trends

‘Insurtech’: our inboxes are full of news alerts, and hardly a day passes without a notable insurer or reinsurer somewhere commencing a digital initiative, applying artificial intelligence, partnering with a hi-tech high-flyer or investing in a digital/data/analytics start-up. Insurtech is big these days.

Top industry analysts discuss hot technology issues such as blockchain, insurtech, cybersecurity and more. These present both challenges and opportunities.

The life industry finds itself at an inflection point as insurers come under growing pressure to position themselves to embrace genomics and genetic testing. Best's Review explores the underwriting implications of rapid advances in genomics, including research by RGA and King’s College London into the risk prediction potential of polygenic risk scores for incidence and death from breast cancer and coronary artery disease.

Resource asked insurance industry leaders to share their thoughts on what 2019 holds for sales and profitability, information technology, customer service and human capital. We also asked them to discuss the fraud risks and business disruptors they will face.

This final article explores the future of accelerated underwriting in the context of a broader consideration of the future of risk selection in general. It follows some of today’s prominent trends – personalized products, underwriting engagement, and heightened risks and regulations – to their potential long-term outcomes, and concludes with basic steps insurers can take today to help lead the industry of tomorrow.

The digitization of the life and health insurance business is happening at breathtaking speed. With that, the policy application and underwriting processes are being brought to the attention of people who used to be less concerned with them - such as actuaries, marketing folks and product managers.

A half century ago, physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn first coined the phrase “paradigm shift” to describe a fundamental change in assumptions. The term has since been over-applied to everything  from economics to politics – even becoming the title of an episode of Star Trek! Yet while so often misused,  I believe the term paradigm shift perfectly describes what is happening in underwriting today.

If the insurance industry is informed about medical advancements, a huge advantage arises for future underwriting with regards to calculating ratings for specific diseases and also creating digital application forms with simplified underwriting.

The practice of life underwriting is undergoing a lot of change as insurers look to speed up and enhance the customer experience. Big data, artificial intelligence, pharmacy records, accelerated underwriting and more are playing a part.

Either through online application processes and simplified underwriting, or by more advanced data analysis – using, for example, facial recognition – the underwriting process is going to change. What the exact developments will be and how they finally affect our industry is not yet 100% clear.