump from just a year prior, when the insurtech sector saw $4.17 billion worth of investment. As understanding has expanded about how technology and innovation can lend efficiency, value and support across the insurance sector, so have the underlying principles that govern the insurtechs that bring these technologies to the marketplace. Recently, insurtechs have evolved from offering solutions to make processes faster or more accurate to introducing brand-new concepts aimed at revolutionizing how insurance functions. Digitization and digital transformation have been embraced within the insurance industry, and insurance companies are increasingly looking to form partnerships with insurtechs to either build products together or to purchase technology solutions that they don’t have the operational agility or technical ability to build themselves. Such partnerships allow change to quickly and effectively take place in companies where evolution is often slow to occur and can enable conventional insurance companies to focus on the areas where they lend genuine customer value.
Popular areas of innovation In a recent interview with IBA, Srinivas Rao, senior vice president and global head of technology services at Sutherland, outlined how a lack of automation and old-fashioned business practices have not only cost the Lloyd’s market money, but have also impacted the reputation and perception of insurance. However, he noted that the industry’s digital transformation is rapidly occurring as many insurance companies capitalize on the opportunities granted by data analytics, machine learning and automation. A recent survey by NTT Data of 100 senior London market syndicates, brokers and managing agents found that the London market is upping its tech investment to main-
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SPECIAL REPORT
INSURTECH 2020 tain its status as a global insurance leader; investment in IT is set to double in the next three years. Two-thirds of the business leaders surveyed said they’re concerned about being left behind in modernization. The report further outlined that 70% of insurance leaders are looking to invest in robotic process automation (RPA) in the future. More than half are focusing their budgets on artificial intelligence and machine learning, and 73% of insurance leaders believe that RPA could dramatically speed up the manual processes that still dominate back-office operations in insurance.
The potential impact of coronavirus The coronavirus pandemic has affected every element of the insurance value chain, and the continued effects of this crisis will likely be felt by the industry and the wider economy for a long time to come. The outbreak has the potential to highlight the value proposition of
Where is insurtech making the biggest waves in the insurance ecosystem? Laird Rixford: Insurtech continues to make waves at the carrier level within the industry. As new entrants enter the market that focus on lines of business outside personal insurance, the carriers are taking notice. Insurtech is now coming to commercial, E&S and even reinsurers. How these companies service agents and clients throughout the life cycle – from quoting to claims – is changing through an influx of new ideas coming from insurtech. Michael DeGusta: Insurtechs are disrupting the way we think about and approach insurance as a whole. They are forcing insurers and software vendors to think differently about how insurance products are developed, marketed and sold, as well as the overall customer experience. For
“Insurtechs are doing the things that insurers have always wanted to do but never could” Michael DeGusta, Clarion Door insurtech, which is innately prepared for the operational changes necessitated by the global lockdown. If the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated anything, it’s that almost anything can be done online, including insurance transactions. However, insurance agencies, brokers and carriers are still often falling short when it comes to meeting consumer expectations online. Any failings in this regard will become painstakingly clear during the pandemic and will likely push the industry toward greater adoption of technology and digital innovation. With that in mind, IBA spoke to a panel of experts with deep knowledge of the insurtech space to generate an overview of the current landscape. These experts weighed in on six key questions to examine the impact of insurtech, providing a broad overview of the intricacies and capabilities of this exciting new element of the insurance industry.
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too long, the insurance industry has been labeled as slow and inefficient, and insurtechs are breaking that mold. Untainted by decades of tradition, insurtechs are taking full advantage of leading-edge technologies and proving to the industry that there is another way of doing business. One area in particular is the quoting process – insurtechs are taking that entire process to a whole new level, leveraging technology and third-party data sources to minimize consumer inputs and fill in the gaps. The result is an experience where consumers get a full bindable quote in seconds just by entering their name and address. To sum it up, insurtechs are doing the things that insurers have always wanted to do but never could. Taylor Rhodes: The insurtechs making the biggest difference in the marketplace are the ones that are supporting the agency distribution channel rather than disintermediating it. We are seeing that these insurtechs
are either being adopted by agents and brokers to create more efficiency in their operations, or we’re seeing larger software providers acquiring these insurtechs. In December, Applied Systems acquired Indio, one of the fastest-growing insurtechs in North America, to provide customers with a collaborative and automated data capture experience, increasing the velocity of the insurance application and renewal life cycle while lowering costs and reducing the risk of errors and omissions. James Thom: Insurtech is about improving both internal agency processes and the relationships agents have with the end insured. For Vertafore and our customers, this means better digital experiences, meaningful data and analytics, and improved processes through modern platforms and APIs. In virtually every other area of our lives, “there’s an app for that,” and there has been for years. Insurance is catching up, with self-service tools that provide superior convenience, improve data capture and reduce the transactional burden in the industry, thereby freeing up time for more high-value activities. While the insurance industry is packed with data, it hasn’t been historically great at leveraging that data end-to-end across the business. Data and the associated analytics can deliver unprecedented insight that benefits all stakeholders in insurance. For example, agents can use data analytics to get a more complete picture of their clients and make sure they have the coverage they need. Carriers and agents can partner together to reduce the number of questions they ask clients when submitting an application and instead leverage third-party data sources. In terms of improved processes, for years agents have been bogged down with manual, time-consuming busywork that takes them away from serving as advisors to their clients. Absent technology, simply quoting and closing on a policy is a chore of manually entering and re-entering data into multiple systems, toggling between screens and sharing documents back and forth with the client. Modern platforms can automate many of those processes, enabling agents to get back to serving people rather than paperwork. By creating a smooth digital workflow
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system, automation can help the process move faster, reduce E&O exposure and give the agent more time to get to know the needs of their clients.
