The Insurbreak Podcast - Insurance Insights: Recent Episodes
Ash Faraj
Looking for the smartest trends and innovations in insurance? Join experts and executives on this podcast covering innovative practices, technology advancements, the latest trends, talents, and more. Tune in and join us! To discuss being a podcast guest, or for any inquiries, reach out to us via InsurBreak@gmail.com
In this last episode of the InsurBreak Podcast, discover major key takeaways from Tiffany Grinstead, VP of Personal Lines Marketing at Nationwide!
- Challenges Addressed: Customer acquisition and retention tackled with AI and digital tools.
- Nationwide's Marketing Magic: Data-driven segmentation for tailored messages to the right audience.
- Innovation Insights: Telematics programs, smart home offerings, and the leap into independent agent models.
- Consumer-Agent Dynamics: Unveiling surprising gaps in insurance literacy amid economic uncertainties.
- AI's Transformative Role: Cautionary exploration of legal aspects and the power of recommendation engines.
- Tech for Risk Mitigation: Connected cars, Smart Home programs, and strategic partnerships in action.
- Diversity and Inclusion Spotlight: Personal stories and Nationwide's commitment to embracing diversity.
Laura Drabik, Chief Evangelist at Guidewire Software and globally recognized thought leader in the insurance industry discusses key value propositions to meet the insurance customers shifting needs, the complexities of the insurance buying process and how integrating InsurTech solutions is changing the industry. Renowned for her insightful TED Talks, presentations and blogs, Laura draws from extensive experience collaborating with leading insurance companies worldwide and shares her insights about the InsurTech industry.
Listen to this episode to learn about:
- The complexities in the insurance-buying process and the importance and the importance of incorporating human interactions with online resources
- The importance of making the insurance buying process easily understandable to increase visibility
- How InsurTech startups changed the way traditional insurers operate
- Using data to improve underwriting and claims processes
- Challenges traditional insurers are facing to fully integrate InsurTech solutions into their operations.
- 3 key value propositions to meet the insurance customers shifting needs/ insurers to reach new customers and expand their offerings
- The role of the macroeconomic context in InsurTech investments
- Integrating InsureTech solutions into operations to extend the lifecycle & visibility of offerings
Lisa Wardlaw, North America Advisor of InsurTech Israel, joins us in this months InsurBreak episode and talks about being first movers in the insurance industry, incorporating emerging technologies to carrying the user experience throughout the entire insurance journey.
Listen to Lisa discuss about:
- Recognizing patterns in insurtech, the macroeconomic purpose and seeing the entire value system
- Being a woman in the insurance industry: the different levels of inclusion, belonging & authenticity
- Integrating customers into our data capabilities and journeys to create customer experience
- The difference between over engineered technology vs delivering a curated hyper-personalization in insurance
“ That's a difference between almost over engineered technology that's still not delivering a curated customer hyper personalized experience because it seems like it would, but it fails. Hyper personalization means that above all else, you know, thy customer, thy customer, the customer.”
Marissa Petriano, is the Head of Strategic Initiatives at Remark America. Bringing her diverse, consumer-focused experiences to insurance, Marisa has been working with insurers and carriers on digitalization, the adoption of new technologies and multichannel strategies.
Marisa explores the results of Remark's Global Consumer Study, the largest survey of insurance consumers aimed to understand consumer behaviour and preferences. The study involve over 10,000 consumers across 17 countries, with a focus on topics such as digital transformation, customer experience, and brand loyalty.
Listen to the latest episode of our podcast to learn more about:
- The importance of combining human interactions with new digital, multi-channel approaches for consumers
- How the Global Consumer Study can be leveraged to get ahead of demand, uncover assumptions and gain insights into consumer behaviour.
- How to meet consumers' desire for education by incorporating human and digital interactions
- Leveraging the right tools to simplify and customize knowledge for your customers
- Working with diverse team members and perspectives to create a more diverse product set and better-equipped customer journey
- The importance of remaining open-minded and overcoming biases while gaining experience throughout your career
You can download Remark's report here
Brian Poppe worked for Lincoln Financial Group for a period of time and then came over to Mutual of Omaha a little more than 13 years ago. From pricing and product development at Lincoln Insurance, he worked his way up in risk management at Mutual of Ohama. Brian also created and led the innovation practice for a couple of years, led one of the PNLs, worked on tech modernization, a bridge between business and IT strategy. He is now Chief Data officer - we can say he’s exempt in the data world!
