Much of the insurance industry’s success depends on communications, starting with the initial customer contact through to routine transactions, claims processing and policy renewals. It’s extremely important to know your customers and to make sure that your customers know you understand their needs today and into the future. Meeting legal and regulatory requirements across all types of customer communications is equally important. This becomes even more challenging as insurers increase their use of various digital technologies and communications channels, expanding the places where content is being created, maintained and deployed. To address all these requirements and also create a consistent, cohesive customer experience across all channels of communications, organizations need to re-think their approach to how they manage the content that is the foundation of these interactions. If your enterprise is like many in the industry, you have years of communications templates stored in different departmental silos across your business, which can amount to literally thousands of pieces from sales, marketing, accounting, claims and so on. These documents may reflect the evolution of your company over time and include different logos and ever-changing regulatory language. Value lies in your corpus of communications, but the challenge is harvesting it, organizing it so it is easy to use and can be managed efficiently to create a consistent message and experience. The adoption of digital communications channels will only add to this issue. There are four steps that insurance organizations can take to assess their inventory of communications and optimize the content that lies within. Step 1 — Clean up legacy content Although sifting through legacy content can seem like an overwhelming task, it is essential to:

• Identify the documents that should be eliminated due to outdated content
• Correct inconsistencies in messaging, branding and formatting
• Eliminate and consolidate duplicate similar content for greater management efficiency and consistency

It is not unusual for organizations to uncover outdated addresses and language, as well as inaccuracies in product descriptions, regulatory content, offers, salutations or how account numbers are referenced. All are common occurrences that can create confusion and frustration for customers—and your own field agents and customer service representatives. See also: Whole New World for Customer Contact   It’s also important to align content to defined brand and messaging standards. Content owners and experts from the key internal departments should participate in this cleanup effort to ensure consistency across your enterprise. While you can do this review manually, it can take months of labor to sort through the materials. It is far more efficient and effective to leverage purpose-built analytics that not only help automate the process but integrate with your customer communications management (CCM) to streamline the process. Even better, a system that is cloud-based allows a distributed workforce to collaborate in real time. Step 2 — Rethink your content As insurance companies adopt digital technologies, they must examine their content for re-use, clarity and suitability for these new channels. The review of your communications inventory is a great opportunity for content authors to rethink the content for omnichannel applications and, when possible, restate it in simpler language. Questions to ask when editing for simpler language include: Can this be said in a simpler way? Does it contain legal jargon or technical terms that need to be defined? Is it consistent with brand guidelines and voice? Is it factually correct today? Is it appropriate for this channel? Are you sending the right message, and does it resonate with your audience in the way you want it to? A major factor in building a loyal customer base is the ability to build trust through consistent communications. By making your omnichannel communications clear, concise and consistent, you will be able to drive increases in loyalty. Step 3 — Design for agility Many of your customer documents most likely contain many of the same content components that are used repeatedly yet managed separately, such as the same logo, address, tagline, regulatory content and product descriptions. Now consider how long it takes to make an update when one piece of content changes and that change has to be made across multiple communications that exist in multiple systems. A change of this kind can take weeks, even months, especially if a marketer, for example, has to request the change be made by your IT department. Modern customer communications management systems can address this issue in several ways. These systems can act as a central hub for managing content that powers omnichannel communications. In addition, look for systems that enable non-IT users to make these kinds of changes. By cutting IT out of the change management cycle, you can speed time to market and be the agile organization your customers expect. In addition to centralizing your content, you need to ensure you can intelligently manage your content and communications. This helps you avoid simply duplicating past activities and ensures that your communications inventory will be readily accessible to appropriate members of your internal staff. The best way to do this is to adopt an approach through which you can share content and templates across communications. Picture the same types of common content we mentioned earlier. Imagine being able to make a change to a common piece of content once and have it update instantly across all the documents and channels where it appears, and having a library of 90 written and approved outbound emails. You will likely manage those as separate templates and communications, even though they contain much of the same content. Now imagine how much easier it would be to create and maintain those communications by leveraging a single “parent” template that passes down its core structure, format and key pieces of content to 89 “children” that each contains its own unique dynamic content. These advanced approaches can greatly streamline change management processes as well as accelerating your ability to create new communications on demand. This kind of variation management enables you to deliver a consistent customer experience and ensure brand integrity. See also: Reconnecting With Customers Via Claims   Step 4 — Personalize for relevant content The final step in your communications overhaul is to incorporate advanced personalization. This is more than simply personalizing a letter with a customer’s name and specific account information. Advanced personalization leverages customer data and intelligent content so that you can tailor graphics and marketing messages to suit customer preferences and profiles. Integrating your content management platform with customer relationship management (CRM) systems gives you the ability to create variations of communications and use targeting rules to drive unique content to selected demographics. While upgrading and streamlining your customer communications processes might appear to be similar to rolling a boulder uphill, it can be done in a logical, step-by-step way. Though it remains a labor-intensive project, much of the process can now be automated, and the benefits in terms of improved customer experience and satisfaction, particularly as you incorporate digital technologies into your communications strategy, can translate into greater success and profitability for your organization.

Reputational risk is the biggest strategic threat facing the business world. When it comes to uncontrollable events that can affect a company’s reputation and revenue, nothing looms larger or carries a more devastating wallop than a cyber event. It only takes a misstep on social media, an employee’s accidental email or a data breach that exposes sensitive customer information to tarnish a brand’s good name. Just ask companies like Yahoo, Equifax and Sony, which experienced high-profile breaches that severely harmed their reputations. For small to medium-size businesses, the consequences of data loss can be just as profound: More SMBs are getting hit with cyberattacks, and these events are increasingly costly and disruptive to their normal operations, according to the Ponemon Institute. In response, a growing number of states are adopting cybersecurity laws to better guide insurers through cybersecurity insurance regulations. South Carolina, Ohio and Michigan were among the first to enact such data security laws. Those states emulated a 2017 model law by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) that provided framework for carriers, agents, brokers and their business partners around data security, investigation and breach notification. States that are following suit include Mississippi, Connecticut and New Hampshire. See also: Quest for Reliable Cyber Security   Insurers, take note: This is just the first wave. Expect other states and regions to adopt versions of this legislation. It follows a similar trend that occurred when states began writing their own laws mandating notification of affected consumers after a data breach. California enacted the first such law in 2002. In 2018, Alabama and South Dakota became the last of the 50 states and the District of Columbia to implement breach notification requirements. The state rollout of cybersecurity regulations for the insurance industry benefits consumers by offering more protection, to be sure. But it also spells opportunity for carriers that act now, driving them to double their level of compliance by:

• Sharpening their cybersecurity expertise with best practices to share with customers, and
• Practicing what they preach by becoming model citizens, examining the cybersecurity in their own business and getting cybersecurity right.