Why is it important for agents and brokers to engage with insurtech? LR: Agents and brokers have been using technology in their insurance operations for years. When the initial wave of insurtechs hit, they came with excitement and the opinion that they could disrupt the existing channel of insurance. Now they are all gone. These insurtechs did not understand the insurance industry. They were from outside the industry. The latest wave of insurtechs has been cultivated from within the industry. As these new providers enter, they have a better purview into the industry and are creating ideas that really supplement the existing workflow of insurance instead of disrupting it. MD: Given the role of brokers, they need access to a variety of insurance products that will meet the needs and demands of their customers. Insurtechs play a crucial role in meeting that demand, not only from a product innovation perspective, but also from a technology and customer experience perspective. Insurtechs are producing newer products at a pace that traditional insurers just can’t keep up with, which explains why so many insurers are investing in insurtech today. Brokers can take advantage of that by teaming up with insurtechs to broaden their portfolio of products. It allows them to tap into markets that they might not have been able to offer before. Additionally, in light of the wide variety of insurers and systems brokers deal with, they can really struggle to deliver the seamless experience modern consumers expect. This is another area where insurtechs have dove in to help. TR: Insurtech is bringing new and improved ways of connecting and communicating within the insurance ecosystem. As competition in the industry is only increasing, with changing consumer preferences and new direct-to-consumer competitors, it’s
important for brokers to stay aware of the new technology they can adopt to have a competitive advantage. Insurtechs are creating point solutions for the insurance ecosystem, enabling more efficient policy workflows and creating digital ways to communicate and collaborate with insureds and insurers. These solutions provide new opportunities for agents to enhance operational efficiency and their customer experience. JT: Insurtech isn’t just important for independent brokers – it is essential to meet the demands of end insureds and to remain competitive in an industry that is quickly transforming. In a 24/7 digital world, brokers are turning to insurtech for several reasons: It simplifies and automates the insurance life cycle to help agents be more effective, produc-
tive and efficient; it helps the agency grow by providing insight into industry trends and opportunities that can help agencies expand their book of business; and insurance consumers expect modern technology. The combination of digitally savvy clients, digital-first insurance providers, the modern app-based approach to goods and services, and the growth of on-demand access across all sectors means that consumers expect the same experience even from their hometown insurance agency. They want outstanding service with maximum efficiency, and insurtech allows agents to provide that. At its core, insurance is about service and relationships. Agents must evolve to meet the needs and expectations of the people they serve, and insurtech is a key part of that evolution.
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SPECIAL REPORT
INSURTECH 2020 How is insurtech transforming the customer experience? LR: Insurtech is not transforming the customer experience. It is adapting to the expectations consumers already have of any technology-enabled service they subscribe to. They want instant, anytime access to whatever they are purchasing. If you are not providing this already, you need to, as the insurtechs are trying to do it for you. MD: Insurtechs are really resonating with the younger, tech-savvy generations, which is an area where most insurers have struggled. They fully understand today’s consumer in that they want the ability to purchase products easily, with simple auto-pay options and killer apps. Consumers don’t want to answer a hundred questions to get a quote; they want an experience that’s as simple as buying something on Amazon. Insurtechs get that and have structured their products to meet that demand. TR: We are seeing insurtechs pinpoint
agency and consumer needs and create solutions to continue to transform the customer experience. Insurance is historically an industry that required consumers to either physically go to an insurance agency or call their agent in order to be serviced, but some insurtech models are taking those interactions and making them digital, allowing consumers to have the digital experiences they expect to have in today’s environment, enhancing the customer experience and giving agents with this capability a competitive advantage. JT: Many brokers worry that technology will distance them from their clients, but the reality is that customer engagement is multifaceted. Clients expect to be able to access essential information when they need it, and insurtech solutions enable independent agencies to provide that 24/7, ondemand experience. Giving clients self-service access makes managing policies, payments and more convenient. In a world where consumers are super busy, anything that makes life easier, more automated and requires less hands-on attention is extremely valuable. Now, instead of
waiting for their broker’s office to open, calling and possibly waiting again on hold or for a call back, clients can get the information and documents they need on their own schedule. That DIY capability is empowering, and when clients do need advice, taking these transactional interactions out of the equation elevates the broker’s position to one of a trusted counselor, rather than just an ID card dispenser. But agents are also critical; insurance clients rely on the knowledge and experience agents bring to the table when they are faced with complex decisions or need advice. Insurtech solutions are transforming that part of the customer experience as well by reducing the time agents spend on manual processes and transactional tasks, and by giving them the data and information they need to provide the right information to clients at the right time. Ultimately, insurtech is making the customer experience timelier and more satisfying. Clients get the information they need, and brokers can spend less time pushing paper and more time serving as a trusted advisor.
