The Insurtech Leadership Podcast

What's Killing Companies is not Lack of Analytics, it's Bad Data (w/Michael Davis, eGGHEAD Ai)

Michael Davis is the CEO at eGGHEAD Ai based on Hartford, improves data quality to enhance management decisions, create new insights and ultimately reduce risk.

Michael says finding an issue early on can be worth 100-times the value by avoiding errors. However, people do not like to work with data, citing a Gartner study where 30% of workers would rather call out sick than work with data. This leads to a massive, $5T opportunity to use technology leveraging data to create better analytics. 

eGGHEAD Ai helps senior leadership to take charge of data governance, taking companies from a volunteer, bottoms-up approaches, to one that is well-funded, driven top-down and coordinated to achieve impact.  

Data teams need to find pain points, investigate and then prove their own worth by creating a useful solution. Only then can teams scale-up and help drive the core business model.

Follow Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

Customers are Used to an Amazon Experience (w/ Nick Gerhart, Chief Innovation Officer, Homesteaders Life)

Proud welcome to Nick Gerhart, Chief Innovation Officer at Homesteaders Life, former Iowa Insurance Commissioner, Board member and investor at several successful insurtechs including Carpedata and Sureify.

Top Trends & Predictions in today's episode:

1. 7 of the Top 10 carriers today will still be there in a decade. However there will be a strong series of acquisitions from the companies with a massive capital-base.

2. Access to capital, whether VC or insurers, is critical to improving insurance

3. Iowa's Global Insurance Accelerator is an example of bringing together all the tech themes and solutions that specifically solve problems insurers have identified

4. Becoming a subject matter expert and being inquisitive on how the insurance core business works is key for young people to try out their new ideas

5. Insurance may be 'different' but customers don't care - they still compare it to Amazon and expect the same seamless experience

6. Agents/brokers own the customer but insurers have a part of that relationship, it's the innovator's dilemma as to who owns the customer experience with a nuanced-hybrid approach to distribution

Follow Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

3 Reasons Why There Will Be 199 More Lemonades over the Next Decade (w/Dave Bruno, Founder Red Planet Ventures)

Dave Bruno founder Red Planet Ventures and former UBS Head Global Wealth Management Innovation.  

He talks with Josh about having launched innovation at UBS, the world's largest private wealth manager, by exiting the "immune system" and unlocking doors to the outside market and innovators. Dave sees deep parallels to today's younger insurtech industry, how transforming a 200-year old industry and IT systems from the 1980s is in a similar state. 

Banking has moved to a much lower marginal cost, whereas insurance still remains the top-line item in many people's budgets and is unwieldy and lacking customer-orientation.

Just like "Digital Banking is 1% Done" - Insurtech has one Lemonade whereas in Fintech there are 200 Lemonade-sized propositions across the entire spectrum of banking services.

Red Planet sees the rise of "super agencies" where the need for wealth, insurance, real estate, all financial services around the consumer. The pressure of VC-led investment will take hold to reduce margins for the end consumer. "The Amazon of Financial Services is yet to be created"

Dave makes a call-to-action for all Insurers: "Your people know what to do - You just need to go ask them." He strongly advocates for skunkworks models and allowing freedom to attack core assumptions about your business model.

Follow Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

Staying Committed to Change During the Ups & Downs (w/Bobby Touran, CEO Pathpoint)

Meet Bobby Touran, started Pathpoint four years ago and is software talent that has shifted to commercial insurance (excess & surplus lines). Pathpoint is a digital-wholesale brokerage for retail agents to receive bindable quotes instantly. 

Bobby says not having an insurance background is an advantage. He was able to very quickly pull together a sounding board of industry insiders who can supplant that legacy knowledge, but retain the speed of a software company. This gave the team the luxury of how to think about things without any baggage in a 500-year old industry.

It took two years to build the online platform and taking feedback from underwriters and agents, using domain expertise to build the core. The second two years brought in E&S experts who can help sell and ramp up the product.

Bobby sees a future where digital trading of insurance products keeps becoming more the norm. He emphasizes commitment to using the change through, from building relationships and hopping from small win to win over the years and keep building them. He emphasizes stacking the momentum of repeated small wins instead of having all the pieces stalled at an early-stage for years, and identifying the right partners for feedback.

Follow Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

Identifying the Sweet Spot for Improving Customer and Carrier Experience in Claims (w/Tim Christ, Claimatic)

Tim Christ VP of Growth at Claimatic, which was Insurtech before that was a word. IAS Claims created algorithms looking at large pools of claims to triage and assign the right adjusters based on location, experience, authorizations, schedules. The process went from days down to a few hours, carriers needed access to that logic, and Claimatic was born. 

Claimatic connects the Policyholder, Adjusters and Vendors and their unique challenges in the claims cycle:

❗️ Customers who discover to their chagrin that they have a 16-step process to go through,

⏰ Adjusters who spend 65% of their time on clerical tasks,

🚧 Vendors who manage claims on behalf of carriers need to manage costs and streamline processes.

Tim says there are many technologies assisting the claims process and that experienced professionals at carriers should actively test their new ideas with their innovation lab, which can also help springboard their own career path. 

Tim is the author of two books so be sure to check out his rich LinkedIn profile for lots of great original thought leadership or just to have a chat!