Though each state will build its own cybersecurity rules for insurers, they are drawing from the NAIC’s Insurance Data Security Model Law, which was inspired by the New York State Department of Financial Services’ Cybersecurity Regulation for the financial services industry. The model law outlines specific cybersecurity practices for insurers in areas including: risk assessment and management; board involvement; oversight of third-party service providers; information security program evaluation; incident response, reporting, investigation and notification; and annual certification. This means insurers with a national reach will need to track emerging state laws. They’ll likely adhere to the most stringent requirements to cut through the layers and complexity—and that’s good news for consumers. For example, Michigan may give a business 10 days to report a cyber event, but South Carolina requires 72-hour notice, and Ohio requires a notice of three business days. National carriers will likely adopt the 72-hour notice to also be in compliance in Michigan and Ohio. What carriers can do now

1. Establish a cybersecurity oversight team. Gather representatives from your IT, operations and other departments to review cybersecurity protocols and make recommendations for improvement.
2. Conduct an internal risk assessment. The new guidelines are auditable, meaning that cyber is now part of an insurer’s normal complains. Effectively, insurers are now being regulated by, well, themselves. Conducting a risk assessment will help.
3. Evaluate third-party service providers. This is a pain point for many companies because it requires that all their vendors and partners contractually agree to follow certain cybersecurity practices as part of their working relationship.

See also: Best Practices in Cyber Security   Meaningful cybersecurity legislation at the federal level is unlikely at the moment given the complexity in Congress despite a U.S. Department of Treasury endorsement of the model law in its 2017 report, “A Financial System That Creates Economic Opportunities.”

How many companies do you hear say, "We are customer-centric"? Pretty much all of them, right? To be fair, I can't imagine many would ever come out and say they are NOT customer-centric. But I rarely believe the claim of being customer-centric. What I think most companies mean is that they are product-centric first, then and only then customer-centric. That is: What’s in our kit bag that we can sell to you? We as the consumer end up with multiple product (centric) offerings and do the orchestration and administration ourselves. This is the way it’s always been. The average consumer has between 12 and 17 individual insurance products. Think about it: home, motor, pet, life, gadget, protection, health... the list goes on. Then add up the number of people per household. What happens when you have four adults (two parents, two kids): Is that 40 policies? For grudge purchases like insurance, that's a whole load of grudge! Another way to validate this product-centricity -- when you call your insurer and the rep asks you for your policy number before your name! If we innovate and design products in silos, we create great individual products -- but do we miss the big picture? We create a fragmented and poor end-to-end experience for customers, leaving them to do all the hard work. We may as well buy products from multiple providers (which in most cases we do). There are very few composite carriers that have got this right (or are moving toward an integrated approach). We make the problem worse by advertising in the same silos (in the U.K., at least) on our price comparison sites and focus on how long it takes to get cover: home insurance in eight minutes, travel in three and life insurance in three. LV did a study saying we spend more time choosing our annual holiday than we do buying life insurance. That just seems mad to me! How are we meant to engage with customers or get them to fall in love with what we are offering? We need new methods! See also: So, You Want to Work With Insurtechs?   When Is Insurance NOT Insurance? I am a firm believer of falling in love with the things we want. I don’t want:

• Auto insurance - I want the ability to drive from place to place.
• Buildings insurance. I want the cover I need so that my mortgage company gives me the money to buy a house.
• Health insurance - I want the help to stay healthy and out of hospital and so on. You get the idea here.

Partly, this is the move from reactive to preventive capabilities - or at least that's what we say in the insurance circles. See here for the Great Insurtech Debate that covered some of this. I LOVE YOU To help move away from these multiple product silos, the key for me is the addition of some sort of service. Customers actually want more than the insurance product. So give them the same products, this time shielded by a services layer they actually need and engage with. This service layer would have a number of fundamental impacts, both positive and negative: Positives:

• greater customer-centricity, as the services layer does the orchestration/administration
• less burden on the customer at the product level - makes our lives more convenient and gives us time back
• higher number of products per customer for the carrier (usually an important or at least measured metric across the industry -- and ranges from 1.1 per customer to six)

Negatives

• may reduce insurance premium written despite being more profitable because of the service revenue
• may reduce transparency? Will the regulators like this?