How are things like artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotic process automation changing the insurance value chain? LR: These are all areas that extensively assist the carriers and provide minimal value to agents and brokers. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning continues to be an expensive proposition for the everyday agency. Therefore, they must focus on technologies that create better enablement for the sales and service channel. Once this is in place, then an agent can begin using these technologies to analyze their data. Once analyzed, they can begin building processes using robotic process automation to supplement the human component of insurance sales and service without replacing it. MD: It’s great that we’re thinking and talking about these technologies, but technologies have the most impact where they are solving real problems insurers have. Some technologies, like RPA, are having more practical use today, while others, like
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“The insurtechs making the biggest difference in the marketplace are the ones that are supporting the agency distribution channel rather than disintermediating it” Taylor Rhodes, Applied Systems blockchain, are still largely in the speculative stage. There are insurers out there that still cannot launch a cyber product, that cannot have more than one vehicle on an auto policy, and machine learning is not going to help them solve those problems. Modern insurance is all about data, though, and many insurance professionals are frequently dealing with very specific situations they individually encounter only rarely. This combination should allow machine learning to facilitate and guide many transactions. With regard to automation, RPA is really backward-looking: How do we automate old
systems that lack modern APIs? We at Clarion Door have always been API-first, and we believe that going forward, the focus should be on automating product change and innovation. Most insurers today are more focused on automating transactions, and while that’s good, it really doesn’t provide that much value. Where we see the main challenge is in the product life cycle – going from a product model into production. That is the process that tends to take the most time for insurers when speed to market is paramount. TR: There are exciting opportunities for innovation to further advance the insurance
industry into a better, more valuable ecosystem. Technology like AI, machine learning and analytics is creating even more opportunities to simplify insurance and bring more actionable intelligence into day-to-day operations. By using analytics technology and AI to aggregate data, agencies can speed up internal processes, identify holes in their books of business, map out where customers need them most and more. There is an enormous amount of data created in the insurance industry on a daily basis. Yet the majority of this data has gone untapped. In Applied’s role, we have a unique position to provide industry-wide insights and benchmarks that provide intelligence around areas like pricing, premium renewal rates and product trends. We are also looking at things like bringing AI to an agent’s fingertips to recommend the right product – the type of coverage, the amount of coverage, the expected price of that coverage and the optimal provider of that coverage – for each of their prospects and customers at the point
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We are here for you. So you can be there for them. Our mission to enable agencies, brokerages and insurers to safeguard and protect what matters most in people’s lives is more important today than ever before.
Let’s do this together.
appliedsystems.com
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SPECIAL REPORT
INSURTECH 2020
SOME THINGS WORK BETTER TOGETHER
of sale. Or machine learning that helps insurers and agencies better align based on size of business opportunities and underwriting focus to mutually drive profitable growth. JT: Insurance has historically been a very paperheavy industry with many repetitive and routine tasks. Insurtech has stepped in to help streamline and automate that process with AI, machine learning and robotic process automation, and these solutions are driving several big changes. With AI solutions and process automation, insurers can handle more work with the same amount of resources. This clears a bottleneck that often causes customer frustration, allowing companies to rapidly screen for fraud and automatically pay some claims instantly. With the ability to analyze data, carriers and underwriters can better assess the economic value of risk and arrive at appropriate levels of coverage
LR: They must always understand that their client is theirs. The first question must be, “How does this technology enrich my client’s experience with me?” Once you can answer that, you can begin looking inward to understand how that technology can build your agency further. MD: There are many factors that need to be considered when partnering with insurtechs; however, the most important is defining what challenges you have and how this insurtech is going to solve them. It doesn’t make sense to partner with an insurtech just for the sake of partnering or a PR campaign.
“[Consumers] want outstanding service with maximum efficiency, and insurtech allows agents to provide that” James Thom, Vertafore and premium costs for policies. Rather than relying on conjecture and actuarial forecasts, insurers can make decisions on real, documented data. This not only improves the confidence and lowers the risk of decision-making, but also creates more transparency in the relationship with the end insured. Clients can see that carriers are making coverage decisions and setting premium based on objective data rather than hunch and intuition. With AI, carriers and agents can have a better understanding of each other’s objectives and goals. Agencies can see where carriers have interest in writing new business and can conduct client outreach accordingly. Carriers can see which agencies are having success with certain types of policies and focus their efforts on winning more business with those and providing more support for agencies that could use a boost. These solutions also remove friction logistically – rather than submitting individual RFPs for new client policies through multiple systems, agencies can submit client data and see a selection of options from multiple carriers all in one place. This speeds the process and helps agents deliver faster, more thorough customer service.
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What should agents and brokers consider when deciding whether to partner with an insurtech firm or solution?
Does the insurtech offer a product that you know is in demand or that might be more competitive than what you’re currently able to offer? We are seeing more insurtechs open up new insurance markets that we have not had before, and this can be a game-changer for many brokers. Access to a variety of more competitive products is the lifeblood for brokers, so if insurtechs have products that can broaden your portfolio, partner with them. It’s important to ensure that whatever insurtech you are partnering with is structured for the long term, which we call future-proof. The key is to make sure their solution is built with an API-first architecture. Finally, ensure that the insurtech has a smooth and streamlined approach to their business and has the tools to support customers in a modern, efficient way. From a broker perspective, it’s not just about the quality of the products, but ensuring that customers will be satisfied with the overall service. TR: Before looking for any technology, brokers should consider the problem they’re wanting to resolve and then research which solution would be best for their particular business. Each business has its own workflows, so it’s important to ensure you are choosing the solution that will integrate
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Like working with a Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association member to find a custom solution to a nonstandard risk. WSIA members will help you craft cost-effective, innovative solutions for your specialty and nonstandard risks. Combining the strength of the former AAMGA well into current processes. Additionally, ensure you then will be able to get the support needed to implement and learn the new solution. Implementation and learning a new software are critical to the success of a new business process. Just as an agent works to provide the highest level of customer service, a technology company should be delivering a personalized and seamless customer experience as well. JT: There are a lot of players in the market, and more are emerging every day. Brokers must evaluate solutions based on their needs today and moving forward, not just on what the provider promises. Brokers should ask themselves and prospective providers several questions. First, what problem is this solving? Is it a solution to a real issue or just a new way of doing the same thing? Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Second, how will this help me spend less time on repetitive, manual tasks? The purpose of insurtech is to reduce the time spent on paperwork and manual processes so that you can spend more time engaging with clients. Anything that adds to
your workload is probably not a good solution. Third, how will this work with my existing technology? Will it integrate smoothly? It’s important when you’re implementing new technology that it plays well with others and won’t create new technology silos in your business. Fourth, will this streamline a workflow? Simplifying processes not only makes things easier and faster, but can also cut operational costs. One small example: Some agencies have seen their postage costs more than cut in half by switching to digital document signature and sharing. These small savings can add up quickly to make for overall more efficient business operations. Finally, will this make me a better risk advisor to my community and customers? This should really be the goal of any insurtech decision. The real value of a client/agent relationship comes from understanding the client’s needs and delivering the recommendations and products to minimize their risk exposure. Whether it’s data insights, digitizing a workflow or delivering self-service, improving the client relationship must always be the ultimate goal.
