Around the P&C insurance industry: March 24, 2021
News from Next Insurance, Generali Global Assistance, RMS and more.
Next Insurance partnered with Amazon Business Prime to provide access to instant, customized insurance coverage to consumers with existing Business Prime accounts. Through this partnership, Amazon Business Prime customers can now obtain a quote and quickly purchase general liability, professional liability, workers’ compensation, commercial auto, and tools and equipment coverage directly via Amazon. Through Next Insurance, small-business owners can also receive a certificate of insurance completely digitally in less than 10 minutes.
IMA Financial Group partnered with Oregon-based k.p.d. Insurance Inc. to expand its brokerage services to the Pacific Northwest. The transaction is effective April 1, 2021. The partnership is IMA’s first in the Pacific Northwest and adds to its deep bench strength with additional specialties in wood products, wildland firefighting and transportation. K.p.d. is the ninth broker to join IMA in the past 12 months and the largest to date.
Generali Global Assistance announced that it will be supporting upcoming smart vaccination and digital health pass initiatives by adding custom options to their travel insurance offerings and endorsing the Good Health Pass and the World Health Organization’s Smart Vaccination Certificate Working Group initiatives.
RMS launched a new suite of Climate Change Models to help customers assess the near and long-term impacts of climate change on physical assets and their businesses. The new Climate Change Models empower the firm’s economic modeling framework with the best climate science consensus, including from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The new models will be generally available in June. Further models and geographies will follow this initial model suite launch.
Nationwide announced that Nationwide Express is now compatible with comparative raters EZLynx and PL Rating, allowing an agent who chooses Nationwide from their rater to now easily bridge to Nationwide Express to close the sale faster.
Loadsure announced that its per-load cargo insurance solution is now available to freight brokers via the Trucker Tools desktop dashboard. Now, brokers can cost-effectively cover loads in 40 seconds and accelerate shipper claims from an industry average of 120 days to just a few days or minutes in some cases, the company claims. Loadsure’s fully digital solution has eliminated the labor-intensive costs associated with conventional underwriting and claims processing, enabling the freight industry to rapidly and cost-effectively address risk exposure and protect business sustainability. The end result is coverage savings of as much as 80%, accelerated claims settlements and near-instant access to funds.
Global Insurance Partners, LLC changed its name to HCH Advisors, LLC. Additionally, Don Cronin and Patrick Haughey have joined John Hines, founder of Global Insurance, as partners to form HCH Advisors. This combination creates a strong team of seasoned insurance executives to provide strategic consulting services to small and mid-sized P&C insurance organizations. The group will focus on providing real-world solutions to chronic profitability challenges on a nationwide basis. Additionally, HCH Advisors will use its in-depth knowledge and experience in the Florida property insurance market to work with companies facing the unique issues presented by that market.
RIMS selected eight universities to compete during RIMS LIVE 2021 for the 2021 Spencer-RIMS Risk Management Challenge top honor. Twenty university teams entered the competition. Based on the solutions they developed for a risk management civic case-study developed by RIMS Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Council, the top teams have been invited to present their findings during RIMS LIVE 2021 that is scheduled for April 19 – 30. The eight universities include:
- Appalachian State University
- Butler University
- Florida State University
- Illinois State University
- Indiana State University
- Peking University
- University of Hartford
- University of Wisconsin