That leaves the new model looking more like this: the service layer getting bigger, the insurance slices shrinking and all the lines blurred between the once product-centric and siloed innovation world. It also means we innovate at the customer level, not the product level. Feels like a WIN WIN WIN. So What Do These Services Look Like? There are tons of examples here that can be called up and not just in personal lines. In the same way I pay for uptime on aircraft engines, I can do the same from Hartford Steam Boiler given their IoT acquisitions, with preventive maintenance and servicing vs. buying the policy outright in the first place. Some initial examples could include: For insurers, the next question is: Do I need to own those services, or could I just partner with multiple other providers to focus on the right outcome? Think about emergency home repair in your home policy or legal cover on your motor cover. These are still at a product level but not owned by the insurer themselves. The key question is - What did the customer come out to buy in the first place? Step out a level and start to aggregate the thinking at the customer (need), level not the (individual) product level. One of my favorite examples is Peugeot's Just Add Fuel. It plays to many things for me -- from mobility as a service to brilliant orchestration of the end-to-end things you need to drive: servicing, tax, roadside assistance, tires and, of course, insurance. Super-convenient and hassle-free! I call the Peugeot approach embedded and invisible insurance. Many folks don't like this term or general principle, asking what happens to all the spending on identity, brand and direct marketing. Will regulators like the approach -- is it transparent enough? The winner will be the most efficient manufacturer. A great example of this is CoverGenius, which is integrating to the commerce level, not making the customer do the swivel chair integration! Hear from Mitch Doust, too, on the InsurTech Insider podcast here on what they are up to and how they enable embedded insurance experiences for their customers. See also: Predicting the Future of Insurtech   A great example from another industry on removing barriers for customers comes from Match.com. Any single parents wanting to go on a date get up to three hours babysitting free of charge. Now, I’m not single, but finding a babysitter is nearly impossible where we live. Beyond Insurance So let's assume for one minute that the top half of my customer circle is filled with tens of insurance products that we all have. Now expand to look at the services we engage with on a regular basis and are likely to love as little as insurance. I quickly arrive at utilities and banking, with many lessons and observations that I think can be worked through for insurers, too. Utilities It’s fair to say we love these (read: care as little) as much as we do insurance. It’s pretty much a commodity product with some big legacy incumbents and some startups. Sound familiar? The startups have some unique and interesting propositions, be it great user experience (Bulb is my favorite), 100% renewable energy or something else. There are price comparison sites helping you find the best/cheapest option based on your usage and preferences. But just like insurance, there is a level of inertia that limits people from switching energy providers. That said, there are a number of things going on here that may, just may, have material impacts for how we engage insurers. Specifically, automatic provider switching! There’s been a whole host of firms pop up and offer this service. In the U.K., we have Labrador, Flipper, WeFlip and now AutoSergi from the price comparison website giants themselves, plus many others. With Flipper, you pay a monthly subscription of just £2.50 to automatically flip to lower-cost providers, but it's free until you have made savings. In the U.S.. you have BillShark, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. The Guardian ran a piece late last year on how we can help people change providers for the best deal, in some cases saving £1,500 per year. There are easily 10-plus players in this space now, although not without challenge. I recall Flipper has been to the brink and back, and, just this month, it's reported that Labrador has gone bust (here). Challenges aside, take the idea of auto switching to insurance? Would most of us actually care if our journey out was insured to a different provider to the journey back, or house insured with provider X one month and a different one the next? The Final Ingredient in the Cake: Banking As much as I love all of the new Neo Banks and challenger capabilities such as Starling, Monzo, Yolt, Emma and hundreds of others, my life seems to take place on my credit card. While I have moved to a Neo Bank (and properly moved, shutting down my old account), it does pretty much what I had before. Yes, maybe with a shinier interface. Yes, in a more engaging way. But I have my money in, and then bills out. It's not that complicated. What sets my bank apart is the Market Place, which enables access to insurance through a number of providers, as well as many other services and utilities to make use of the open banking and transactional data. Another New Bank, Monzo, which could be valued at $2 billion if the latest rumored raise is correct, has an iconic following for its Hot Coral card. The more than 1.5 million customers give Monzo an opportunity to service this customer base with more than just banking. In a recent blog, Monzo talked about services that could be added: bill switching, clearer fair insurance and much more. With All These Ingredients, How Do We Make Cake? Many all-in-one services already exist. One of my favorites is Onedox, which wraps all of the above into a single service and has a website and app that allow you to add:

• household bills, including broadband, media, phone, streaming services
• other stuff, like when my mortgage is due, my TV license, my local council tax and much more
• having all the bills (pdfs) downloaded to one place without me having to log in anywhere else

I can add multiple providers, I get one-click energy switching and a neat app to store all this stuff in one place, rather than log into my separate providers and accounts. See also: 3 Insurtech Trends Accelerating in 2019   Keep going. Add insurance providers (below) and soon insight through open banking. See here for the vision on that particular one. I find Onedox super helpful and already notice behavior changes, in that I don't need to go to any of the other providers. Youtility is another that was recently featured in the national press. So, who will own the customer of the future? We want our time back. Period. For insurers, this means that we can no longer offer something people can't fall in love with, or want last in the chain of thoughts. We have to find ways to blur the lines. Why can't insurers take the front foot on this one, creating and orchestrating partnerships that add value? Summary I have a few key questions that keep coming up again and again:

• When is insurance not insurance? Will we focus on the service, not the underlying cover?
• Who will own the customer of the future? Is it the utility, bank or insurance company?
• What other industries have done a great job at orchestrating their own and other services into a single, convenient marketplace or offering?
• How does the U.K. market differ from Central Europe, the U.S. or Asia?
• Is there a combined service you would subscribe to if offered?

I can summarize this story in five points:

1. Value-added services blur the lines between product silos, changing the premium and profit mix for carriers.
2. Insurance can become embedded and invisible in the underlying service.
3. As services move beyond insurance only, there are plenty of ingredients, but we eat cake!
4. Watch out for open banking and utility switching -- if they win the race, where does that leave us?
5. The change is happening already.

Ultimately, there is no point serving customers all the individual ingredients and saying, go make it yourself. They really just want cake! As always, would love your thoughts, builds, challenges on this.

