The Theme last week was InsurTech action from China
The Theme this week is agitation. The insurance industry is rattled. This week we bring you three stories that show customers, InsurTech ventures and incumbents all agitated; but all for different reasons.
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For this week we bring you three stories illustrating the theme of Agitation.
Story 1: Some life insurers unsure they can get results from digital
Extract, read more on Digital Insurance:
“Life insurers are still lagging other industries and even lines of insurance when it comes to leveraging data in the enterprise, including on the sales side, according to a report from RGAX.
Nearly a third said it is too expensive to introduce or expand digital marketing efforts, mostly because their companies aren’t equipped to recover the cost, RGAX found.”
The survey was conducted among small-to-mid size life insurers who hope to create a breakthrough with the help of digitalization. The cruel reality is that there is a high capital barrier for them to go through first.
Story 2: Customers Vote: State Farm or Lemonade?
Extract, read more on Insurance Thought Leadership:
“A recent social media dust-up between renters and homeowners insurance technology upstart Lemonade Insurance and old-line insurance industry stalwart State Farm motivated us to look at what their respective customers are saying about their experiences with the companies.
A little context: State Farm recently aired a television commercial poking fun at technology-focused entrants to the marketplace. Specifically, the commercial made fun of the use of bots (artificial intelligence) used to process claims.”
State Farm probably just wanted to stress the importance of real-person agent. But it got interpreted in another way. It could mark a significant moment of agitation between incumbents and startups.
Story 3: Marsh rolls out social unrest insurance coverage
Extract, read more on Life Insurance International:
“Marsh has introduced a standalone social unrest insurance plan that offers financial protection to businesses in event of losses.
The product, which is underwritten by Chaucer, provides coverage of up to $20m for denial of entry/leaving a property caused due to terrorism, protests, civil unrest and strikes.”
When it comes to agitations among regular people, it’s good to see we can seek insurance for help.
When the whole industry is on a fast track, some may be afraid of being left behind, some may worry that their efforts are made in vain. Thus agitation appears. It could be a good thing for customers if agitation induces more innovation, and more discounts.
Zarc Gin is an analyst for Warp Speed Fintech, a Fintech, especially InsurTech-focused Venture Capital based in China.
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