Economy

Recent EY research confirms how the pandemic fundamentally changed consumer needs, how they plan to increase their financial security, and what insurers can do to seize the opportunity.

Keynova Group released its Q3 2021 Mobile Insurance Scorecard, which evaluates the mobile websites and mobile apps from the 12 largest U.S. property and casualty firms. Geico placed first overall and leads scoring in mobile web and app.

In other news: Amerisure implements One Inc ClaimsPay tech; California drivers report distracted driving is getting worse; HSB adds social media income to home cyber protection.

Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has said that on Friday, the electric-car maker will roll out an updated version of its Full Self-Driving beta software, which until now has only been available to roughly 2,000 people.

Jerry launched a car insurance comparison service in 2019 using artificial intelligence and machine learning. The company has more than 1 million customers across the U.S. and has expansion plans.

Results published Monday show that 46% of White people are working with professionals to plan their finances, while 38% of African Americans, 36% of Asian respondents and 44% of Hispanic people are doing the same.

Progressive Representatives Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are leading a group of House Democrats in pressuring party leadership to include an expansion of unemployment aid in the $3.5 trillion tax and spending package being drawn up in Congress.

Drivers under 25 years old file collision and property damage liability claims less and it's likely because of crash avoidance technology, according to three separate studies from the Highway Loss Data Institute.

In other news: Ethos adds board members, new executives; One Inc partners with Mastercard on insurance payments; and Notion, a Comcast company, works with Honey Insurance in Australia.

Amazon will require third-party sellers to secure product liability coverage after reaching $10,000 in sales in one month on Amazon.

In other news: Cowbell Cyber releases API; Discount Tire, Motorq offer data analytics platform; and Roamly announces new hire and expansion plan.

SynchronoSure has three insurance products available in 48 states, and will be adding new products over the next 60 days. GigBOP, a low-end property/casualty product for the gig economy and small business accounts; a trucking general liability product designed to protect the office and garage operations for small trucking companies; and a recently announced excess liability product.

To date, just one insurer has promised to take “significant action” in this regard, according to analysts at Societe Generale SA. Australia’s Suncorp was the first to announce it would no longer provide coverage for all new oil and gas production projects.

Future automobiles will likely need to include passive technology to monitor for driving under the influence and automatic emergency braking.

NHTSA, which announced the Tesla probe Monday, opened 26 probes into various auto and highway safety issues so far this year -- more than in all of 2020 or 2019, according to its website.

The investigation covers an estimated 765,000 Tesla Model Y, X, S and 3 vehicles from the 2014-2021 model years. NHTSA said it launched the probe after 11 crashes that resulted in 17 injuries and one fatality.

Research from Next, which surveyed 30,000 small businesses, found that over 40% don’t have business-specific insurance coverage and instead rely on personal insurance policies.

COVID-19 has shown us that technology can rapidly evolve to meet customer needs, in areas from contactless payments to digital banking to mobile wallets. However, we still see great disparities when it comes to the use of contactless and digital banking by low- to moderate-income (LMI) workers. The question is, will emerging tech in the post-COVID economy provide an opportunity to include new people in the financial system-- or leave them even further behind?

The markets and the Fed are not on the same page about the future of inflation. Luke Tilley Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at Wilmington Trust will discuss the economy and inflation.

With 350 firms on its client roster, the acquisition of Flourish gives the insurer a springboard into the independent advisor market.