Creating anything less than an online agency directly offering bindable insurance rates from a limited selection of carriers won’t cut it for technology companies trying to disrupt insurance distribution, an instech executive said recently.
Speaking at the Casualty Actuarial Society’s Spring Meeting in Seattle on Tuesday, CoverHound Chief Executive Officer Keith Moore provided some tips for disrupting insurance distribution, including narrowing down carrier choices for consumers. During the session, which was live-streamed to an online audience, Moore also revealed that CoverHound, an online agency for auto, home and small business insurance representing over 30 carrier partners, is working to develop an online presence to deliver cyber insurance—a line flooded with carrier and policy choices—to small businesses.
Moore suggested that innovation in insurance distribution isn’t about changing existing channels and isn’t even about offering digital insurance quotes without advice, noting at one point that consumers not only want someone to whittle down carrier choices for insurance policies but also to help them make the final carrier and quote selection.
Starting his presentation with a list of distribution channels that haven’t changed in 50 or 60 years—direct-to-consumer, agents, MGAs, brokers and captive agents—Moore said, “I don’t see these changing, [but] what I do see changing are consumer expectations and how people engage.”
Like many speakers on the insurance conference circuit these days, Moore said that customer expectations are being shaped by the Amazons and Netflix’s of the world. But the specifics about the Amazon customer experience Moore cited were a bit different.
