The world is facing increased risk and uncertainty today, which means that the need for protection has increased for individuals as well as for corporations. This also means insurers can charge higher premiums for their products. Read on to find out three ways insurers can differentiate on customer experience and win in 2024 in this article co-written by Manu Aggarwal, Partner in Everest Group’s Business Process Services practice.
Low-code Solutions
Low-code Solutions
In recent years, insurance enterprises have embarked on a modernization spree to improve the experience for both customers and stakeholders. However, the significant surge in costs and unprecedented underwriting losses in these challenging times have intensified the need for an agile, scalable approach to modernization.
Leading insurance organizations are seeking support to manage the technology environment, address the talent shortage, and respond to changing market dynamics. They aim to realize value from existing investments quickly and with minimal complexity in integration or application development. Insurers are increasingly relying on low-code technology for rapid application development, integration, and meeting time-to-market needs. Low-code solutions offer insurers out-of-the-box integrations with their existing technology stack, enable rapid value realization from digitization investments, and eliminate the need for extensive transformation efforts.
In this report: Everest Group analyzes 21 low-code technology providers’ capabilities to serve insurance enterprises on its proprietary PEAK Matrix® assessment framework.
Scope
The PEAK Matrix® provides an objective, data-driven assessment of service and technology providers based on their overall capability and market impact across different global services markets, classifying them into three categories: Leaders, Major Contenders, and Aspirants.
The Managing General Agent (MGA) sector is a bright spot in a turbulent insurance market. Technology investments and strategic partnerships will be key to redefining risk and driving innovation for these specialized insurance agents/brokers. Read on to learn more about the opportunities that await MGAs, or contact us to discuss further.
Despite the economic turmoil, global instability, prevalent inflation, and a volatile year shaking the insurance industry, faith in the MGA sector has not wavered. In this challenging environment, MGAs need to demonstrate steadfast strategic underwriting prowess, build a solid business case heavily focused on cost optimization, and exhibit excellent data and engineering capabilities.
Increasing demand for specialized products, the need to underwrite newer business lines, and a push for efficiency are driving insurers to build relationships with MGAs – all suggesting the upcoming years could be a golden era for MGAs.
The data provides a compelling sense that MGAs have a bright future ahead. Conning’s analysis of statutory filings found that premiums generated by MGAs for US insurance companies grew at a startling rate of 27% in 2022. Interest in the MGA market also has significantly rekindled in Europe and the US, gradually garnering prominence and capturing interest among carriers. Everest Group’s research shows just about half of the major US-based property and casualty (P&C) insurers utilize MGAs to cover specialized risk.
In this era of expanding MGA channels and relations, forward-looking enterprises have already made significant strides toward capitalizing on technology solutions. By strategically investing, they are enhancing the overall experience for agents, brokers, and policyholders. Simultaneously, they are seeking to enhance operational efficiencies and carve out a larger market share. Nevertheless, this merely marks the inception of a far-reaching goal, as there remains a multitude of tasks to be undertaken to fulfill the above-stated aims.
To support their vision, MGAs need modern, flexible technology that enhances customer experience and increases new business and retention. Additionally, these agents require a well-integrated and comprehensive partner ecosystem that can provide support while augmenting technical capabilities.
The prevailing economic sentiment has accelerated the trend toward investing in technology and data in more impactful ways. Regardless of MGA type, technology serves as a driving force to propel growth and enable innovation.
Clyde & Co research highlights that MGAs’ willingness to invest in technology far surpasses their insurer counterparts, with 80% of MGAs investing in technology or InsurTech in the past year, compared to only 55% of carriers. Automation, digital platforms, and data and analytics are the most prominent areas that have garnered considerable investment attention during this transformation era.
Notably, a growing number of MGAs have harnessed the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to optimize operational performance. Specifically, they are using these technologies to streamline and advance capabilities and underwriting processes, assess risk, and handle claims.
Digital platforms have assumed a ubiquitous presence within the MGA community, facilitating seamless engagement with customers, brokers, and carriers. They also empower MGAs to extend online quoting capabilities, expedite policy issuance, and streamline claims handling digitally.