In this podcast, learn about:
- Friction between data privacy and personalization. How do you protect customer privacy and what are the legal implications? How do you make sure you're not intentionally/unintentionally biasing some of the models that you're using to either recommend or automate underwriting?
- Personalization of the customer experience. How do you help your customers pick the right policies? How do you earn their trust to be able to provide them with the right recommendations?
- Whether human interactions will continue to be crucial for consumers’ decision-making process and how AI is impacting insurance and potential future applications
- His Pilot AI with chatbots, and the experience of an interactive agent call center
- The future of insurance and the implications of embedded insurance
- How inflation is impacting insurance businesses and consumers
- Diversity equity and inclusion in the insurance space
«So one of the things that we, and I suppose many others in the insurance industry, have learned is as much as you want to give an automated recommendation to a customer because it's such a personal and financial decision, customers want confirmation that they're making the right choice. So we can put a recommendation engine out there that helps customers pick a policy, they will still want to talk to a person to verify that they're on the right path» But how to ensure the protection of consumer data privacy while serving their needs for a more personal touch? « The technology industry has greatly advanced the ability to do that in a way that protects both customer privacy while still allowing you to do the types of personalization that customers are coming to expect from other industries (…) for example through anonymize the data either through consolidating it in a way or tokenizing it »
Listen to the new InsurBreak podcast with our guest Robert Easton, Global Chief Compliance Officer & Deputy General Counsel at Marsh LLC.
In this podcast learn about:
- The impact of digital tech transformation in insurance, on legal and compliance, and the new regulation priorities.
- How to embed these new regulations in insurance brokers’ and risk advisors’ workflows to deliver better client experience, protect the company, and limit the amount of manual work.
- The need to broaden the skills of different business areas and connect different organizations to avoid working in siloed to be able to develop compliance and ensure cybersecurity within the company
- How legal and compliance regulation drove improvement for better client engagement (with the creation of a centralized system or portal for clients to access their documents for example)
- His experience using AI in underwriting, and the lesson learned about ethical AI and transparency
- And more!
Join Lance Taylor, VP & Marketing Partner at Epic Insurance Brokers in the InsurBreak Podcast.
In this podcast learn about:
- How effective communication within an organization can boost revenue through awareness of cross-selling opportunities
- How innovation is used to make products work seamlessly across multiple channels to create more sales opportunities and a better customer experience
- How recommendation engines can be used to create connections for salespersons on different product suites that would have been overlooked and hence, end the sales tunnel vision on their own products area
How should Insurance companies navigate in this new economic climate?Join Karim Hirji, CFO and Canada Managing Director at Intact Venture in the InsurBreak Podcast.
Intact is a $20 billion Canadian company with 20% market share. Intact Insurance is Canada's largest home, auto, and business insurance company, the choice of more than four million consumers. Its coast-to-coast presence and its strong relationship with insurance brokers mean the company can provide the outstanding service, comfort, and continuity customers deserve.
In this podcast learn about:
- His career from Canada to Hong Kong, from an underwriting position to his current role as CFO, his responsibilities, and goals.
- How AI brings value to Intact, their incorporation of machine learning to personalize pricing on an individual basis, as well as modernizing their pricing systems, and gain an edge in terms of segmentation.
- How good analytical insights and AI are able to make loss predictions to reduce cycle time, improve the customer experience, and save on costs in that process.
- How AI improves agent/customer interaction using intelligence to predict the best agent to handle interactions based on agent profiles and customers' needs.
- The impact from a cost of goods perspective on insurers and how the conflict in Russia and Ukraine will affect the supply chain disruption over time.
Colin Works has been working at SCOR for the last 19 years. He has held multiple leadership roles in all aspects of Life Underwriting, and he is now the global head of underwriting and claims. Originally from Cork, Ireland, he traveled a great deal, Colin worked in the UK,Ireland, France, in the United States (Charlotte), and now lives and works from Montreal Canada.
Responsible for the direct supervision of SCOR’s Underwriting and Claims functions globally, his primary duties are risk management of medical underwriting and claims, operational efficiencies, continuous improvement of SCOR’s underwriting claims manuals (SOLEM), and participation in underwriting and claims innovation initiatives.
Listen in to this episode to learn about:
- How the insurance underwriting process has changed in the last few years – in favor of the consumer.