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and NAPSLO organizations, WSIA members are your source for expert solutions.
find WSIA members at wsia.org find WSIA members at
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SPECIAL REPORT
INSURTECH 2020 WHAT IS INSURTECH ANYWAY? Insurtech, or insurance technology, refers to the use of technological innovations designed to promote savings and efficiency beyond the traditional insurance industry model. By leveraging state-of-the-art technology and third-party data sources, insurtechs minimize consumer inputs and fill in the gaps, taking the insurance process to a whole new level. Insurtech first emerged around 2010 The sector is on track to achieve a compound annual growth rate of more than 41% by 2023, according to market research firm Technavio
What’s next for insurtech? LR: Insurtechs will circle back to agencies and brokers soon. Again, they will attempt to disrupt their distribution channel. This is where the money is. However, agents and brokers who supplement their existing process with technology now will be ahead of the game when they do. The same technology available to the insurtechs is just a simple reach away for agents. It’s time that they take the leap. MD: Insurtechs have already made significant contributions to the insurance industry, but most of that has been in the P&C market, more so on the personal lines. I think we will see more insurtechs focusing on the commercial and life markets, where the purchasing process is still behind the tech curve. Many commercial products still require extensive data entry – think commercial property, for example – that can take quite some time to assess those risks. Using readily available data sources, insurtechs are positioned to apply the approaches used on personal lines to commercial lines, stream-
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lining the quoting process and providing a better customer experience. TR: Insurtech is going to see continued investment from insurers, venture capitalists and private equity firms because there are many facets of the insurance ecosystem that insurtechs are helping to improve. As with Indio, expect to see continued partnership of insurtechs with established software providers to provide access to new innovation, resources and scale. JT: Connectivity across the distribution channel, as well as data analytics on churn and loss analysis and predictions, are on the horizon for insurtech. Connectivity between a carrier and agency and an end insured is constantly evolving and aiming to be a smoother process. Insurtechs across the board are working to make sure the process is connected from start to finish. Using data and analytics to analyze churn will help an agent or agency owner be able to predict which customers they might lose in a given year, and therefore how much new business they should write in a year to balance out the churn rate. Similarly, data around win/loss rates with producers helps an agency
The latest trend gaining momentum in the insurtech market is the integration of Big Data and artificial intelligence One of the biggest hindrances to the growth of insurtech is regulatory and economic uncertainty
“The same technology available to the insurtechs is just a simple reach away for agents. It’s time that they take the leap” Laird Rixford, ITC owner know which producers are more effective than others so they can better equip their staff. Supplying agents with the data they have always had in a more accessible way enables them to be better risk advisors and help those in their community when they need it most.
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BUYER’S GUIDE customer service and a single network for market access and service.
APPLIED SYSTEMS Founded: 1987 Headquarters: University Park, IL Leadership: Taylor Rhodes, CEO
Tell us about Applied Systems. What’s your key area of focus? Taylor Rhodes, CEO: Applied provides cloud-based insurance software around the world that supports the distribution channel, seamlessly connecting the insured and agency and carrier stakeholders. Our technology automates the exchange of information and data throughout the insurance life cycle among agents, brokers, insurers and consumers, delivering a connected experience between all participants in the insurance ecosystem. This means greater connectivity within an agency or brokerage, greater connectivity with insurer partners and greater connectivity to the insured. How do your products work? TR: Applied’s Digital Agency software consists of a single management system, mobile technology, insurer connectivity and the cloud. The fully integrated software enables agencies to create higher-value business transactions and deliver superior customer experiences throughout the entire insurance life
cycle. By leveraging integrated software applications that enable agents and brokers to manage their entire business, digital agencies operate more efficiently, better leverage insurer relationships, improve customer service, and accelerate growth and profitability across all lines of business.
Why should agents and brokers use your products? TR: Applied technology seamlessly integrates the agency management system, mobile capabilities and insurer connectivity. Our customers further benefit from connectivity to IVANS, joining the more than 32,000 agencies and more than 420 insurers in the IVANS network. Additionally, Applied offers 24/7/365 support, enabling our customers to effectively automate their businesses and seamlessly connect to their insureds and insurers.
What problem are you solving in the insurance ecosystem? TR: The insurance industry is riddled with paper-driven manual processes, often creating inefficient workflows and poor customer experiences. These challenges start in the internal operations of the independent agency, including back-office processes such as policy administration, accounting and the management of customer relationships. These inefficiencies extend to an agent’s insurer relationships when digital technology isn’t utilized to connect the stakeholders. Agents then have to individually contact insurers and rely on fax and mail to complete the policy purchase process. Finally, the customer experience amounts to in-person and over-the-phone communications, requiring insureds to contact their agent for everything. Applied technology enables agencies to reshape their business with three core focuses: a foundational system to manage their entire business, omnichannel
What’s next for Applied Systems? TR: We’re beginning to expand our focus to the agent’s front office, extending our value proposition to the carriers and surrounding all of these focus areas with intelligence and value. As for the front office, we are currently heavily focused on automating the commercial lines submission process after our acquisition of Indio. As this is a particularly paper-heavy process for agents, making the paper applications digital will speed up the process and create ease of doing business for insureds. We are also introducing more automation into sales operations, bringing new tech nology designed specifically to manage prospecting, pipeline and renewals. We are deepening our connectivity with IVANS, creating a seamless ecosystem to change the way insurance is shopped, rated, quoted and bound. And we are using AI, machine learning and data to enhance these capabilities and make agencies smarter in their decisions and their daily workflows.
