The only thing holding us back is our mindset: “Legacy systems aren't the problem; legacy thinking is.”

Technology allows agents and brokers to personalize the customer relationship as never before, in a way that will render the direct-writer threat obsolete, Burrus said.

But relationships can happen in many ways, whether by voice mail, email or Skype, and it's your responsibility to learn how your customers want to communicate.

In the very near future, interactive and 3-D TV will open the door to agency websites that can be as interactive as video games, and provide new ways to evaluate risk with the ability to move through a building to be insured to determine exactly how it's laid out, Burrus said.

Your future success hinges on being something of a prognosticator yourself. Successfully anticipating trends hinges on differentiating between “soft” trends and “hard” trends, Burrus said. Soft trends are things that might happen, given what's happening now; hard trends are things that will happen for sure.

One hard trend you can (and should) take to the bank is the demographic fact of the aging global baby boomer generation, which controls most of the U.S. wealth—a fact that, if recognized and served, could generate new businesses and jumpstart the economy, he said.

Burrus predicts that in 5 years, the insurance industry will experience a transformation in selling, marketing, communicating, collaborating, educating and innovating—”then add mobile to this,” he said. “Transform and use tech-driven transformation to your advantage.”

Burrus's observations on the increasing role cloud and mobile technology are playing in our industry is echoed in this month's cover story, which starts on p. 28. There you can read real-life examples of how your fellow agents and brokers are leveraging smartphones, tablets and apps to connect with their customers and carriers.