The Future of Insurance

Andrew Horton, Group CEO of QBE since 2021, brings over 30 years of experience in the insurance and banking sectors. He discusses the critical need for sustainable growth in the insurance industry, urging a balanced approach to risk and pricing. Horton emphasizes client engagement and innovation, stressing that companies must adapt to evolving customer needs. He also highlights the importance of resilience in rebuilding after natural disasters and advocates for collaborative strategies among insurers, homeowners, and governments to foster long-term recovery.

Justin Goodman and Brenden Corr, co-founders of Project 55, dive into the pressing topic of mental health within the insurance industry. Brenden opens up about his personal journey to sobriety, advocating for open discussions around mental health. Justin shares his own experiences that fueled the creation of Project 55, emphasizing the need to combat stigma in the workplace. They highlight the lack of resources available for employees and the importance of fostering a supportive environment where individuals feel safe to discuss their struggles.

Tim Dillahunt, Head of Personal Lines Underwriting at The Hanover Insurance Group, shares over 25 years of insurance expertise. He emphasizes the emotional and financial toll of water damage in homes, advocating for proactive measures like water leak detection sensors. These devices not only prevent costly claims but also preserve personal belongings and maintain affordability. Tim highlights the importance of regular inspections and innovative technology in preventing water-related losses, transforming how we approach home safety and insurance.

Ryan Vigus, EVP of Personal Lines Product Management at CSAA Insurance Group, brings a wealth of experience in developing insurance products for AAA Members. He dives into California’s evolving homeowners insurance landscape amid rising wildfire risks and historical market shifts. Vigus discusses the financial pressures insurers face and the need for innovative risk assessment tools. He advocates for a strategic approach that prioritizes policyholders, calling for improved building codes and better preparedness to address climate challenges.

Dawn Walker is an associate director, Industry Relations (DUAE) in AM Best’s Strategy and Communications department. Dawn has more than 15 years of insurance industry and risk management experience, and joined AM Best in 2022, initially serving as a senior financial analyst, conducting performance assessments for Delegated Underwriting Authority Enterprises.  Previously, Dawn as a senior risk management analyst at MacAndrews & Forbes Inc., a global mergers and acquisitions firm in New York City. She also previously served as a senior account executive for Alliant Insurance Services, serving its ultra-high net worth book of business.  Dawn received her MBA degree with a concentration in Enterprise Risk Management at St. John’s University. She graduated Cum Laude earning a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Arizona. She holds a Property & Casualty and Life & Health Broker’s license, has earned an Associate in Risk management (ARM) designation and is actively pursuing a Charter Property Casualty Underwriter’s designation. Highlights from the Show AM Best is known for many things, but mainly for the assessments and ratings they perform on players across the insurance industry. For the Delegated Underwriting Authority Enterprise (DUAE) space in particular, they are bringing transparency to help drive continued growth not only of the DUAE segment, but the product innovation that goes on within it. The level of growth in the delegated underwriting authority space has been huge, getting to $77B in the US alone, and making up 10% of the P&C market globally. The key areas they look at when assessing DUAEs includes Operations, UW Capabilities, Governance and Controls, Financials and Corporate Structure. This analysis helps bring transparency to the sector to help facilitate partnerships while also giving DUAEs a blueprint for how to optimize their operations for