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SPECIAL REPORT
INSURTECH 2020 be integrated with other core systems and industry data services. What problem are you solving in the insurance ecosystem? MD: One major challenge for every insurer is speed to market, and we recognized early on that trying to launch products in ‘do it all’ systems actually takes insurers longer. At ClarionDoor, our software is designed to solve that problem so insurers can create, launch and distribute products in weeks rather than months or years, which enables them to focus on the business.
CLARIONDOOR Founded: 2010 Headquarters: Santa Barbara, CA Leadership: Michael DeGusta, CEO
Tell us about ClarionDoor. What do you do? Michael DeGusta, CEO: ClarionDoor is disrupting insurance distribution with an enterprise-proven, cloud-only, modern front-line distribution platform for rating, quoting, issuance and forms. Our mission is to develop and deliver modern, cost-effective solutions that not only solve current industry challenges, but also position insurance companies for the future. With roots in insurance technology and automation, our solutions have helped insurers, MGAs and brokers in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the UK automate product changes, streamline the front-line point of sale and seamlessly distribute products to their partner channels. What’s your key area of focus in the insurance ecosystem? MD: We believe that for too long, insurance software systems have
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either tried to do everything, or they’ve prioritized the needs of the back office – policy administration, accounting, billing – and that it was time for a solution that focused on the needs of product
Why should insurance companies use your products? MD: They are API-first and -always and enable going live in weeks. We have 100% referenceable clients and zero failed projects. Only one person is needed to implement your project, and there’s nothing to install, no infrastructure to manage. The simple monthly subscriptionbased model has no hidden fees and offers real-time data analytics and tracking.
“Insurers can create, launch and distribute products in weeks rather than months or years, which enables them to focus on the business” innovation, sales and distribution. This is where we focus at ClarionDoor: providing solutions that enable insurers to automate product innovation, streamline point of sale and seamlessly distribute products to any channel. How do your products work? MD: ClarionDoor’s suite of products includes CD Rating, CD Quoting Portal, CD Issuance and CD Forms Service. All of our solutions are built on an API-first and -always architecture, are cloud-only and hosted exclusively on AWS. Our products work together to provide a full digital solution for front-line distribution or can
What’s next for ClarionDoor? MD: We are continuing to develop innovative solutions that solve real industry problems that insurers are facing today and preparing them for the future. In 2020, we will officially be launching two new products: CD MGA Hub and CD Tracker. CD MGA Hub revolutionizes the MGA quoting process, providing MGAs a platform where quote data is entered once and rated on multiple carrier portals without rekeying any data. CD Tracker brings business intelligence to a new level, providing insurers with product performance metrics that can manage aspects of the business, all in real time.
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STILL RATING
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SPECIAL REPORT
INSURTECH 2020
INSURANCE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION (ITC) Founded: 1983 Headquarters: Carrollton, TX Leadership: Laird Rixford, CEO
Tell us about ITC. What do you do? Laird Rixford, CEO: ITC is a software company that provides websites, marketing, comparative rating, and agency management software and services to insurance agents and brokers across the United States. What’s your key area of focus in the insurance ecosystem? LR: Our focus is on helping independent insurance agents and brokers be more efficient and helping them with their digital marketing so that the agent or broker can succeed and grow. How do your products work? LR: Insurance Website Builder enables agents and brokers to control their website content through an easy-to-use administration console when they build their sites using this program.
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in their operations so they have more time to focus on what they do best: selling insurance. We also help agents build a strong online presence and improve their visibility online so they can get more traffic to their website and more leads. AgencyBuzz is an agency marketing automation tool that agents and brokers can use to nurture prospects and clients with consistent communication so they stay top of mind. TurboRater is a browser-based personal lines comparative rating system that has all the needs of carriers, agents or brokers selling personal lines in one rating platform.
Why should agents and brokers use your services or products? LR: We strive to make sure our technology is the best in its categories and are continually working to ensure we stay on top of what our clients need and want from their solutions. We believe agents and brokers should use the technology that is the right
“We help agents improve the workflows in their operations so they have more time to focus on what they do best: selling insurance” TurboRater for Websites is a turnkey solution that allows agents and brokers to offer their website visitors a fun, engaging insurtech experience while they’re shopping for a personal lines insurance policy online. Agency Matrix is a browser-based agency management system that is easy to use and helps agents improve their efficiency. What problem are you solving in the insurance ecosystem? LR: We help agents improve the workflows
fit for them. This is why we’ve integrated TurboRater with more than 30 different management systems. We believe our products provide such a value to our clients that we don’t require long-term commitments. What’s next for ITC? LR: Just keep getting better and continue working on and improving our technology to meet our clients’ needs and any changes in the market.
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SPECIAL REPORT
INSURTECH 2020 What problem are you solving in the insurance ecosystem? AM: Our fleet solutions help fleets reduce claims and keep their drivers, cargo and roadways safe. The Lytx Driver Safety Program helps fleets take a more proactive approach to safety by identifying risky driving behaviors before they lead to a collision. The program is proven to help prevent collisions and save lives. And as a result, our clients experience, on average, a 50% to 80% reduction in claims costs.
