Over the past decade, there has been a new paradigm emerging in the American fire service. This paradigm shift is often referred to as Community Risk Reduction, or simply CRR. The genesis of this change comes from the British fire service, where in the early 2000s the central government mandated that local fire services meet challenging fire reduction targets or face substantial budget cuts. These fire reduction targets were initially dismissed as absurd by fire personnel who had seen limited success in their legacy fire prevention efforts and assumed people were going to continue to make bad choices and fires would continue to happen unabated. However, given that they were facing potentially daunting cuts, the fire services across the UK got creative. They figured out what strategies actually worked, and they started seeing substantial reductions in fires countrywide. What they originally dismissed as absurd ended up turning into a nearly 60% reduction in the total number of fires across the country and nearly a 40% reduction in primary dwelling fires[i] over the initial ten-year period. Meanwhile, during that same period, according to the NFPA’s annual fire loss reports, the number of fire incidents in the U.S. remained largely unchanged[ii].

Growth opportunities in the insurance industry can be fleeting. When insurers see potential, they need to move fast, take advantage of every opportunity, and capture markets quickly. Insurers succeed when they deliver optimal value to policyholders with coverage that addresses their needs clearly and effectively.

The Economy/Inflation, Talent Acquisition and Litigation Top Concerns; Integrity, Security and Accuracy Lead Priorities for Data/Technology

Throughout 2022, AAIS conducted several surveys from a cross-section of insurance professionals, many associated with insurance industry events. What emerged from these various surveys was a view of the top issues and concerns facing the industry as well as the priorities placed on data and technology initiatives. This summary presents the aggregated results of those surveys. We trust this information is useful for AAIS Members and other industry stakeholders as a catalyst for discussions surrounding the development of solutions for the most pressing issues that lie ahead.

Litigation Tops Capital and Nat CAT Concerns

AAIS, a sponsor of the 2022 Florida Insurance Market Summit held March 21st to 23rd, polled attendees pre-event to understand what they perceive as the most pressing issues affecting the Florida market and the overall insurance industry.

Personal lines insurance is more diverse than ever before. During a Personal Lines Product Council in 2022 hosted by AAIS, Member carriers and other key stakeholders discussed several key issues affecting the market, from cryptocurrency and solar panels to container homes, “swimply”, and e-bikes and scooters.

AAIS established Product Advisory Councils to bring Member carriers and other industry stakeholders together to identify the burgeoning issues concerning insurers and the broader insurance industry today. While not all issues raised can be solved through product or program developments, we believe discussing emerging issues as well as working together within the AAIS Community can spawn new ideas and usher resources to meet today’s challenges. A general overview of several emerging issues is discussed below.

Dr. Phil Klotzbach, Ph. D., from the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, says climate change is real. In a recent interview he explained that “if you go back to the late 1800s, parts-per-million of carbon dioxide was about 280; now we're sitting at about 420. We've gone up by about 50 percent of what we were about 140 years ago. With that, we've seen a global temperature rise of about eight- or nine-tenths of a degree Celsius … about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit.”

Regulation plays an outsized role in the development of the auto insurance sector. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have seen an even higher than usual impact from wild fluctuations in rates, claims, premiums, and consumer reimbursements, to activities impacting the industry itself.

Dr. Matt Hinds-Aldrich, Senior Risk Strategy Lead at AAIS and fire peril subject matter expert, recently joined Tom Louis from First Due to discuss why the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) still matters and why it needs to improve to meets the needs of the 21^st century fire service. Watch the entire discussion here:

On Wednesday, Jan. 19, AAIS hosted a webinar with AAIS VP of Data Solutions Ruturaj Waghmode and BizDynamics SVP of Partnerships Neil Pravin Dias. They took a comprehensive look at what the power of data democratization means for insurance carriers, regulators, agents, and policyholders – and how to make it a reality.

Risks are continually evolving and emerging, requiring updates to insurance policies in order for carriers to keep pace with market need. Whether you’re a regulator or an underwriter, reviewing new policy language in a timely fashion can be a challenge, and can negatively impact speed-to-market.