growth, stability and, ultimately, success Why do insurers work with Delegated Underwriting Authority Enterprises (DUAEs), like MGAs and MGUs? Can’t they just compete in the market directly? DUAEs bring expertise in niches and market segments that incumbent carriers may not be able to build efficiently given their scale, and the relative size of these niches being too small to support the operational cost of a carrier. DUAEs often come with expertise and distribution in the segment, allowing carriers working with them to access new spaces efficiently, quickly and profitably. What can support or stand in the way of the success of a Delegated Underwriting Authority Enterprises (DUAEs), like MGAs and MGUs? AM Best performs assessments of these entities to bring transparency to key success factors insurers would look at when deciding whether to work with a DUAE or not. This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance thought leadership series, available globally from Amazon in print, Kindle and Audible audiobook. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Curtis Goldsborough is the President of National Insurance Inspection Services, an evolving technology and field service provider for P&C underwriting, based in Fresno, CA. He cut his teeth in insurance as an agency owner with Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan, where he became acutely aware of the friction and pain points associated with underwriting inspections. In 2013, he joined National Insurance Inspection Services on a quest to forge a better path forward for personal lines underwriting.  Curtis was instrumental in the development and launch of the NIIS self-inspection app and workflow, which is now in production environments with over 18 carriers and MGAs around the country, including three of the top ten P&C carriers in the United States. In his not-so-spare time, Curtis produces insurance video content on LinkedIn under the moniker of LO$$ RATIO, with a goal to engage, educate, entertain and inspire insurance professionals around the world. Highlights from the Show Curtis shares about his work to increase education and understanding through his content is trying to help. His main work is as President of National Insurance Inspection Services, who not only helps carriers by performing underwriting inspections, but also developed a self-inspection app that carriers have embraced to increase their understanding of the risks they write and help homeowners reduce the risk they face. Insurers don’t get it right on every claim. Yet Curtis believes the industry as a whole does not systematically or intentionally get it wrong, despite the popular narrative in the media. There is a general lack of understanding and education out there that is degrading the general public’s sense of the insurance industry and the role it plays in the economy driven by the widespread, negative narrative that is not unlike the narrative that drives engagement in so many other areas. Negativity gets eyeballs and keeps them much better than positivity. Regardless of what drove the current situation with the cost of homeowners insurance and the insufficiency of rates, blame won’t solve the problem. That’s been the driving force behind the work Curtis does under the name “LO$$ RATIO”, including his viral raps and memes.  As homeowners continue to struggle to find and afford coverage in many parts of the US and carriers struggle to sell insurance at an economically viable rate, Curtis hopes more understanding and conversation helps change the situation. What if insurers allocated even a small proportion of the overall ad spend of the industry to educate consumers and help improve some of the public perception of the insurance industry, and the knock on effect that has on issues like social inflation. That’s the dream Curtis has to help drive the necessary shift in the negative dynamic we are struggling with today. This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance thought leadership series, available globally from Amazon in print, Kindle and Audible audiobook. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

