On a recent edition of AAIS Pulse, Crawford & Company CEO Rohit Verma and AAIS VP of Products John Kadous sat down to discuss the state of the insurance market, including topics such as the economy and supply chain, auto risks, climate change and natural catastrophes, data, and technology, and much more.

Dr. Matt Hinds-Aldrich, Senior Risk Strategy Lead, was a recent guest on the FNO: InsureTech podcast, joining hosts Rob Beller and Lee Boyd to talk about how new thinking around data can enhance insurers’ ability to measure, rate, and mitigate fire risk and the challenges associated with insuring the peril, particularly in wildfire-prone areas such as California.

AAIS recently attended the IRMI Agribusiness Conference (AgriCon), the premier event for insurance and risk management professionals specializing in the exposures and coverage needs of farms and agribusinesses. Among the many interesting and informative sessions, AAIS Product Development Specialist Hope King highlighted two topics particularly near and dear to AAIS and our Members.

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.”

The AAIS Pulse newsmagazine recently featured discussions with Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney and Connecticut Insurance Department Asst. Deputy Commissioner, Property & Casualty Division, George Bradner. They sat down with AAIS VP of Government Affairs, Legal, and Compliance, Robin Westcott, to cover a wide array of topics including data collection, data management, openIDL and its benefits, machine learning, and much more.

As the pandemic rolls on, with the omicron variant providing the latest wrinkle, the auto market continues to be reshaped by COVID-19. Aside from the overall financial impact, now increasing claims, severity of claims and higher losses, and worsening consumer behavior are all leaving a mark. Here is the latest from around the industry:

The farm industry continues to transform. While smaller family farming operations maintain a strong presence and make up a large percentage of the market, we’re seeing growth of large commercial farms that include a variety of operations and layered revenue streams. It is an ultra-competitive market with each company searching for an edge over their competitors.

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.

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.