Emerging Trends in Digital Distribution
Panel: Bryan Falchuk of Insurance Evolution Partners, Ian Jeffrey of Breathe Life, Alicia Kern of Duck Creek, Jill Rasmussen of Amica, Rhonda Longo of Erie Insurance
In this panel, industry experts talked about how there has been a shift in the industry from just offering a product to truly meeting the customer where they are in their life journey, and finding ways to get context and finding relevancy to appeal to their insurance needs.
They also discussed how there has been a new challenge around supporting agents in the industry and how technology doesn’t necessarily eliminate the need for the human-to-human experience. As insurance carriers learn to adapt to digitization on the consumer side of the conversation, the panel talked about how it is just as important to find ways to keep agents aligned with the tools they need and stay in the loop.
InsurTech’s Role in Responding to Climate Change
Panel: Dawn Leblanc of Rainmaking, Sashi Aiyathurai of Chubb, Sabine Vanderlinden of Alchemy Crew
Insurance companies are strategizing around their commitment to climate change and reducing carbon footprints. Here are few areas these industry leaders expect growth for the rest of the year and into 2022:
- Ways to support transition risks, which consist of new vulnerabilities that companies face as they change their business models
- Development of carbon footprint technology
- More robust strategies addressing mitigations and regulations
- Innovation in the distribution space through test-and-learns of greener products
Skit: He Said, She Said
Participants: Mark Roth from InsurTech Hartford, Wade Millward from Rikor, Nick Lamparelli from reThought Insurance, Ingrid Cook from SHzoom, Brian Gaab from AAA, Bob Hilborn from Launc[H], and George Woods from Guy Carpenter
In this session, participants presented a scenario where a start-up and insurer meet, develop a demo and game plan, and discuss typical challenges and concerns that come up when creating a partnership. The key takeaway from this reenactment is that there has to be a willingness to bend on both sides to address the real challenge, which is keeping up with customer needs no matter how fast they’re changing.
Startup Pitch Sessions
The seven presenters during this pitch session were Hillside Ventures, Rikor, PinPoint Predictive, SHZoom, SpyGlaz, Intellagents and InsureLife.
Diversity and Inclusion — It’s More than Statistics
Speaker: Susan Johnson from The Hartford, Margaret Spence from the Inclusion Learning Lab
In this discussion, panelists talked about how to encourage and promote diversity across the insurance industry:
- Take the conversation a step further from “we’re going to hire diverse people” and come to the table with a diverse group from the start
- Develop robust ways to bring talented and diverse individuals and create programs that highlight them within the organization
- Use your existing privilege to make space for people at the table that wasn’t necessarily there before
- Make sure your organization represents the diverse market that you’re appealing to and want
- Find where you can accelerate diverse companies and startups further than just helping build the foundation
It’s 2021 — Time to Deliver a Holistic Customer Experience
Panel: Gilad Shai from InsurTechLA, Manisha Bhargava from Innoveo, Ewelina Mroczek from Lincoln Financial Group, Ryan Keating from Keating Agency
Customer experience has been a main focus and driver for the insurance industry for a while now, but as the pandemic brought unprecedented challenges carriers are reevaluating their approach to meeting customer demands to improve retention and provide support. Panel participants listed a handful of ways to address the customer in 2021:
- Ditch words timely words like “renewal” because it’s not just over a certain period of time anymore, carriers should support them through several touchpoints throughout a customer’s life
- Guide customers with information and insurance support that they might not have known they needed
- Understand the journey and why they are coming to a carrier in the first place, get the bigger picture of the individual
- Enable MGAs and brokers with a diverse set of tools and knowledge so they know how to carry the company as well as build a relationship with the policyholder
Using AI to Improve Underwriting
Panel: Jeff Goldberg from Novarica, Scott Hammesfahr from Guidewire, Anthony DeSalva from Georgetown Financial Group, Sandipan Gangopadhyay from GalaxE, Carey Ann Nadeau from Loop Insurance
Panelists addressed how AI will shape the insurance and reinsurance industry in the next five years, such as developing abilities to predict human behavior and finding a true hybrid of automation and human parts of underwriting. They also addressed steps professionals, large organizations and small companies can take to equip themselves with AI:
- Don’t outsource: create an in-house learning hub between IT, litigation institutes and clients
- Have a tight feedback loop to quickly and accurately define what is and isn’t working
- Develop a top-down strategy to address legacy tech challenges
- Keep in mind what problem you’re trying to solve
The Regulatory Perspective on InsurTech
Panel: Denise Matthews from NAIC, Ben Sykes from Locke Lord, Josh Hershmann from CT Insurance Department, Henry French from Bifrost LLC, Brendan McKiernan from AXA XL
In this session, a panel of regulation experts talked about the most effective ways to address and learn about data privacy and regulations as an insurtech company:
- Have someone who can guide you from beginning to end, which might mean talking to a regulator directly
- Consider what region you’re in and where you are forming as an organization
- Define who has responsibility for what at the start so you can develop a game plan
- Understand the common themes around regulation: transparency, data minimization, purpose limitation, and standard contractual clauses
- Take it one step at a time and be practical, this conversation is more of a journey than a destination
Awards and Recognitions
Carrier/Broker prize winner: Tide Foundations
VC Investor prize winner: Loadsure
Angel Investor prize winner: Delos Insurance
Bermuda BDA winner: RemitRix