LYTX Founded: 1998 Headquarters: San Diego, CA Leadership: Brandon Nixon, president and CEO
Tell us about Lytx. What do you do? Adam McCarty, vice president, marketing and growth initiatives: Lytx is a global provider of machine-visionand artificial-intelligence-powered video telematics, analytics, productivity, and safety solutions for commercial, public sector, and field services fleets. Using a driving database of 120 billion miles and growing, along with proprietary machine vision and AI technology, we help protect and connect thousands of fleets and more than 1.3 million drivers worldwide. What’s your key area of focus in the insurance ecosystem? AM: Lytx harnesses the power of video to help commercial, public sector and field service fleets see what happened in the past, manage their operations more efficiently in the present and improve driver behavior to change the future. Our services and programs span driver safety, risk detection, fleet tracking, compliance and fuel management. Video can show very quickly – and objectively – exactly what happened in
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an incident and who is at fault, making it an incredibly valuable asset for any insurance situation. Even when an organization’s driver is found to be at fault, having video helps enable a quick settlement so the insurance carrier doesn’t end up spending more time and resources than needed. How do your products work? AM: Our driver safety program combines video capture and risk detection with tools proven to create lasting behavior change and improve fleet performance. The program is powered by our DriveCam Event Recorder, which mounts to the windshield of a vehicle and is able to capture video via both outward- and inward-facing lenses. The DriveCam devices’ built-in algorithms distinguish normal driving from risky behaviors and upload events directly to the Lytx cloud. From there, captured video clips are analyzed by both our proprietary AI and highly trained professional analysts. Then, once the clips are analyzed, categorized and tagged, they are delivered directly to our clients’ dashboards and ranked so fleet managers, safety managers and driver coaches can focus on coaching the most important things first. We also offer a fleet tracking service, which allows organizations to oversee their fleet operations from anywhere with cellular connectivity. With the service, clients are able to locate, track and manage their vehicles in real time to respond faster, maximize productivity and optimize field service efficiency.
Why should agents and brokers be interested in your products? AM: Lytx’s video telematics solutions are shown to help improve drivers’ behavior behind the wheel, helping to significantly reduce expenses associated with collisions and claims. We have helped our clients save in excess of an estimated $1 billion on claims costs to date [based on internal industry benchmark data collected from clients]. We currently work closely with more than 40 national and regional insurers, which offer our technology to their members as another way to support their customers. Cultivating safer, more efficient drivers is a smart investment for fleets and insurance brokers alike. What’s next for Lytx? AM: New enhancements to our machine vision and artificial intelligence [MV+AI] technology have enabled us to identify specific patterns of driving behavior to detect high-risk behaviors, like cell phone and seatbelt use. It can also be configured to identify behaviors like smoking, eating or drinking, which are important for fleets of oil haulers or transit vehicles to detect and track. This technology is incredibly precise in spotting these behaviors without picking up other irrelevant movements in the vehicle. We’re continuing to evolve these technologies and believe we have only just scratched the surface of what’s possible. We’re continuing to enhance our MV+AI technology as we work closer toward our goal of no commercial driver ever being the cause of a collision.
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SPECIAL REPORT
INSURTECH 2020 increasingly reliant on digital marketing, and carriers and brokers are racing to build or acquire new capabilities to improve the customer experience and the speed of distribution. Our solutions focus on making insurance simpler and smarter for the entire distribution channel. By simplifying and streamlining repetitive tasks, we give agents more time to focus on what matters most: people.
VERTAFORE Founded: 1969 Headquarters: Denver, CO Leadership: Amy Zupon, president and CEO
Tell us about Vertafore. What do you do? James Thom, SVP of corporate development and strategy: For over 50 years, Vertafore has built insurance technology to simplify and automate the insurance life cycle so that our customers can focus on what matters most to them: people. Vertafore’s solutions for agency management, client management, ratings, regulation, compliance and connectivity empower simpler, smarter insurance distribution for every stakeholder. More than 20,000 agencies, 1,000 carriers and 23 state governments rely on Vertafore to streamline their workflows, improve efficiency and drive productivity. We are fiercely devoted to customer success, a continual focus on excellence and a commitment to delivering modern, innovative insurtech solutions.
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What’s your key area of focus in the insurance ecosystem? JT: Simplifying and automating the distribution channel for all stakeholders. Can you tell us about one of your products and how it works? JT: InsurLink provides clients with
Why should agents and brokers use your products? JT: Giving clients a personalized digital experience keeps your agency ahead of the competition while preserving the relationship focus that got you where you are today. With companies like Amazon and Netflix reshaping consumer expectations, we’re seeing a marketplace power shift from institutions to customers. Buyers now expect to be able to research solutions online and to communicate and interact with brands digitally, regardless of the industry. Clients are using a variety of tools to interact with service providers, so why shouldn’t they be using them with their insurance agent? What’s next for Vertafore? JT: We have three pillars that we are focused on: unlocking the power of data, optimizing distribution management and modernizing
“Clients are using a variety of tools to interact with service providers, so why shouldn’t they be using them with their insurance agent?” 24/7 self-service digital access to the information they need the most. The end result is higher client satisfaction, lower E&O risk and more time to advise clients and grow your business. What problem are you solving in the insurance ecosystem? JT: Insurance is evolving – the key is staying ahead. Agencies and carriers are
the agency. There are many aspects to modernizing the agency, but we are most focused on client digital experience and an agency’s connectivity to its carriers. In a world of 24/7 access to anything at one’s fingertips, agencies can rely on technology to help streamline routine tasks like distributing ID cards, giving them more time to enhance a customer’s experience and be a risk advisor.
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FEATURES
SECTOR FOCUS: SPECIAL EVENTS
The show must go on While event cancellation insurance hasn’t always been popular, now is its time to shine. But will it get past the intermission of COVID-19?
