A.M. BestTV at InsureTech Connect: For Insurance Technologists, The New Frontier Is Small Commercial Lines

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OLDWICK - OCTOBER 04, 2018 01:56 PM (EDT)
In this episode of ^A.M.BestTV from InsureTech Connect 2018 in Las Vegas, NV, insurance technologists said the market for commercial coverage, particularly for smaller businesses, is large but fragmented, making it an enticing target for technology-enabled insurers and startups. Click on http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=smallcommercialpanel1018 to view the entire program.

Scott Ham, chief executive officer, digital small commercial insurance solutions, McKinsey & Company, said 39% of insurtech companies currently are focused on small commercial lines.

There are several reasons for that focus,” said Ham. “First, it is a very exciting, attractive and profitable market. The small commercial market, depending on how you define small commercial, has a value of anywhere from $90 billion to $135 billion. That makes it is very attractive to not only insurtech startups, but also the insurance industry as a whole.”

Ryan Hanley, chief marketing officer, Bold Penguin, spoke about the challenges the market is facing.

The consumer is used to and looking for speed, which makes it incredibly important,” Hanley said. “However, if we start missing our marks, specifically in how we price products because we are trying to do the underwriting too fast, we will get crushed a year or two later in the loss ratio. Premiums go up and the entire process breaks down. Therefore, we need to be fast, but we need to do it through the filter of increasing speed while maintaining pricing accuracy.”

Other people that appear in this episode:

• Travis Owens, innovation manager, Central Insurance Companies; and


• Allan Egbert, co-founder, Ask Kodiak.

For full video coverage of the InsureTech Connect 2018 conference, including exclusive executive interviews, please visit http://www.ambest.tv/insuretech18 .

Other innovation-focused episodes of ^A.M.BestTV include:

• Technology Helps, Culture Makes the Difference: Sridhar Manyem, senior director, Edin Imsirovic, senior financial analyst and Clare Finnegan, criteria analyst, all of A.M. Best, examine the company’s new industry survey of more than 450 insurance companies globally, which shows how many insurers are hungry to embrace innovation, but some face internal challenges to change: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=innovation1018 .


• Innovation Report First Step in Integrating Into Rating Evaluation, Says A.M. Best Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer: Matt Mosher, executive vice president and chief operating officer, A.M. Best, discusses a new report from the rating agency that examines insurers’ perspectives on innovation, and said the next step is to develop criteria to evaluate an insurer’s ability to innovate: http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=mosher1018 .

^A.M.BestTV covers exclusive A.M. Best and insurance industry information and reports, targeted topics and key developments in the insurance, reinsurance and related sectors daily. Sign up for alerts of episodes at http://www.ambest.com/multimedia/ambtvsignup.html . View ^A.M.BestTV episodes at http://www.ambest.tv .

A.M. Best is a global rating agency and information provider with a unique focus on the insurance industry.