Until recently, the typical insurance customer was a baby boomer or Gen Xer, but that is changing. As these two generations mature, millennials – those born between 1981 and 1996 – are rising to take their place. This emergence of a new consumer cohort comes just at the right time for insurers. The free flow of capital and technology has created a Darwinian Economy where survival depends on an insurer’s ability to adapt. Insurers have been feeling the squeeze as deal volume declines and renewals shrink. Regulatory barriers and the push to modernize the customer experience only add to the pressure. In this fierce battle for market share, millennials present a new source of growth. Millennial businesses, homes and families need insurance. In fact, millennials already account for 16% of vehicle insurance spending, 12% of health insurance spending and 6.9% of personal and life insurance. Those numbers will grow as millennials enter their peak earning years. As more millennials are ready to purchase insurance products, what will they be looking for, and how can insurers capture their share of the millennial wallet? Shaped by the Great Recession To better understand millennials, consider the economic climate in which they were raised. Millennials grew up as the tech bubble burst and the Great Recession hit. Along the way, they amassed huge student loan debts. When they graduated, finding good secure employment was difficult. The Federal Reserve Bank has summed up millennials’ economic position compared with prior generations. They have lower real incomes than earlier generations did at a similar age, fewer assets and a greater debt load. While millennials may appear to be a poor target for insurers today, their fortunes will change over the next 10 years. According to Deloitte, total U.S. wealth is expected to balloon to $120 trillion by 2030. As the Silent Generation and baby boomer share shrinks from more than 80% to just over half, millennials will see a fourfold share increase. How can insurers prepare to serve this new market? Millennials are frugal and savvy shoppers. They do their research before buying. Insurance for this generation needs to be transparent and economical. Provide plenty of information on your website, and consider pay-as-you-go, usage-based insurance. See also: Millennials Demand Modern Experience   Millennials at Work Millennials have been tagged as lazy and entitled but are more likely just misunderstood. They have a better work ethic than they are given credit for and are more financially aware than prior generations. As children of the tech boom and the Great Recession, they value entrepreneurship and the need to prepare for disaster. These experiences, above others, will drive their future insurance preferences. In the small business world, millennials may be the most insurance-needy generation ever. Morgan Stanley and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimate that, by 2020, millennials and Gen Xers will collectively own more than 60% of U.S small businesses, up from 38% in 2016. Millennials are emerging as a new source of growth for small business insurers. What will attract millennial business owners to an insurer? Start with a digital customer experience. Morgan Stanley and BCG project digitally underwritten insurance will grow from $4 billion to $33 billion by 2020. They say, “going digital may be expensive and painful at first, but in the long run it will save time, cut costs and allow insurers to better tap the dynamic and growing opportunities in the small-business market.” Millennials also value simplicity. Morgan Stanley suggests making “products less complex, with easier-to-understand terms and a less cumbersome claims process.” The Tech-Native Generation Millennials are the generation of instantaneous chat, purchase and socialize. From research to communicating, they are fundamentally different than their generational predecessors. Texting and smartphones are second nature. For insurers, this means traditional channels may not be enough to engage millennials. They are online consumers and are more likely than any prior generation to purchase through a connected device. A recent study found that 85% of millennials own a smartphone, and 53% prefer to use it to shop online. The mobile experience you provide is critical. One study found that perceived mobile usefulness and ease-of-use influence shopping attitude and purchase intent among millennials. A final factor to consider is transparency. Millennials are savvy shoppers and will expect to understand a product before they buy. In a study from Label Insight, transparency ranks at the top of customer loyalty factors for millennials, with 78% valuing it. See also: 3 Reasons Millennials Should Join Industry   Explain coverages visually and complement your online experience with easy access to agents for complex questions. Concluding Thoughts Millennials are the first tech-native generation. They grew up accustomed to online transactions and instant response. They expect all the services they use to act this way. They are frugal, smart shoppers and very brand loyal when they establish a preference. Responsiveness, transparency and economy are essential if you wish to address this market. Offer products that are easy to understand, priced fairly and sold digitally, and you will capture your fair share of this new growth opportunity. Excerpted, with permission, from “The Insurer’s Millennial Playbook.” Request a copy of the complete e-book at https://www.instec-corp.com/millennial-insurance-form.

In 2016, California teen Amanda Clark was on the phone when her Chevrolet Trailblazer rolled three times, landing on its roof. According to the Sacramento Bee, Clark wrote: “I hate the thought of dying without my family knowing how I felt about them.” Yet one year later, Clark was in a second auto accident. She was driving while on the phone again and lost control of her car. Cellphone records showed that she was texting. She was found unresponsive at the scene and died the next day. These stories of distracted driving are becoming more common among U.S. drivers, sadly. Drivers continue to pick up their cellphones—for social media reasons, nonetheless—while behind the wheel, removing their attention from what’s happening around them to focus on a five-inch screen. As April’s Distracted Driving Awareness Month arrives, DriversEd.com has released new survey data in its 2019 Distracted Driving and Social Media Report. The most alarming findings: 55% of surveyed participants admit to checking social media while behind the wheel, and 25% said they’ve even recorded a video while behind the wheel. “There’s no way around it: The data is startling. I wish I could say the solution is as simple as parents talking to their teen drivers about the dangers of distracted driving. But parents are also the ones checking their Facebook, watching YouTube videos and recording Instagram videos,” said Laura Adams, safety and education analyst at DriversEd.com. “We are in an ever-growing distracted driving crisis, and the consequences are deadly. “For many drivers, health and safety take a backseat to their likes and shares,” Adams added. See also: 5 Steps to Understand Distracted Driving   Why is this problem still so prevalent? Part of the problem actually has to do with hearing those scary statistics: We don’t really believe they apply to us. It’s a phenomenon that cognitive scientist Tali Sharot named The Optimism Bias. Basically, when people think about their own futures, they tend to overestimate the likelihood that good things will happen and underestimate the likelihood of bad things. In the context of driving, that means we overestimate our own capabilities. In fact, one study showed that 93% of U.S. drivers think that they’re in the top 50% of safe drivers. Thus, drivers also underestimate their likelihood of being in a car accident. This would explain why so many drivers will agree that texting while driving is bad but admit to doing it anyway: We know it’s dangerous in general, but we don’t quite grasp how much of a risk it is to ourselves specifically. Take it from a teen… Grace Keller, a former DriversEd.com student and guest teen contributor, suggested drivers keep their belongings, including cellphones, in other parts of the car to avoid distracted driving behavior. “I usually throw my backpack in the back seat with my phone and all my other potential distractions in it, so that I don’t even become tempted. Though I admit it can be difficult — I mean, we’re all living in a very high-tech society where we feel the need to constantly be plugged into our social media, group-chats, etc., but whatever it is you need to look at or check up on can wait,” she stated. How you can help The National Safety Council is asking the public to use these life-saving measures to help curb the growing rates of distracted driving–related injuries and fatalities:

1. Commit to putting your #phonedown. Stow your cellphone in your purse, backpack or trunk to keep it out of reach. If it’s needed for GPS use, switch to “auto mode” to turn off notifications and calls.
2. Stay engaged in teens’ driving habits. Parents should lead by example by putting their phones down. Head to “Parents: Tools to help your teen resist using their phones,” on DriversEd.com for more parent-focused information.
3. Practice defensive driving. Buckle up and keep in-car distractions (passengers, music, etc.) at a minimum to focus on the road ahead. Be sure to get enough sleep to avoid fatigue and drive attentively.
4. Recognize the dangers of drugged driving. From prescription opioids to alcohol to marijuana use, learn how each one impairs your ability to drive safely. Visit www.stopeverydaykillers.org to learn more.
5. Fix recalls immediately. See if your vehicle is currently under recall by visiting www.checktoprotect.org.
6. Ask lawmakers and state leaders to protect travelers on state roadways. The National Safety Council’s State of Safety report shows which states have the strongest and weakest traffic safety laws.