SINCE THE very first Olympic Games well over a century ago, the highly anticipated international multi-sport event has only been canceled four times: in 1916 during World War I and twice during World War II in 1940 and 1944. In March, the COVID-19 outbreak forced the first cancellation of the Olympic Games in 76 years as the Tokyo Summer Olympics were postponed until 2021. The Olympics is one of many major events that have been canceled as drastic measures have been put in place across the globe to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The CDC has implemented strict recommendations when it comes to public gatherings, and events from weddings to conferences to concerts have been scrapped indefinitely. Some of the world’s largest sports leagues, including Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association, have also pressed pause on their seasons until further notice. Originally, almost 50,000 major sporting events were scheduled for 2020; a large proportion of those have been postponed or canceled because of COVID-19, according to research by sports marketing agency Two Circles, which also revealed that only 33% of
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global sports events scheduled in March took place. The abrupt halt in events has shone a bright light on the importance of event cancellation insurance. “While it’s long been an important part of the planning process for sophisticated event managers, those running smaller events have often disregarded [the importance of event cancellation insurance], and I think that will change,” says Matt Helm, contingecy practice leader at CFC Underwriting.
Coverage questions Event cancellation insurance usually offers protection when an event needs to be canceled for reasons beyond the policyholder’s control. That might include weather events like major storms, wildfires or earthquakes, as well as terrorism, power outages or a key person not appearing at the event. Claims might cover costs like lost down payments, penalties associated with rescheduling or additional marketing expenses. In many cases, policyholders have been left wondering whether the coronavirus pandemic is covered under their policy. Insurance for special events is not usually ‘one size fits all,’ and coverage for communicable
disease might not be automatically included in basic policies. Because many event planners have been in the business for decades without ever having to cancel an event, it was often an easy choice to opt out of communicable disease or pandemic coverage to cut costs – and sometimes even decline event cancellation coverage entirely. Now, even the option to purchase this coverage as an extra is nearly impossible to find. “When carriers became aware of COVID-19 around mid-January, they began to exclude that specific disease, and since then, it has become extremely difficult to find a policy that covers any communicable disease at all,” says Nathan Nicholas, president and CEO of Nicholas Hill Group. The policyholders who purchased event cancellation policies prior to coronavirus hitting the headlines are the ones more likely to come out on top. While no one could have predicted the magnitude of the virus’s impact on special events, these events and organizations will be better positioned to deal with the fallout. At the end of March, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) announced its decision to cancel Wimbledon for 2020; thanks to its risk and finance subcommittee, AELTC will make it out the other end in a much better position than some others. The organization has been paying nearly $2 million every year in pandemic insurance since it took notice of the SARS outbreak in 2003, spending around $34 million on premiums over the last 17 years. But because of this investment, AELTC is set to recover approximately $140 million to cover the costs of canceling Wimbledon due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to GlobalData. While this will soften the blow, it won’t replace the $300 million or so in revenue that the Daily Mail estimated this year’s tournament would rake in. “Reputable sporting events, such as the Premier League and the Open, have been
“Going forward, it’s likely the insurance market will face specific questions about whether communicable disease and COVID-19 are covered” Matt Tuman, Clements Worldwide canceled or postponed, causing the organizers to lose a lot of their investment,” says Ben Carey-Evans, an insurance analyst at GlobalData. “This unprecedented disruption
to events caused by COVID-19, and the significant payout to Wimbledon, will surely see all event organizers around the world look to invest in this product in the future.”
Once the dust settles Industry experts agree that COVID-19 will likely mark a major turning point for the special events insurance space, taking what was once a niche offering to something that will become more widely sought after. The pandemic will likely have an impact on underwriting going forward as well. “Communicable disease may not have been high on the priority of event cancellation causes previously,” says Matt Tuman, a commercial insurance producer at Clements Worldwide. “Going forward, it’s likely the insurance market will face specific questions
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FEATURES
SECTOR FOCUS: SPECIAL EVENTS
about whether communicable disease and COVID-19 are covered.” The market will likely take some time to adapt; Tuman says underwriters will need to ensure they have a proper understanding of how communicable diseases and potential outbreaks are likely to impact events going forward before reintroducing communicable disease coverage. Helm agrees, saying it’s just too early to know what event cancellation policies will look like in the future and how the industry will deal with communicable disease coverage. When that time does come, however, he says event cancellation coverage is likely to be much more expensive than it was before, and capacity will be more limited. Nicholas echoes that last point, saying the biggest question that remains unanswered is around future capacity. While carriers are currently saying they plan to remain in the market, it’s impossible to know what the environment will look like a year from now. “We have to wait and see whether the Olympic Games will actually happen next year or if it will be canceled altogether, or what happens with NCAA college football and the NFL,” he says. “Are those fall sports going to be able to proceed? There’s still a lot of potential cancellation claims on the table.” As the world looks to move forward and imagine what post-pandemic life will look like, Nicholas says it’s never too early for brokers to initiate conversations with their clients on preparing for the future by budgeting for event cancellation policies. Historically, organizers have been unable to host an event without showing proof of liability coverage, and the discussion around best practices post-pandemic is starting to include the importance of having proof of event cancellation insurance, he says, meaning that organizers will need to start looking at the cost of this coverage as another cost of doing business. Brokers should also use this time to do
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THE PANDEMIC’S IMPACT ON SPORTS CUMULATIVE NUMBER OF GLOBAL SPORTS EVENTS Original projection
Adjusted for COVID-19
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec Source: Two Circles
“We have to wait and see whether the Olympic Games will actually happen next year or if it will be canceled altogether … There’s still a lot of potential cancellation claims on the table” Nathan Nicholas, Nicholas Hill Group a thorough review of current clients’ coverages to see what’s included. “Brokers need to look at the policy language on communicable diseases, what other exclusions might be a cause for concern and whether there will be additional or fewer events based on the current COVID-19 outbreak,” Tuman says. Until there’s a vaccine for COVID-19, Nicholas believes it’s unlikely that carriers will feel comfortable enough to step back
into the market. While carriers have been proactive in the past about adding coverage back in when they’re ready, he doesn’t expect communicable disease coverage to be accessible for the foreseeable future. “There’s no easy solution,” he says. “All we can do at this point is have those conversations with our clients and keep our ears to the ground so we know when communicable disease coverage is available again.”
