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.

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.

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.

Everyone has probably heard the cliché “Data is an Asset.” But how do we break it down pragmatically into an actionable backlog and apply some “data-driven metrics” toward attributing and increasing the value of data.

It’s a fascinating and challenging paradigm – to increase the value of data. Like many other assets, the value is typically not intrinsic; it must be harnessed. It requires a process of extraction, enrichment, polishing, and packaging. Even then, the value realization is not obvious or guaranteed, until the consumer engages with it. Think of diamonds. They go through an extensive process from rock to finished product, and still only possess value once purchased by a consumer at a defined market rate.

We’re at an inflection point with blockchain technology. A greater community of interest has developed beyond cryptocurrency with the realization that blockchain can solve all types of problems. Insurance regulators nationwide are starting to create “sandboxes,” essentially incubators where new technologies and innovations can be developed and tested, exempt from prohibitive regulations, until a proper regulatory framework can be created.

Cannabis is a multi-billion-dollar market that continues to be underserved by the insurance industry. While the majority of states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis in one form or another, less than 30 insurers are participating in the marketplace nationwide. As the number of states moving toward legalization rises, the number of cannabis related businesses (CRBs) multiplies, and public acceptance of legalization increases, it is imperative that the insurance industry understand and normalize cannabis coverage.  

A Fast-Moving Auto Industry Presents Challenges and Opportunities

The automotive industry transformation continues to have significant repercussions in the insurance industry. With improving sophistication in car technology, telematics, and consumer behaviors, insurance carriers face new and unprecedented challenges spanning the entire lifecycle of the policy from research to claims. Still, personal and commercial auto insurance remain the industry bellwether as the largest product lines accounting for more than $300 billion in annual premiums.

While the U.S. economy slowly returns to normal following the COVID-19 pandemic, the insurance industry continues to grapple with business interruption claims, court battles and the future of pandemic-related insurance. In Part II of our two-part Advisory Report, Nicole Milos, Assistant Counsel at AAIS, explains the systemic risk global pandemics pose to the insurance industry and how we’re leveraging data gathered during the pandemic to meet customer demand for future pandemic-type coverage.

At AAIS, we’re continually refining our best-in-class products and services to better meet the needs of our Members in a quickly changing industry. In January of 2013, we recognized the need to improve our work processes in order to respond to growing market demand. That’s when AAIS adopted Agile as a new approach to project management.