See also: Distracted Driving — an Infographic   The 2019 Distracted Driving and Social Media Report was conducted by DriversEd.com as a follow-up to its more broadly focused 2018 Distracted Driving in America Report and zeroes in on risky behind-the-wheel social media behavior: feed checking, video watching and video recording, providing insight on the current state—and dangers—of distracted driving and social media use. The survey was conducted online using Survey Monkey. One thousand, twenty-nine participants were polled, spanning across the U.S., with the U.S. driving population represented by the 943 respondents who, before completing the survey, answered that they have a driver’s license. Of those 943 respondents, 522 answered that, while behind the wheel, they have checked social media while either at a red light, at a stop sign, stuck in traffic or moving on the road. Those 522 respondents represent drivers who admit to checking social media while driving. The demographics of those polled represented a broad range of household income, geographic location, age and gender. The article was originally published on DriversEd.com.

On Nov. 20, 2018, Insurance Journal reported an article suggesting auto insurance premiums will decrease by $25 billion by 2025. To put that in perspective, that is approximately 5% of all U.S. P&C premiums. Think you've seen a soft market before? Just wait. The article continued to state that new coverage lines will more than make up the difference, according to the report author, Accenture. It proposed that businesses in particular will buy $81 billion more in other lines. This means woe for the personal lines carriers and agents who have achieved far more personal lines premium growth in the last 10 years than commercial (an average annual rate increase of approximately 3.3% vs. -.1%, 2005-2017, inclusive). The authors argue that driverless cars will make the roads safer but increase the need for product liability. I am not sure about this because it has been reported that some manufacturers are planning to forego product liability insurance on their driverless cars. Maybe they had a change of mind or the authors are providing insights missing from press releases the Securities and Exchange Commission might want to review. Or maybe the manufacturers' contracts will place all liability on their vendors or others (like the owners who do not read their software agreements). The authors suggest consumers, companies and governments will quickly buy much more cyber coverage. They probably do need to quickly buy more, but, with as many as 3,000 cyber forms floating around in the U.S. alone (according to a recent Rand Corp. study), what cyber is actually being purchased? The Rand study is important to understanding future cyber purchases because, as it suggests, some of the forms may not be intended to pay claims, some companies' actuarial models may be shots in the dark and clearly some companies' forms indicate they really do not know what they are doing (at least this is my impression of Rand Corp.'s conclusion). These are big issues that put into doubt what the cyber insurance market really even is, and what happens with the inevitable shakeout? If some companies do not really know what they are insuring (reading some companies' forms suggest they really do not know what they are insuring) and are taking shots in the dark on pricing (and reserving maybe?), there may be a problem of stronger and smarter companies not achieving adequate market share until the shakeout occurs. See also: Cybersecurity for the Insurance Industry   Add to this confusion the fact that explaining cyber insurance, and explaining exactly what the different cyber forms are insuring, is very difficult. Agents need to try doing this to understand that increased cyber sales are not magically going to happen. Beware the agent who pretends that all cyber forms are the same or that, just because an insured has purchased a cyber policy, they now have "cyber" coverage. The insured may think it has much broader coverage than the carrier interprets (which will be interesting for those companies less sure of what they are even insuring; see the Mondelez v. Zurich suit for a great example). Also, after asking dozens and dozens of agents what they are even insuring when they sell a cyber policy, I'm often met with blank stares or statements that they do not understand cyber so they don't sell cyber. Product liability sales may increase. Product liability has been one of the most volatile major lines of P&C insurance over the last 20-plus years, so any prediction specific to this line seems problematic. Since 1996, NPW specific to product liability per A.M. Best (author's calculation) has only increased 35%. Private passenger auto has increased 106%. In the last 10 years, NPW has actually declined 11%. I am not suggesting these results are rational, because the combined ratio for product liability is an abysmal 129% over the last 10 years. Its worst combined ratio was 159% in 2011, and its best was 84% in 2006. The volatility is absurd and does not really correlate well with NPW growth. This combination of volatility and lack of charging more premium for really horrible combined ratios makes predicting this line's future problematic. I hope experts' predictions are correct regarding other lines taking up the slack. Even if correct, though, personal lines agents and personal lines carriers are going to suffer if they do not begin writing commercial. Small commercial will be hurt, too, because small commercial will lose the auto, clients seem reluctant to buy quality cyber coverage and they do not usually need product liability. The winners, if the study's authors' predictions are correct, will be carriers and agents/brokers writing large, complex commercial accounts. If the authors are wrong about companies and consumers purchasing a lot more insurance but of a different line, then the entire industry suffers mightily. Another article in the same edition published a report from Minnesota’s Department of Labor that the state's workplace injury and illness rate decreased in 2017 to its lowest rate since the state first began measuring it. I suspect Minnesota's results are similar to other states. The significant advances in safety and the reduced need for employees to work in more dangerous environments relative to total employment support the probability that workplaces should be safer than ever, even in a booming economy. The workplace will become even safer, with more modular construction, better safety devices and monitoring and continuing emphasis on safety. A safer environment means less rate in this line, too. See also: Leveraging AI in Commercial Insurance   Maybe the industry needs to offer more law school scholarships to future plaintiff attorneys to take up the slack. Otherwise, most signs point strongly to the devaluation of insurance. Insurance is more important in a risky world than a safer world. Maybe insurance companies will get desperate and begin insuring previously unthinkable, uninsurable perils and fill the gap that way. Whatever happens, though, insurance sales are going to change significantly. The industry is at an inflection point for carriers and distributors both. This is not a point of despair, but it is a time that requires true strategic thinking and planning to identify the opportunities that exist and to plan for those opportunities, without getting too far ahead and losing what one already has. This is hard work. It requires quite a balance, which is why dedicated strategic planning is truly required. You can find the article originally published here.

