COVID-19 to profoundly impact emerging insurance issues
New trend reports from WSIA's Emerging Issues & Innovation Committee details the implications of the pandemic on emerging industry trends.
Like nearly every facet of life, the work of WSIA’s Emerging Issues & Innovations Committee has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The committee, tasked with identifying and evaluating information about emerging trends and innovations, has been busier than anticipated due to the pandemic’s effect on a number of trends that committee volunteers monitor.
Committee members regularly collaborate to publish Trend Reports on emerging impacts for the industry. Member volunteers work in teams to tackle research on identified topics and draft white papers that summarize what the trend is about and its impact on the wholesale, specialty and surplus lines industry. The papers include research-based summaries of the resulting implications, threats, and opportunities for the industry. There are currently 19 Trend Reports available on the WSIA website on a variety of these topics. The papers include an infographic overview that provides a visual summary of the trend, as well as a more detailed written document, and members can download any of the components.
As the impact of COVID-19 began to filter into many of these emerging issues in technology and the economy, committee volunteers got to work updating papers with COVID-specific content. Committee Chair Wendy Houser, executive territory officer, West for Markel Specialty, said that the committee has updated 10 of the papers already with seven more in progress. “The committee pretty quickly agreed that every paper could be more relevant with the addition of COVID-specific research and conclusions,” Houser said. “I think the COVID impacts make the reports more valuable for members because these are happening right now, and members are pivoting to react. The updated trend reports are rooted in current events, and I would encourage firms in every membership type to take a look at this research to see how they can use it to improve strategic planning right now.”
The Emerging Issues & Innovation Committee determines research topics based in part on the results of its biennial Heat Map project. “The Heat Map is developed as a result of survey responses from WSIA members,” Houser said. “The 2020 Heat Map was the result of feedback from 326 WSIA-member firm respondents and came from firms in all categories of membership. Normally, the survey would be conducted again in 2022, though given the quickly changing nature of nearly everything right now, it’s possible that an interim update will be undertaken before then. The committee will continue to monitor and discuss that to ensure that the Heat Map is a useful tool for members.”
For the Heat Map, WSIA member respondents were first asked to provide input on what trends they view to be emerging. Then in a second phase, they were asked to rank those trends and indicate how they believe they impact the industry from a probability and severity viewpoint, the influence of those trends, and the time frame in which they felt that trend would become mainstream for the Heat Map. The top 15 are ranked by the probability and perceived severity of those impacts in the published Heat Map.
Lindsay Holland, WSIA project coordinator, said that the Heat Map findings are used to inform Insurtech Conference session topics, webinar topics, and even the WSIA education program curriculum. The Heat Map and the Trend Reports are available to view and download on the Emerging Issues & Innovation Committee webpage.
Related: