Industry Trends

Consolidation in the insurance brokerage space is expected to continue at a rapid pace through 2022, following a trend from the last 12 months where brokerage transactions drove the majority of announced insurance merger and acquisition (M&A) activity worldwide.

For decades now the insurance industry has been capitalizing on analytics to understand and predict risk when writing policies. But what if one of those disputed claims becomes a legal matter? Wouldn’t it be prudent for insurers to apply those same kinds of analytics to understand and predict legal exposure?

The Millennial and Gen Z populations desire a holistic customer experience—where digital offerings bring together other products and services to help the customer manage their lives.

Rosaline Chow Koo breaks down how CXA Group is working to make group insurance more profitable while simultaneously improving employees’ health and financial well-being.

The cyber risk landscape is likely to increase during 2022, according to an expert from Beazley.

The past two years have been tumultuous, to say the least. Two things we can all agree on is that life is not as predictable as we might hope and that change can happen faster than we think. The Covid-19 pandemic posed challenges for all industries across the world and the insurance space is no different.

The life insurance and annuity industry proved resilient in 2021, even in the face of COVID-19 and the delta variant.

For years, technology has been transforming the insurance industry, and that trend will only accelerate in 2022.

Insurers should expect big players in mainstream tech to influence the property/casualty industry during 2022.

For many of us, ringing in the new year means setting resolutions for better health and well-being. Whether in business or our personal lives, we must consider the scenarios that may threaten or enable our success. The insurance industry is no different.

For years, digital transformation has been the talk of the insurance industry. In the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many insurers made bold advances in automating core processes, adopting new technology and expanding their digital selling and collaboration capabilities.

Before cyber insurance can truly become a mainstay of the digital economy – as a widely available, widely affordable, consistently priced product – these problems need addressing.

It was great to see how so many companies showed incredible adaptability during COVID-19. While initially, we thought a lot of the insurance market would be at a loss as to what to do next, instead they were able to show resilience relatively quickly and technology was the enabler of that.

Increased deal activity and the use of M&A insurance has led to a record rise in the number of notifications, according to a new report by Howden M&A, an international M&A insurance broker. However, the COVID-19 outbreak did not result in a surge in the volume of claims or the number of coronavirus-related break events that had initially been anticipated.

2021 has been a record year for insurtech funding. As of Q3 2021, more than US$10.5 billion had been raised by companies in the space year-to-date (YTD), surpassing 2020’s total of US$7.1 billion by nearly 48%, data from insurance advisory firm Willis Towers Watson show.

2021 ended up being a bumper year for M&A deals and also for M&A insurers.

The gap between the best-performing cyber insurers and the worst-performing will widen in 2022, according to the CEO of cyber risk analytics specialist, CyberCube.

It is difficult to imagine where digital business operations would be today if it wasn’t for the catalyst that is the pandemic. For nearly two years, businesses across industries, and especially within insurance, accelerated digital transformation plans to adapt to remote access for customers and employees.

Building a culture of innovation doesn’t happen passively—it requires commitment and careful nurturing.

No one knows what 2022 will bring for travelers. But if anyone has an idea, it’s Sasha Gainullin, the CEO of the travel insurance company battleface. I asked Gainullin about what lies ahead next year. Here are his predictions.

Life insurers paid out more than $90 billion in death benefits at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the highest single-year rise since the 1918 influenza epidemic, data from the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) has revealed.

Every day, it seems a hot, new insurtech is funded and ready to partner with insurance carriers. Insurers shouldn’t allow their risk-averse nature or concerns about a potentially difficult integration road ahead to lead them to ignore upstart insurtechs.

The words “insurance” and “innovation” are not typically used together. Today’s leaders are working to change that.

According to Zurich’s Chief Claims Officer Ian Thompson, the company is seeing evidence that consumers are choosing to file in-person claims rather than use the digital options available to them.

Despite seeming reluctant to make sweeping changes, the insurance industry continues to be at the forefront of adopting digital solutions.

When we say “core systems” in our industry, we are typically referring to the critical software applications that are core to an insurer’s business operations, mainly the policy, claims and billing management functions.

2021 saw widespread vaccine deployment and easing of pandemic-related restrictions—important catalysts that helped rebuild confidence among people and businesses alike, while fueling economic recovery.

As insurers hold onto some of the digital solutions that were adopted because of the pandemic, it’s critical to understand the balance between digital strategies and boots on the ground tactics for underwriting.

The auto insurance industry is at a turning point. After navigating the unwelcome effects of a global pandemic, carriers and collision repairers are eagerly awaiting a return to “normal.”

Insurers have been slower to adopt digital twins than their counterparts in other industries.

Carriers don’t have to be the only beneficiaries of InsurTech advancements. A similar relationship can also be applied to the smaller independent agents and brokers.

People don’t trust insurers. We’ve probably all had to contact an insurer about a problem only to find it’s not covered in the small print. Rates are usually fixed, and sometimes unfair. There may also be hurdles in approving payment once a claim is made.

As the impacts of climate change rise and interest in renewable energies peaks, sustainability is becoming a central priority for businesses across all sectors – but insurers have the edge in terms of providing long term solutions.

The huge sums being invested in insurtech have yet to disrupt the insurance sector in the same way that fintechs have changed banking, says Germany’s BaFin markets watchdog.

The insurance industry is said to lag in the era of digitalisation. Insurers were told to ramp up digital efforts in order to meet rising demand during the pandemic – and it turns out this was the push they needed to break free from traditional broker-based insurance.