Insurance technology

A digital solutions insurtech with an API platform, Savvy, that compares insurance policies.

The goal should be to expand payment types and access options to give policyholders greater control of their experience.

Keynova Group released its Q1 2022 Mobile Insurance Scorecard, which evaluates the mobile website and mobile app offerings from the 12 largest U.S. property and casualty firms.

As property and casualty insurance carriers look to reduce growing loss ratios in 2022, many have shifted their focus away from growing their customer bases and toward increasing their profits. But for carrier marketers, the path to efficient customer acquisition isn’t as simple as merely cutting budgets.

Matheus Riolfi and Jerome Selles met while working at Turo, a car-sharing marketplace, where they both did work on the global expansion of its insurance program. During that time, the two saw an opportunity to start their own insurtech, Tint.

The majority of Trov’s employees will join Travelers in its personal insurance segment. The financial terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed.

The demand for no-medical exam life insurance has grown in the last year, likely related to the COVID-19 pandemic. From October to December 2021, about 56% of applications submitted through Policygenius were for no-medical exam policies compared to January to March 2021, which was only 26%.

McKeel Hagerty’s parents were into wooden boats and saw an unmet need to underwrite them. Hagerty, however, has been a car nut from day one. When the family’s marine insurance business finally began to offer auto policies in 1991, he saw a chance to join the fold and, along with his sisters, Tammy and Kim, stomp on the pedal.

The Singapore-based company is working with financial advisers and a formal funding round may kick off later this year, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. It plans to use the proceeds for expansion, they said.

As we look ahead, evolving technologies are presenting home and auto owners with new potential risks. Hacking and ransomware, once confined to computer networks, may become an endemic cyber vulnerability for our increasingly connected vehicles and “smart home” devices. Yet many of these same technologies could create new data sources and risk mitigation options for personal lines insurers.

Research shows rapid adoption of predictive algorithms and digital identity technology will stem the pandemic-driven fraud deluge. Insurance fraud causes more than $80 billion in losses annually in the U.S. alone, according to the report.

Digital Insurance spoke with Brett Jurgens, the CEO of Notion, a DIY smart home monitoring company, which is owned by Comcast, about how Notion works with insurers and what benefits smart home monitoring has for policyholders.

As we emerge from the pandemic and look to the future, the case for cloud must be elevated beyond the limitations of IT savings, to how insurers can use it to address their biggest business challenges.

In 2021, only about 40% of claimants interacted with a claim estimator via digital channels and 47% made a claim using a website.

Ecosystems, sustainability and workforce transformation were the main topics of the EY 2022 Global Insurance Outlook, which comes out in January 2022. It’s important to understand how digital transformation is uniquely related to each of those topics.

In case you missed it, insurtech -- technology developed to improve and transform the insurance industry -- is having a bit of a moment. Forrester recently reported record-breaking funding for insurtechs, closing Q3 at $15 billion - more funding than in 2019 and 2020 combined - with more deals anticipated by the end-of-year.

There are vital aspects of business that have virtually stagnated despite the high-tech breakthroughs all around them. In insurance, it’s easy to spot: the process for managing risk transfer still relies on technology better suited for the 20th Century. It’s time for an upgrade.

In other news: Chubb teams up with Betterfly in Latin America; Franklin Mutual partners with vipHomeLink; Aon announces last-mile insurance with CarrierHQ.

New research highlights the evolving role of the insurance industry from reimbursements to incentivizing to reduce risk and prevent losses altogether.

The transformation of consumer-focused technologies is forcing providers to adopt new tools to keep up. However, many of these tools are not built with user-friendly experiences that meet customer expectations, and therefore, they suffer from low engagement and adoption.