Security cameras in a company cafeteria recently captured a brazen attempt to fake a workers’ compensation injury. The video shows that the man dumped a cup of ice onto the floor, disposed of the cup and then lay down on the floor as though he slipped on the ice. Prosecutors have charged the man with insurance fraud and theft by deception.

In this case, the fraud was well-documented. But most employers do not have cameras in their lunch rooms or other areas of their work places. It can be very difficult to prove someone has faked an injury in the workplace without cameras catching the person in the act.

But the consequences of undetected workers’ compensation fraud are enormous. Fraud is a costly financial burden to employers and taxpayers, and it interferes with providing benefits to the vast majority of injured workers with legitimate claims.

See also: Workers’ Comp Issues to Watch in 2019  

If an employer suspects an employee has attempted to create a fake injury or fraudulent claim, there are several steps to follow up on right away:

• Identify and interview any witnesses to the injury.
• Check to see if there was anything unusual in the area where the injury occurred (items on the floor, wet floor, torn carpet)? If the injured worker is alleging he tripped on something, secure the evidence and take pictures of the site.
• Determine if there was anything unusual about the injured worker prior to the injury (limping, favoring any body parts, etc.)? An abnormality could indicate an attempt to reframe an existing non-occupational injury as a workers’ compensation claim.
• Check to see if the employee ise on social media and review for any physical activities.
• Obtain an Insurance Services Office claims report to see if the injured worker has a history of claims.
• Take several statements from the injured worker – look for conflicting information.
• Assign surveillance to determine if the injured worker is participating in activities inconsistent with the reported injury or has taken alternative employment during the disability.

Faked injuries may also be an indication of fraud perpetrated by dishonest medical providers or attorneys who operate “claims mills.” These fraud schemes recruit workers to submit fraudulent claims, can generate millions of dollars of undeserved benefits and affect employer loss experience, resulting in higher workers’ compensation premiums. It’s important that claimants understand that their participation in reporting fraudulent claims exposes them to prosecution and severe penalties.

Below are several "red flags" that could be indications of a faked workers’ compensation injury:

• There are no witnesses to the injury. Was it unusual that the employee would be alone or out of place at the time of the injury?
• Injury occurs at the end of the day on a Friday or on a Monday morning. The worker may have sustained a non-occupational injury over the weekend.
• The employee changes the story about what happened. The statement to a treating doctor is different from what the person reported to the emergency room or put on the initial report of injury.
• The worker has a history of previous claims. Someone who has received significant workers’ compensation payments previously may try to go to the same well again.
• There’s a delay reporting the injury. If a worker reports an injury months after it allegedly occurred, it could indicate the possibility the claimant was recruited by a claims mill.
• The worker is disgruntled, on disciplinary action or involved in a labor dispute. Employees may use a workers’ compensation claim to retaliate against their employer, or delay termination.
• The worker (or a medical provider) refuses certain diagnostic tests or imaging. Avoidance of examinations that could confirm the existence of the reported injury is a key fraud indicator.
• The injured worker has significant financial problems. The claimant may be trying to find a way to gain additional funds through a fraudulent claim.
• The injured worker is hard to reach during the disability. A worker who does not return phone calls or emails could be avoiding requests for additional information or could be employed elsewhere.
• The worker refuses modified-duty work or other return-to-work protocols. It could be an attempt to prolong the disability and could be a tactic of unscrupulous medical providers to get additional money.

See also: The State of Workers’ Compensation  

Employers who suspect a faked occupational injury or other workers’ compensation fraud or abuse should seek assistance from their insurer or claims administrator. Potentially fraudulent claims are referred to the Special Investigation Unit (SIU), and cases with enough evidence are sent to the district attorney for prosecution.

In the last 20 years, the insurance industry has rapidly become one of the most data-driven and complex industries in our global economy. With the advent of wearable technologies, improved data-collecting capabilities and the increasing dominance of behavioral economic theories, insurance companies are inundated with data. Used well, these large sums of data can greatly benefit insurance companies and consumers. Returns on policies will increase, along with efficiency, while risk and overall costs will decrease. However, using all this data well is extremely difficult and requires years of work and expertise. Through my more than 25 years of actuarial and statistical modeling experience, I have seen insurance companies use data well, increasing their profitability in the process. Big data can be a significant asset for insurance companies over the next 100 years, or it could bog down the industry, exacerbating issues that are currently affecting companies across the globe. All this really depends on how the insurance market adapts to and uses big data today, in the early stages of this big data era. See also: Understanding New Generations of Data   My current focus is the application of behavioral psychologies to build predictive models to maximize the effectiveness of insurance technologies in the design of new products. Insurance is becoming mediated more and more by mobile, wearable and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. As generations become more connected through media technologies, leveraging media psychology, actuarial science and data science will be vital to the predictive future of insurance. This is particularly true with regards to attracting new, younger customers to life insurance and other insurance products. Young people are demanding a customer experience centered on quick and easy app-driven solutions over traditional, slower, life insurance models. There is great potential for the long-term care industry to benefit from innovative technologies that leverage big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence. For example, home care can be improved through the use of robotics and interactive telehealth technologies to mediate the interaction between patients and medical professionals in real time, improving patient outcomes. Wearable technology to monitor biometrics, other than steps, in real time can instantaneously inform of a pending health event requiring medical attention. Big data and computing power are exploding at factorial rates, enabling algorithms to search for significant correlations in seconds rather than months, and the difference has proven to be life-saving. However, it is critical to understand how these algorithms work to prevent abuses of consumer protections. The GIS advanced regulator training will equip regulators with a conceptual understanding of the machine learning algorithms leveraging big data being used to develop consumer insurance rates. They will learn how to test the appropriateness, power and validity of these statistical modeling tools against the data companies that are using it to build pricing algorithms and fuel AI algorithms. Regulators will also receive training in how to interrogate data for completeness and how to identify hidden biases that may unfairly discriminate against consumers. This training will also engage regulators in discussions of the ethical use of big data, machine learning and AI in preparation for a future where insurance is nearly 100% mediated by technology. See also: Healthcare Data: The Art and the Science Companies will have to become good digital citizens and work with regulators to ensure an industry that fosters innovations beneficial to consumers without compromising legal standards and the ethical treatment of all consumers. A future of insurance mediated by big data, predictive algorithms and AI will have great benefits for the human experience. The industry and regulators through cooperative efforts can ensure this promising future for consumers. I will be moderating the "Can Big Data Save Long-Term Care" breakout panel on Wednesday, April 24, and am organizing and leading the big data and advanced modeling training on April 22-23 and April 25-26 at the 2019 Global Insurance Symposium in Des Moines. To register to attend GIS please go to: https://globalinsurancesymposium.com/register/

