Our team spent a great day at BrokerExpo 2021 at Coventry Building Society Arena yesterday, meeting old and new friends – in real life! If you missed us there, feel free to make contact and look out for exciting news about our plans for 2022. Hopefully, we can all meet up again next year.
On with the news. More deals this week, with Lemonade leading the charge, plus some pet owners are counting the cost of adopting a lockdown pal and Insurance Edge considers this, could wearable tech transform Life & healthcare insurance?
START: DEALS UPDATE
We all love to hear the latest gossip and this week, Partners& snapped up Nottinghamshire brokers IFM, while Hannover Re announced it was divesting 49% of HDI Global. Meanwhile, Xenia Broking acquired some trade credit and speciality business from Parker Norfolk & Partners. Things have been extra busy in Nottingham this week, as insurance data specialist Percays-Inform announced they had signed up with Somerset Bridge on a new project for the MGA.
RUN: PET REGRET
New research from Forbes this week highlighted the cost of keeping a pet can top £1300 a year and found that some people now regret taking on the responsibility during lockdown. This got us wondering why pet insurance is still a difficult sell in the UK market where, according to the ABI, some 84% of cats and 67% of dogs are uninsured.
Perhaps insurers need to harness the power of social media channels like TikTok and Instagram with more panache to showcase the holistic benefits of pet ownership and highlight the great work that assistance dogs do for so many people. Pet activities and lifestyle rewards could help sweeten the cost of pay-monthly premiums too.
GROW: WEARABLE TECH, TRACKABLE DATA
Do you wear a fitness tracker watch? Lots of people do and some of these, like the Corsano Cardio Watch, are more MediTech devices than fashion statements. The big benefit for insurers is getting accurate data on someone’s health status and the potential use in nursing homes, vulnerable person care, and rehab following a PI claim cannot be underestimated.
Understanding where someone is exactly and how their vital signs are looking is going to become an essential part of managing life and health risk.
AND GROW: INSURTECHS STEP UP TO THE PREMIER LEAGUE
It’s been brewing for a long time, but the merger of Lemonade and Metromile in the USA shows that insurtechs, especially the big fundraisers, can seriously challenge established companies. The blending of Metromile’s PAYG car cover with Lemonade’s fabled speedy claims on contents and gadgets makes sense and creates a challenger brand.
If you look at how Cazoo has barnstormed the UK car retailing market in the last two years, you can see the market is ripe for insurtech brands to rival some big names in home, general insurance and motor. The end of the price-walking practice next year may be the catalyst.
AND FINALLY: ROOM AT THE TOP?
The most read story this week on the Insurance Edge site was the interview with Donna Scully, CEO at Carpenters Law. There is still a distinct lack of working-class people at the very top in the world of insurance and law and we have to ask the question, why is that? Well worth reading, Donna’s story of how anyone can make it if they want to shows the sky’s the limit, not a glass ceiling.
On that positive note we sign off, see you next week.