Follow Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

 

Why Everyone Wants to be the next Lemonade - Top Trends to Watch in Insurtech (w/Alan Walters, VP Insurance Research, Conning)

Today Alan Walters of Conning shares research about trends in Insurtech in 2021.

Continued Impact in Distribution - independent agents and brokers can modernize, digital agency making it easier to buy and service policies,

Getting the Carrier C-suite feedback on working with insurtech, "This is a ten-year initiative for us, we need to cut the expense ratio," 

Reviewing insurance Value Chains, digging into your challenge spaces and see if there is an insurtech, for example in underwriting small businesses, or claims efficiency using analytics and adjustments, 

Lemonade, which started in renter's and personal lines now getting into term life and automotive means having a strong brand cuts across the legacy of serving one kind of insurance,

Carriers and insurtechs working together will remain an ongoing struggle. If a carrier has a dedicated innovation team, there is a known path with some downfalls, it is really an internal consultant without a true change driving role. These structures can help get pilots running, but at the end of the pilot, which is often at the expense of the insurtech, contracts to move into production lacks clear accountability at the insurance carrier and connection to the procurement processes.

Follow Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

What Insurers Can Do to Prevent Being on the Wrong End of the Creative-Destructive Process (w/Jay DeVivo, CoFunder)

Jay DeVivo, Founder at CoFunder talks to us today passionately about innovation process at insurance carriers and the process of identifying new market needs and a path to market acceptance.  

Jay calls innovation "creative destruction". He says many insurers have not yet gone "all in" on the necessary process and commit true innovation to take place, including bringing in new people with new skillsets. Instead, we see insurers taking a good game but doing things that are comfortable. They can dismiss ideas because people don't come from their own niche (eg. P&C vs. Healthcare), or hide behind behind data protection. Jay calls on C-Suite members in insurers to have courage, and give their people the resources and support to not find themselves on the destruction-end of the creative-destructive cycle. 

He also calls on founders to have a clear vision and not be "all over the place" when working with carriers.

Follow Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

Making Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Effective by Knowing What You Stand For (w/Cynthia Hardy, Pivot Partners)

Meet Cynthia Hardy, CEO and Founder at Pivot Global Partners, and recent author of 'Crossing Meridians'. 

Cynthia created a concept of 'Design Agility' in parallel to design thinking, it's a construct to re-orient around the customer and guide work. It gives you a method of discovering what customers need and will pay for. She describes how leaders often over-rely on their known paths, and instead need to learn through discomfort and cross divides to surround themselves with people who do not think and act just like them.

Cynthia says acting on the pulse of the organization is not enough to lift it up and change it. A leader needs to know what they stand for, develop vision and know what organizational strengths to leverage to move it, gaining traction win-by-win.

She also describes measuring learnings in new ways when dealing with new areas for the organization such as Innovation or DEI, and holding leaders accountable for the end-to-end processes from sourcing, hiring, onboarding, mentoring, and champions and advocates in promotion, rather than just focusing on the numbers.

Follow Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

What it's Like to Build a Lab at a 200-year old Insurer? (w/Christopher Lowell, ex-Head Innovation Lab at The Hartford)

Christopher Lowell created The Hartford's Small Business Innovation Lab and was tasked with building out new channels to test whether the organization could launch a new service before bringing it back to the core. The Hartford are leaders in small commercial, true experts at running their core day-to-day business. They went in with a strategy to innovate from a position of strength, knowing they were a leader and wanting to take that leading position further.

Chris' role was partly to partner with the outside world. He describes insurers as builders with a strong brand that needs to be nurtured and kept safe. Whereas Insurtechs tend to be smaller, scrappier and lacking "Fort Knox" security standards. So the lab ended up building most of its own new things versus partnering with Insurtechs.

The team insisted going beyond powerpoint and concepts into building real products to sell. People who worked there needed to understand the demands of a 200-year old company that does not build "playthings." Lots of people are going to care about outcomes, particularly in compliance. Chris selected people who were willing to perform in a team versus being a deep subject matter expert, who ask questions that build up an opportunity versus tear it down.

Chris describes a wave of people flooding towards the insurance industry because of the massive opportunity to change it for the better. So there is a huge need for insurance-specific subject matter expertise, particularly in underwriting.

Follow Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.

 

A +3-Year Review of the Predictions in 'The End of Insurance as We Know It' (w/Rob Galbraith, Author)

Rob Galbraith, author of 'The End of Insurance as We Know It, started at USAA when insurance was still primarily advertised word-of-mouth in the military. His experience with tech startups led to writing the book and found an avid international audience. His nickname actually came from an early podcast appearance! 

In today's episode, Rob and Josh check-in on what predictions from the book are coming to fruition, from devices and wearables to AI software. These technologies are driving insights and behavior, and regulations and laws are still catching up. Distributed ledger technologies are still not mainstream in insurance and will likely not be in the next five years, whereas AI has really picked up for insurers. Rob also brings into focus the importance of Distribution, agents, brokers and how their access to digital tools has a high impact and is helping drive industry innovation.

Follow Insurtech Leadership Podcast airing weekly hosted by Joshua R. Hollander. We give you up-close access and personal insights from the leaders of the fastest-growing #insurtechs and most innovative #insurance carriers and brokers.