Data and analytics play a pivotal role in delivering insights that can potentially unlock boundless possibilities in MGA’s operations. This intelligence can help them track specialized and upcoming risks that need attention, identify business opportunities for carrier partners, and develop more responsive and accurate pricing models. Additionally, these solutions can allow carriers to underwrite risks at higher margins, as well as offer more personalized coverage for policyholders.
Some examples include:
Platform and technology partners, as well as various InsurTechs and low-code/no-code providers, are making strides toward building dedicated playbooks and products to assist MGAs. Service provider partners have heavily invested in developing broader capabilities and solutions to tap into the growing technology adoption demands from MGAs.
Various platform providers such as Socotra, Majesco, Novidea, Cogitate, Insurity, and Instanda are launching cloud and Application Programming Interface (API)-based dedicated core platforms for MGAs. These platforms will help MGAs strengthen relationships with insurers, expand distribution, leverage a vast collection of third-party data and microservices for underwriting and customer experience, as well as achieve scalability. The solutions also will quickly offer products for complex insurance lines such as general liability, physical damage, auto liability, cargo insurance, and insurance for complex terrain or hard-to-underwrite commercial property.
Let’s take a look at the key strategic priorities for MGAs and an illustrative provider landscape in the exhibit below:
The evolving risk landscape and uncertainty are major drivers for MGAs to invest in data-driven technology tools because the current models may be inadequate for the growing number, types, and complexity of risks.
While MGAs have the expertise and models to evaluate risk, the industry is failing to capture the full spectrum of potential losses, and simultaneously capture and analyze newer data sources. The historical loss data that these traditional models rely on is less useful for projecting future losses, giving rise to the need for fostering strategic collaborations with third-party data intelligence and analytics partners, as well as other technology players.
We are seeing increased traction from the MGA sector in the following product and risk segments:
Forward-looking MGAs are progressively seeking to embrace cloud-based solutions and develop niche and sophisticated underwriting expertise as they shift their focus toward streamlining operations, driving cost efficiencies, and improving their ability for advanced risk modeling and resilience.
The MGA market is undergoing substantial transformations fueled by the desire to invest in tech, data, and AI to build robust risk selection and underwriting capabilities and foster good carrier relationships. Elevating the emphasis on bolstering the partnership ecosystem will be important, fueled by prevailing market dynamics, including faster speed-to-market, higher profitability, and maximizing value.
At the same time, focusing on emerging risk categories, growth in E&S lines, and high parametric insurance demand has created an urgency for MGAs to build close relationships with InsurTechs, carriers, service providers, platform and technology providers. This strategy will help MGAs drive value creation, capitalize on new opportunities, innovate and launch newer products to the market, and, ultimately, deliver exceptional value.
To discuss this topic further, please reach out to [email protected] and [email protected].
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Digital transformation in claims processing is becoming increasingly mission-critical for P&C insurers — so much so, in fact, that it may no longer be optional. By digitizing the claims process, insurers can offer a superior customer experience that allows them to stay competitive in today’s digital-first world.
Research from Everest Group shows that approximately 35% of P&C insurers’ priorities across claims management are focused on enhancing the customer experience. Read what Vanshika Notani, Senior Analyst, Insurance Technology Services, and Aaditya Jain, VP, BFSI Technology Services say about the increasing customer demean and the need to create a better customer experience through digital tools.
The insurance industry has been relatively slow in adopting digital measures due to regulatory constraints and product complexities. However, carriers are embracing the change to become risk mitigators. With the exponential rise in claims costs and unprecedented levels of underwriting losses during these challenging times, the need for value maximization, resource optimization, and achieving agility and scalability has become increasingly urgent.
In the past, insurers have embraced cloud technology as one of the prominent technologies. They are aware of the cloud’s potential, which has prompted them to strategize and build new business models that can withstand an unpredictable future. As insurers embark on their next growth phase, the cloud industry is expected to drive cloud spending to future-proof the technology estate, monetize data to generate alternate revenue streams, and rethink value delivery to end customers.
In this report, we:
Scope
The PEAK Matrix® provides an objective, data-driven assessment of service and technology providers based on their overall capability and market impact across different global services markets, classifying them into three categories: Leaders, Major Contenders, and Aspirants.
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