At Plug and Play, Andres has directed his passion for innovation towards P&C Insurtech. Helping some of the largest carriers and brokers navigate the technology ecosystem and bringing projects to life. Having participated in multiple investments, he focuses on creating value through infrastructure, optimization, and digitization. With a unique background in world-class restaurants as a former 3 Michelin star chef and having launched 2 startups, Andres brings a keen eye for detail, unquestionable creativity, and a passion for bringing projects from 0 to 1. Andres holds a master’s degree in entrepreneurship by Uppsala University and a BSc in Gastronomic Sciences and Culinary Arts from Mondragon University. Graduating Cum Laude and top 5% percentile in both of them. Highlights from the Show Andres shares what Plug and Play does for startups. Beyond just investing, they run programs to help startups find commercial success, even if they aren’t portfolio companies and without having to give up equity – both of which are critical to new companies trying to build their business in the insurance industry. AI is obviously a specific topic Plug and Play is looking at, whether that’s at ITC or outside of it. Rather than going after the type of buzz generating solutions we hear about like Anthropic or OpenAI, they are specifically thinking about different layers of the tech stack. That includes the foundation layer, like one of their portfolio companies, Archetype, built the foundation for an IoT solution. Andres shared some tips for founders, the biggest one centering around Patience. The speed of change (and sales cycles) in insurance is very long, so you need to have the patience and runway to survive if you want to build something in the industry. This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance thought leadership series, available globally from Amazon in print, Kindle and Audible audiobook. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Mark Holweger is President and CEO of Legal & General America’s insurance division, which includes operating companies Banner Life Insurance Company and William Penn Life Insurance Company of New York. He is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the business, ensuring service excellence, continued distribution expansion and achievement of the digital transformation strategy. In 2011, he joined Legal & General Group in the UK where he held a number of senior level positions including Managing Director, Partnerships for Legal & General Insurance and Director of Broker and Intermediary for Legal & General’s General Insurance business. In 2018, Mark relocated to the US as Executive Vice President of Distribution and Marketing for Legal & General America. Prior to joining Legal & General, Mark was a co-founder of Coverwise.com, an International digital insurance broker, and held various senior roles at other insurers including RSA Insurance Group UK where he was Distribution Director for Emerging markets and AXA Insurance UK where he was Director of Corporate Partnerships. Mark is an economics graduate and Chartered Insurer. He lives with his wife Rachel in Potomac, MD and has two daughters. Highlights from the Show Note This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance thought leadership series, available globally from Amazon in print, Kindle and Audible audiobook. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Magdalena is a Senior Director and Global InsurTech Innovation Leader at WTW’s Insurance Consulting and Technology (ICT). She leads ICT’s inorganic growth strategy as well as its interaction with the external insurtech ecosystem globally. She joined the firm as a Senior Economist at Watson Wyatt’s Research and Innovation Center in 2005. She has 20+ years of experience in R&D and international strategy consulting and was WTW’s Global Head of Research and Analytical Services. Magda holds a M.Sc. in math. Finance and a PhD in Quantitative Economics and Finance. She also holds a professional certificate on Innovation from the MIT Professional Education Program. For the past 10 years she has been solely focused on innovation and strategic consulting for the Insurance Industry, especially around digital transformation, advanced analytics, blockchain, emerging risks and #insurtech. She was among the first to publish and discuss blockchain in the context of insurance and has focused almost exclusively on helping the insurance industry to understand and deploy new technologies since 2014. She is a well-recognized thought leader in insurtech and the implications of new technologies for the risk transfer industry. She has been a prolific public speaker in the past 10 years and in the past couple of years alone, Magda has had over 100 public speaking engagements specific to insurtech and blockchain at various international conferences and summits. She has also published multiple articles, blogs, interviews and audio/visual media on the topic. She sees herself as a blockchain and technology governance crusader and devotes significant time to educational activities, ranging from workshops for executives to sessions at elementary schools and trainings to empower #womenintech. Her main areas of expertise include blockchain, technology and innovation, advanced analytics, MNC internationalization and innovation strategies, emerging markets, global governance, macroeconomic and socio-political risks.  Further, Magdalena has 14 years of teaching experience at European (Germany, UK) and Latin American universities. She also led many research projects for multilateral organizations on microinsurance, financial inclusion and innovation, including pre-2009 projects on alternative currencies. Highlights from the Show Note This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance thought leadership series, available globally from Amazon in print, Kindle and Audible audiobook. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Wesley is CEO and Co-Founder of Sola Insurance based in Atlanta, GA. Wesley comes from a tech background and jumped into the insurance industry at a flood insurance startup where he was tasked with working on the data side with private and FEMA flood maps. Realizing this data was telling us exactly where the damage is, Wesley became obsessed with how data can be used to automatically trigger an insurance claim payout. Sola is starting with supplemental tornado coverage for homeowners but plans to expand into every type of natural disaster to help people cover their deductible and immediate expenses. Sola has already been approved in 15 states as the first ever admitted personal lines parametric product, is fully reinsured through Lloyd’s of London, and has partnered with hundreds of insurance agencies across the Midwest and Southeast. Highlights from the Show Wesley came on the show in Season 5 to share more of Sola's story, so be sure to listen to that for more background They recently launched a Wind & Hail product that like a hybrid Parametric/Indemnity proiduct in that it is data-triggered, but has validation of the loss through on-site inspection Their product speaks directly to an issue many insurers and homeowners are facing where providing traditional coverage is no longer financially viable yet homeowners are struggling to afford even high-deductible offerings that leave them excessively exposed – and mortgage lenders aren't comfortable with the coverage gap being created Sola's Wind & Hail product is cheaper than the money most homeowners would save by increasing their Wind & Hail deductible if they live in a hail-prone area, meaning they can get back to more complete coverage while saving money over what that coverage would have cost otherwise This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance thought leadership series, available globally from Amazon in print, Kindle and Audible audiobook. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.