Insurtech

Digital insurance companies could pay more to use banking services that have previously been virtually free as banks tighten regulations and increase prices.

State Farm and Allstate are no longer writing new homeowner policies in California. But some insurtechs argue that with better data, carriers can make more nuanced decisions.

It is important to leverage human-in-the-loop processes, rather than automating them away, and to surface relevant information for agents to help contextualize interactions with policyholders.

Co-founders Anthony Marshi and Toby Hung recently secured $2 million in funding for a platform automating cyber insurance coverage focused on medium and large sized businesses.

The chief information and operations officer said the company is working to give customers "seamless pickups" from voice to app to website.

In other news: Chewy expands pet insurance nationwide and Tokio Marine launches a market intelligence platform.

So far, the bots are popular conversation partners. Character.AI users have sent 36 million messages to Mario, a character based on the Nintendo 64 version of the video game plumber.

Local embedded and microinsurance models could provide immediate assistance to vulnerable low-income communities at risk of extreme climate events.

The results of Keynova's latest Online Insurance Scorecard placed Progressive first for its online user experience.

The president of Embrace Pet Insurance writes that the costs associated with providing high-quality care to pets have risen considerably. At Embrace, there has been a steady increase in average claim amounts year over year, with a 13% rise in 2023 compared to the previous year.

The UN Environment Programme, which convened NZIA two years ago, said Wednesday in a statement that NZIA members will no longer be obligated to set or publish targets.

Jim Ryan, who joined State Farm as an innovation executive at the start of 2023, spoke with Digital Insurance about his ideas for how to innovate technology and operations at the carrier, how telematics will continue to change auto coverage, and how tech advances can reduce risk.

By digitizing the payout process, insurers empower claimants to choose how money is received.

Bestow, Thrivent and Pacific Life all made the list of most-liked carriers in this sector.

There were more than 30 funding events in the insurtech sector between June 1 and June 30, 2023, according to a review by Digital Insurance.

Having first focused on pet insurance, the seven-year-old firm has since expanded into parcel, fire, home and health products. It also insures digital assets from hacking and malware and theft.

Predictive models are a tool to address a business problem, not a solution.

Jeff Diem founded the insurtech to fix a problem he encountered as a residential damage contracting estimator: wildly divergent estimates of damage repair costs from contractors and insurance companies.

It can be hard to explain rationally why a digital insurance solution is trusted or not by customers, according to Burr, who is CEO of the iptiQ unit of the insurance company.

Digital Insurance spoke with Kieran Stack, head of delivery excellence and insurance operations at Aon.