- How data privacy regulations are different across different markets, and the implications for insurance businesses operating in different markets
- How the ecosystem of Insurtech companies, re-insurance, and insurance businesses all function to boost the customer experience.
- How insurance companies can ease and foster the underwriting processes, withbiological age modeling for example
- Stick around until the end to hear about what risk scoring is all about and how it’s accelerating the efficiency of underwriting.
Craig Chapman spent his career in the finance and insurance industry. Craig has worked in three countries and held various C-Suite positions including CEO CFO and CTO across consumer banking commercial banking and other sectors.
Listen to this episode to learn about Craig's international experiences, how technology's role in the insurance industry has changed over the years and why diversity equity, and inclusion are so important for businesses to actively grow and prosper.
Niels Keuker is the Chief Marketing and Sales Officer for iptiQ Americas and Chief Executive
Office of iptiQ Sales Solutions. IptiQ is a B2B2C insurance unit within Swiss Re that is focused
on developing innovative Life & Health insurance solutions for the Middle Market.
Listen in to this episode to learn about Niels' experience around the globe as prior to moving to the US, he worked in different areas of Europe. He worked for Swiss Re/iptiQ in London as the Head of Business Development and Sales for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
Before joining Swiss Re, Niels worked for seven years in the insurance industry in several executive marketing and sales roles for companies like Aviva, Delta Lloyd and ABN AMRO Insurance.
Here's the topic that will be tackled in this podcast:
- Niels' role and responsibilities at iptiQ as well as his previous experiences
- The transformation happening in the insurance industry
- Customer expectations and how the industry has changed the way to engage with them
- Key factors of a successful customer journey
- The drivers of change and transformation in the insurance industry
- The future of the industry
- Inclusion and diversity in the insurance industry
Satish Weber is Executive Vice President and Head of Sustainability Financial Services Strategic Business Unit at Capgemini
Listen in to this episode to learn about Satish's experience and career and her take on:
- Capgemini's sustainability targets for the next decades and how financial services companies can contribute to a greener future
- The future of telematics in insurance
- Real-time data and customer's value proposition
- Female leadership in the insurance industry
Jeff Roe has been CEO at Premera Blue Cross for 24 years. Prior to Premera Blue Cross, Jeff served as a president at Safeco, then served as president and CEO of LifeWise health plan of Washington. Premier Blue Cross is the largest health plan insurance provider in the pacific northwest, serving more than two million people.
- How did Jeff Roe turn around a business unit that was bleeding money to a profitable division at Premera Blue Cross.
- Which key processes and tech improvement allowed Premera Blue Cross to reach a growth rate of 60%
- How can customer experience can be better served through communication, transparency, and simplicity.
- How technology is now core and essential to the success of insurance businesses.
James Kane is the senior vice president of USI Insurance services and former president of HUB international for personal lines.
Listen in to this episode to learn about the great life stories of James around personal insurance risk management principles, the impact of the exponential acceleration of AI technology and, how insurance companies need to pivot their marketing strategies as insurance buyer habits and behaviors are changing drastically in the digital world combining human-first approach and data analytics.
Here's the topic that will be tackled in this podcast:
- James' role and responsibilities at USI Insurance services as well as his former position as president at HUB International.
- How does « Risk assessment » and « impact » resonate with his experiences.
- Personal risk management principles in taught in numerous courses.
- How people should be thinking about the rise of natural disasters and the impact of climate change in the context of their insurance coverage.
- The shift of conversation with clients from focusing on agents to client experience.
- The future of embedded insurance and what it implies for the industry.
- How can AI technology can support the change in buying habits and the renewed focus on customer experience and personalization.
- How AI help with gathering data and making sense of data to better understand the insurance buyer. Does knowing your customer better change the budget allocation of insurance companies?
- In the context of hiring, what are the challenges when attracting and retaining the new generation of talent.
In this episode, hear from Mike Hughes, former President and executive at Liberty Mutual, Safeco, State Farm and The Hartford. Hughes brings 45+ years in Insurance, he began his career in The Harford Insurance Group as an underwriter, he later became President of The Harford ARP division. He went on to be a top executive across some of North America's largest insurance providers.
Hughes shares insights and wisdom from his deep insurance expertise on the current war on data and analytics, AI, talent, climate change and its impact -- and great wisdom on key leadership principles.