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BROKERAGE INSIGHT
Public defender A longtime advocate for cultural change within organizations, David Poms tells IBA how his brokerage, Poms & Associates, has been at the forefront of loss control
IBA: Before you started Poms & Associates, you focused on the issue of sexual abuse at Gallagher. Can you tell us more about that? David Poms: [When] Gallagher hired me, [they] focused on two major areas – one was Catholic dioceses and the other was public entities, so I was assigned some Catholic diocese accounts. A lot of the claims started with the priests, but it was pretty early on in the ’80s and [grew] into dramatic numbers in the ’90s. I very much got involved with the molestation claims back then, which was not only disconcerting, but you had a certain respect for priests, and finding out that they were involved in this was tough for me to manage mentally. When these claims started to arise, [dioceses] denied that these things ever happened. They would hide some of the employees; they couldn’t testify or defend themselves, and that was an interesting way for them to manage these cases. We had to help them change that culture with respect to handling and managing claims, so some of the accounts that we were involved in developed teams where you would have outside legal counsel, a layperson, a therapist and the diocese, and you would have a team approach to help manage the claims. You got a lot of perspectives from
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different disciplines to help manage the claims rather than to deny them or hide the fact that they existed. That was a big change with many of the dioceses early on, and those that implemented this team approach managed the claims much better than others.
IBA: And how did you get involved with the US Olympic & Paralympic Foundation? DP: [I became friends with] the Olympian Greg Louganis, who’s the greatest diver of all time. Greg had talked about his experience being an Olympian and going through a lot of issues with him being HIV positive. There was another woman who was also a member of [our gym], so we used to get together and talk about what was going on with the management of the US Olympic Committee.
I love sports, so one thing led to another, and with the encouragement of those two people, I became a trustee for a couple of years, and then I got onto the board, not knowing that we were going to get involved in a lot of these abuse situations that have gone on in the US Olympic world in the last five years or so.
IBA: What inspired you to start Poms & Associates? DP: I [was at Gallagher for a] few years and had a very difficult time trying to figure out what I was going to do in my career – do I go to another brokerage firm, or do I start my own? Some clients actually encouraged me to go off on my own and start this company; [the aim] was to focus on employees and customers first before profits.
ABOUT DAVID POMS David Poms started his career at Aetna Casualty & Surety and later moved to Gallagher, where he focused on sexual abuse allegations within Catholic dioceses. In 1991, he founded Poms & Associates, where he developed educational programs for clients to help them recognize and report potentially inappropriate behavior by employees. Poms has been a driving force behind the creation of public entity pools in the western US, including the New Mexico Public Schools Insurance Authority. He is an advocate of the international Olympic movement and serves on the board of directors for the US Olympic & Paralympic Foundation. He also supports the US Center for SafeSport, which works to end abuse in sports.
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FAST FACTS: POMS & ASSOCIATES AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Public entities
Employee benefits
Property & casualty
Risk control
Private client
“If you look at failed companies throughout time, you find that they failed because they didn’t innovate, so it’s very important for us to constantly innovate and come up with new products and services” IBA: How have you positioned your brokerage to stand out from others in the marketplace? DP: If you look at failed companies throughout time, you find that they failed because they didn’t innovate, so it’s very important for us to constantly innovate and come up with new products and services. In 1995, we started our loss prevention
department in New Mexico, and it was solely because we were having civil rights issues in the state with a lot of the schools. That’s grown to over 30 loss control representatives in the company, and that’s a primary differentiator with our company versus other brokerage firms. It’s ingrained in our organization to have people who educate, train and inspect our clients’ assets.
Industry specialties
Year founded: 1991 Headquarters: Woodland Hills, California Number of offices: 6
We’re also involved in a lot of the educational institutions, so we have classes on how to identify a predator, and we work with kids and talk about what a good touch versus a bad touch is. Then we’re involved in all of the workplace violence issues, and we do training in that area as well. We have a large emphasis on loss control and trying to avoid our clients having claims.
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PEOPLE
OTHER LIFE
TELL US ABOUT YOUR OTHER LIFE Email iba@keymedia.com
FEELING SWELL A surfing trip to Honolulu got underwriter Traci Brooks Reyes hooked on the sport WHEN TRACI BROOKS REYES, a property underwriter for WKFC Underwriting Managers in Chicago, traveled to Hawaii to visit her sister and brotherin-law, she never imagined the trip would lead her to a new passion. “My sister and her husband live in Hono-
lulu, and he surfs every day – he has recently been to Sri Lanka and the Philippines to surf,” says Reyes, who was accompanied by her brother-in-law and his best friend, a surfing instructor, on her first foray into the waves. “I would gladly travel to visit them several times a year to work on my skills.”
Reyes’ new hobby has also helped with business after a photo of her surfing trip was featured on WKFC Underwriting Managers’ LinkedIn page. “A new broker specifically sent me a piece of new business because of that post,” she reports, “and the premium is on the books.”
15
Years Reyes has been in the insurance industry
3-4
Times Reyes tried surfing before getting the hang of it
4,246
Miles between Chicago and Honolulu
Sharing this photo on LinkedIn helped Reyes dru m up new business
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