My friends at the Insurance Public Relations Council invited me to speak at their spring conference last week, held at the iconic MetLife building on Park Avenue in New York.
I was asked to address the top trends in the insurance industry, which I agreed to do on one condition: That the group engage me in a conversation about my list of hot topics. I wanted to hear from them about the trends whose importance I had overstated, underestimated—or missed entirely.
In that same spirit of sharing, I present, in reverse order, my Top 10 P&C Trends for 2011—with the same request that readers, via online comments or e-mail, argue with, add to or re-order my list. Or send us your own Top 10 lists—and we'll publish the best in an upcoming issue of NU.
10) Talent Attraction/Retention: Making insurance a cool career choice for Gen Y/Millennials has to be a critical goal for the profession. One of the keys to success here will be a concerted campaign by the industry to make clear to college graduates that a job in insurance can truly make a positive impact on society. We should strike now—while Wall Street, in the wake of the financial crisis, is at least nominally less attractive as a career destination.
9) Slowing Growth In The U.S./Increasing Opportunities Overseas: Companies will have to get extra-creative (and niche-focused) to achieve double-digit advances in the highly mature market here. International entrepreneurs will leverage technology to discover and serve emerging markets, such as farmers in Africa and small-business owners in India.
8) Emerging Risks: What's The Next Asbestos? I don't know what the next game-changing risk is—but I do know that it's out there. The impact of global warming? “Nano” threats? Cyber terrorism? Solar Flares? Fly Ash? Mutated bed bugs?
7) Hardening Market: There's little doubt that we'll see prices firming in the coming months—but which markets and at what pace/percentage remains to be seen.
6) Workers' Comp: That the frequency of claims is no longer decreasing—while costs continue to soar—means WC is going to increasingly become an acutely painful issue for both risk managers and carriers.
5) Midsize Capsize: Regional/midsize carriers will find it increasingly difficult to compete against the advantages of scale—especially around technology—enjoyed by the big guys. Look for mergers, acquisitions and wholesale reinventions.
4) Real-Time Quotes: As underwriting algorithms become ever-more sophisticated, the option to get real-time quotes from carriers will become available for ever-more complex commercial policies. (See our story on page 27.)
3) Regulatory Uncertainty: Who's too big to fail? We don't know yet. Also up in the air: NFIP, FIO, NRAA (see page 33). With so much noise coming out of Washington—but so little sense of what the final shape of these legislative issues will be—the insurance industry is understandably anxious.
2) Technology: Cloud computing. Mobile apps. Social media. ERM systems that turn data into actionable wisdom. The biggest tech story of 2011 is still TBD—but there's no question that the biggest tech story will be the biggest industry story.
1) You Tell Me: Not a cop out, but a genuine request: The top trend is the one you care the most about. Let us know what it is, so we can devote our reporting/researching resources to it.
Bryant Rousseau
Editor in Chief
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