The workplace is evolving, to the point that many people have no actual "place" from which to work. Some do their jobs remotely, while others work from locations such as their cars, if they are part of the gig economy. While we often think about technology and automation as driving influences for the future of work, people are a critical part of the equation. The workers’ compensation industry will be an exciting place to be, as long as we can meet the challenges of attracting and retaining top talent and responding to evolving work cultures. An esteemed panel of workers’ compensation thought leaders were on hand to help us address these issues during our most recent Out Front Ideas with Kimberly and Mark webinar:

• Lisa Corless, president and CEO of Accident Fund Group
• Artemis Emslie, founder, AGM Holdings, former CEO, myMtrixx
• Faith Mason, corporate manager, workers’ compensation, at Comcast NBC Universal
• Marijo Storment, CEO of Paradigm Complex Care Solutions

Talent Attraction and Retention The workers’ compensation industry is facing high turnover as aging baby boomers set their sights on retirement. Finding people to replace them can be a challenge, especially in our industry, which younger people may view as behind the times. Savvier companies are overcoming this challenge by focusing on technology — not to replace people but to attract those who have spent their lives using it. The "human touch" will always be needed in workers’ compensation to meet the needs of customers, especially cognitive skills. But many repetitive tasks can now be performed through automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Successful integration of these newer technologies into our workflows depends on a strong human partnership. Accident Fund Group has addressed the issue by making "People First" one of its strategic pillars. The company strongly promotes a work/life balance and uses this to reach out to younger talent. The company works with colleges and high schools in communities throughout the country to let these students know about the many opportunities. For example, the company shares the ways it uses robots and AI. It has also conducted hackathons around Alexa and other digital assistants. These innovations attract these younger people to our industry, where they later learn of the many areas in which they can work. Reaching out to students is also a good way to attract more nurses, who have become increasingly important in managing workers’ compensation claims but who are in high demand throughout the economy. One speaker said that there will be more jobs for registered nurses as of 2022 than any other profession in the U.S. Many nursing school graduates are not even aware of the opportunities in workers’ compensation. Companies are working with colleges to add courses on case management. Retaining nurses is also vital. The job of a case manager has become more difficult over the years due to the increased severity of claims, privacy and security measures, and the wide variety of service-level agreements. See also: Workers’ Comp Issues to Watch in 2019   Paradigm strives to provide a fun, supportive working environment. Making its workers feel valued through mentoring programs and high-performing support groups is key. The company actually has found that, by treating employees well, they become a primary source of referrals for new workers. A high value on soft skills has changed the way many companies seek talent. Rather than looking for people who have experience in the industry, companies may seek those who are empathetic and highly communicative. As one speaker told us, you can train an adjuster to be proficient in adjudicating a claim, but it is harder to teach soft skills. Training and Development Bringing new hires into an organization with the intent of retaining them for many years involves much more than just training them on certain tasks. It includes integrating them into the culture of the organization so that they truly feel engaged in it. Some refer to this idea as organizational health, meaning the connection and communication felt among workers and their colleagues. Ideally, employees should have their personal and professional goals aligned with the corporate strategy to allow both the employee and the organization to grow and evolve. The process of truly engaging workers begins the first day of employment. Employees need to understand the purpose of the organization and how their contributions fit into the big picture. They need to understand, not only what the expectations of them are, but what they can expect from the organization. That attitude fosters transparency and communication – two very important aspects of a thriving company. One way to develop future leaders is by allowing employees to grow and expand professionally and personally. Sedgwick, for example, has a program where employees can nominate themselves into a leadership program. Those accepted spend one year training in many parts of the organization. They work with mentors and sponsors and receive career coaching. They are exposed to many areas and products so that they are not pegged as specialists focused on only a single area. Part of the training helps them further develop those important soft skills. At the end of the year, they work on some of the company’s largest, complex programs. Workers who deal with customers throughout the day do very well with resilience training. No matter how intrinsically strong someone is, getting yelled at for eight hours a day can take a toll. Companies that want to help their customer service professionals stay with the organization spend resources helping them to better deal with negative experiences. Employee Experience and Engagement Making employees feel supported and engaged with the organization not only helps retain them, it also is important if they become injured. Injured workers who are fully engaged in their recovery and the return-to-work process experience better outcomes and reduced costs for their employers/payers. Using an advocacy-based care model keeps that employee connected and on the right track for a swift recovery. Comcast NBC Universal, for example, has a program that ensures injured workers are supported from the beginning all the way through the recovery – even if their workers’ compensation claim is denied. The company provides resources to assess the worker’s condition and, if it is a mental-mental claim, for example, determines if it is compensable. If it is not, the company sends the employee to short-term disability and provides notice to the vendor to make the process seamless. The idea is for the employee to feel cared for and not experience a major disruption. Comcast NBC Universal calls the approach the "happy path." Making remote workers feel engaged and connected can be a challenge. Paradigm seeks ways to establish constant connections among employees. Through mentoring, highly engaged small groups, an internal newsletter and other programs, the company finds ways to bring workers into the company fold, even if they are not physically together. There is even a software platform where workers can give one another accolades and celebrate birthdays. One aspect of helping employees feel engaged is to ensure they feel safe; that is, safe to make suggestions and provide input that may not be exactly what the "suits" want to hear. Our speakers told us that allowing and encouraging honest feedback helps both the worker and the organization as a whole. Employees can draw attention to processes and tools that may not be working as well as they could. That allows change and evolution to occur. Artemis Emslie related a program that allowed the organization as a whole to set goals and have individuals and teams come up with strategies to affect the goals. Workers, she said, often come up with ideas of one or two things to do differently that will help the company realize its goals. See also: Culture Side of Digital Transformation   Culture We often hear about the culture of an organization. Our speakers described it as something you can feel when you walk into a company. An open, positive culture is one where people are engaged with one another, obviously happy to be there and focused on the customer.. The general feeling is one of an accepting environment. One way to ensure a company’s culture continues to be positive is by focusing on diversity and inclusion. More than an initiative, they are a mindset, a way of thinking and behaving. Studies have repeatedly shown that this mindset results in growth and innovation. While both diversity and inclusion are necessary to improve a company’s culture, they are not the same. Diversity refers to the differences in people – not only gender and race but sexual orientation, a disability, ADHD, diversity of thought – anything that makes one person different from another. The term ”inclusion” refers to creating a safe environment where every person feels honored and appreciated. Some companies foster inclusion by inviting diverse groups of people to meetings, such as high-ranking personnel along with lower-level employees. Each person’s opinions are encouraged and supported. If everyone in a meeting likes a particular idea, the lone person who does not should feel safe to express his or her thoughts without fear. The idea of work/life balance is one aspect of culture that sometimes causes confusion. As Emslie explained, it does not necessarily mean every single day has the exact balance of work and personal activities. Instead, it can be viewed holistically. Ultimately, it means having priorities straight and taking care of both adequately. For more information on this important subject, you can view information from a recent Future of Work event produced by the Alliance of Women in Workers’ Compensation, held adjacent to the 2019 Workers’ Compensation Research Institute’s Annual Conference in Phoenix. Information about the Alliance and notices of its coming events can be found here.

As the insurance industry continues to evolve in response to disruption, it’s imperative that insurers embrace innovation to achieve growth and market leadership. The capacity to innovate drives the business models of tomorrow, as well as the investor perceptions of today. Already, ratings agency AM Best has announced plans to score and assess carriers based on their ability to innovate. To truly drive innovation and stay relevant in today’s rapidly changing world, insurance leaders cannot afford to overlook the power of diversity and inclusiveness (D&I) in thinking, experiences, ideas, backgrounds and abilities. Studies show that diverse teams outperform homogeneous teams when led inclusively and that firms deliver better financial results when they have women on their corporate boards and in the C-suite. So, in today’s Transformative Age, why is it taking so long for women to belong equally? To foster an environment for the industry’s future leaders to thrive, it takes effort, backed by accountability and active participation from everyone — not just women. We’ve outlined three ways to build the next generation of women leaders in insurance: 1. Improve recruitment and hiring Today’s college graduates are surrounded by diversity, and they expect to enter workplaces that embody those same values. For the insurance industry to attract new employees who have the creative, technology and customer skills needed to build the insurance workplace of the future, insurance companies must demonstrate their commitment to diversity, as manifested throughout the formal recruitment process, as well as leveraging personal relationships. Insurers should consider how to recruit more women with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). While actuaries have always needed mathematics and statistics, just about every aspect of insurance is being transformed by digital technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) and other computing-intensive business processes. It is also important that insurers recruit liberal arts majors for areas like underwriting. These graduates possess the necessary skills for sales, relationship management and creation of business solutions. The ability to reason and philosophize will be even more critical in the digital age, as more repetitive tasks shift to AI. See also: Survival Guide for Women in Insurtech   At the same time, insurance companies must drive accountability for D&I initiatives by removing unconscious biases from the recruitment process, recruiting balanced teams and hiring women from diverse backgrounds, skill sets and experiences. A way to enact this is to ensure there are diverse slates of both interviewers and interviewees, as well as holding leadership teams accountable for their team’s D&I profiles. 2. Sponsor and mentor women to support career progression and improve retention Mentors provide advice and counseling throughout one’s career, while sponsors are on-the-job allies who state the case for one’s promotion or participation on a high-profile project. Women joining the insurance field need both mentors and sponsors — and both roles need to be embraced by men and women. Employees may be able to find mentors and sponsors through their own networking efforts, but organizations should also foster connections through team-building workshops and other methods. Executives should be held accountable for their strong commitment to D&I by measuring results, such as the retention levels and career achievements for women and other underrepresented groups within their spheres of influence. Only through metrics-based accountability will D&I achieve a sustainable impact. 3. Clear away barriers preventing the ascent of women executives While progress has been made, women are still severely underrepresented in insurance leadership roles. Although women represent more than half of the insurance workforce, they hold fewer than one-fifth of board seats and only about one-tenth of insider officer positions and top officer positions such as CEO, COO and CFO. Based on this evidence, we can see that the pipeline for women executive talent is being artificially blocked. In response, insurance companies need to work for greater diversity in succession planning and to prepare women for these kinds of roles. To ensure that women can rise on their merits and in accordance with the requirements of the job, succession planning has three key areas for improvement:

• Preference. Counteract the bias for search teams to promote people who look just like them.
• Tradition. Break the pattern of hiring leaders with the same background and profile as previous leaders.
• Requirements. Promote and appoint leaders based on the specific skill sets of what the leadership role requires for the success of the company.

As top executives support and prepare the right individuals for the right roles, more women will rise to the occasion to join the leadership ranks with more opportunities, as well as the knowledge that they are welcome. See also: The Right Way to Tackle Gender Bias   D&I is critical for driving innovation and a competitive advantage for insurers in today’s transformative age. By welcoming a wider range of skills and viewpoints, D&I represents an essential component of the evolving business model in insurance. As part of their broader D&I initiatives, insurance companies must take steps to improve gender parity. Starting from the top, business leaders throughout the insurance organization should be held accountable for recruiting and hiring women, sponsoring and mentoring women, retaining and promoting women and clearing away obstacles to leadership roles. Yet D&I is not just a matter for top executives. We all have to ask ourselves: “Who am I mentoring? Who am I sponsoring? Who am I pulling up?” Answers to those questions will become increasingly important for the success of individuals, teams and organizations throughout the insurance ecosystem. By thinking, challenging and engaging differently, we can build a better working world where women belong as much as men do. What actions will you take to make sure that #SheBelongs? The views reflected in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ernst & Young LLP or other members of the global EY organization.