Advertise on podcast: Coverager Podcast

In this episode of The Coverager Podcast I spoke with Karl Wiley of Allstate Protection Plans, which has become a market leader in warranty protection for retailers globally. We discussed the mission, the history and the economics around this type of insurance class (moral hazards and adverse selection exist, but technology can be a very powerful ally to the insurer). We also discussed the importance of relevancy. Relevancy in the insurance transaction (if you don't get them at POS, the likelihood you will get them begins to decay rapidly) and also the relevancy for the retailer and how important a proper warranty program can be the the retention of existing customers and the competitiveness of their differentiation for potential customers.

Seize the data! In this episode Nick discussed data with Max Drucker, co-founder and CEO of Carpe Data. We discussed what this revolution in data science means for insurance, both on the claims side and the underwriting side. Insurance has approached risk selection and pricing in a predominately experienced based approach. "What is the loss history?" has been the driving foundation of our business model. But running a business with loss history is like driving on a road using only your rear & side view mirrors. Without a forward looking mechanism (your windshield!), you might be able to navigate some roads, but not all roads! This approach is by nature defensive; moving slow, playing it safe, because a wrong turn could lead you off a cliff. But with a windshield, the perspective of what you can do changes dramatically! This is the promise of the data revolution! Combining the best of our collective actuarial science with forward looking models that will create better risk selection, better underwriting, better pricing and ultimately a better solution.

In this episode of The Coverager Podcast, I spoke with Ryan McMahon, VP of Insurance and Government Affairs at Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT). The interview was inspired from a private conversation Ryan and I were having around connecting devices with insurance. Having the will to build is not enough. Having the commitment to build is not enough. It has to become part of the DNA of the insurer. The ability to think of the product and solution in a way that is a major departure from how carriers traditionally thought about it.

in 2010, Jane Wang, CEO of Optimity tragically lost her mother. Jane was already working in Pharma Mortality and felt like there was more that could have been done based on what she knew and felt an urgent need to share information about wellness. Jane co-founded Optimity, a company that seeks to maximize your physical, mental and financial wellness by using mobile technology to nudge people to get more traction in their wellness pursuits. With the use of financial rewards, contests and other gamification techniques, Jane and team are using modern behavioral science to craft just the right amount of micro-activities that act as subtle nudges to action. With millions of users worldwide, this is potentially fertile ground for life and health insurers looking to reduce CaC and for employers and wellness groups to bring value-added benefits and services to their employees and members.

It's a big task to underwrite insurance. It's a big task to also to provide quality advice on coverage. It's an even bigger task to do both effectively, at scale while at the same time limiting yourself to just a handful of questions in order to do this. B2Z doesn't bother with superficial AI slogans. Yes they are digital, yes they use AI, but they use digital intelligence to cover every aspect of small business owner's journey when it comes to risk transfer. Finding business owners, advising them on coverage, (digitally) holding them by the hand through a streamlined purchase process, while doing the heavy underwriting in the background for the right product at the right price at the right time...under little time.

The majority of bankruptcies in the US are due predominantly to medical bills. Even with health insurance many of us are one bad event away from financial hardship. In this episode, I spoke with Veer Gidwaney, Mike Zarillo (of Brella) and Scott Grandmont (of RGAX) about the critical importance of supplemental health insurance. We discussed how SHI can smooth out the financial costs of medical situations and emergencies. Deductibles, overlimit costs, and extra expenses make medical emergencies a financial nightmare...EVEN IF YOU HAVE TRADITIONAL MEDICAL INSURANCE! Brella is using technology to make it easier for employers to offer coverage, but also as important, easy for benefit holders to use it!

When the topic of life insurance underwriting comes up in our podcast conversations, there is generally a lot of handwringing about the friction & complexity in the buying process. In this episode, I spoke with Ken McNair and Al Mele of SCOR's Velogica underwriting platform for life carriers. We discussed a bit of the history of life underwriting, when and why it got so cumbersome, and how Velogica is using available data to make this underlying easier.

Consumers don't always know what they want...they just want the problem to go away and they don't have the mental energy or time to devote to solving it. In steps the entrepreneur who can see an underserved problem and attempt to fix it creating value for the consumer and themselves in the long run. Our world is rapidly evolving, mostly due to our transition from an analog world to a digital one. People's behaviors and the general arch of a lifestyle is very different today than 50 years ago (does anyone have family dinners any more? Landline, anyone?) Kate Terry from Surround Insurance was unsatisfied with how legacy insurers were trying to shoehorn analog insurance products to consumers. She and her partner (Jay Grayson) realized that the modern young professional does not have the right risk transfer solution for their lifestyles. Young professionals still have lots of exposure and risk and are choosing the standard risk management techniques of avoidance and mitigation to handle it without having the risk transfer tools available. So Surround is intent on being a platform where new and creative products can be spun up that reduce the fuzziness and gray areas for young professionals so they can continue on with their lives without having to worry about potentially life-altering, financially devastating events happening to them.

We all have something to sell. It could be ourselves, our product, our ideas. As someone who has gone through an investor pitch several times, I can tell you from experience that the dynamic is much much different when the people at the table know each other versus a first time meeting. Having emotional relevancy and trust in that situation can make or break the momentum in any deal. So whether you are building a product (solution) and need investment, a customer, a partner or someone to open a door or two, you will get something out of this episode. In this episode, I spoke with Alon Zaibert, Master of Emotional Relevancy about trust, and forming a deeper connection with those who you interact with. We discuss why that is important and how to go about doing it, even if you are shy and/or introverted. In order to be successful in your interpersonal and business relationships, Alon says you must: Stand out! Make an impact! Get Personal!

For many reasons, catastrophe insurance is very expensive. Aside from being bad for the property owner, this is a horrible outcome for communities as society as one of the easiest quantifiable benefits of a robust insurance market, is that the market mechanism helps communities bounce back from natural catastrophes. Enter Kate Stillwell and Jumpstart. Jumpstart looks to provide first-dollar catastrophe and extra expense (think no property damage, but perhaps your local school is closed and you need to hire help for your children). Jumpstart has started with earthquake coverage in California (where only about 12% of homeowners have coverage). Cleverly using parametric triggers (requires only lots of ground-shaking and not property damage to pay out), Jumpstart can provide a financial jumpstart to policyholders in about 48 hours. Necessary cash during potentially chaotic times. We discussed this and a very unique distribution mechanism of adding Jumpstart coverage to corporate benefits packages.

In this episode, Nick spoke with Travis Hedge, co-founder of Vouch. Vouch is an insurtech which helps other startups manage their risk and insurance. We discussed the challenges of measuring the exposure to risk for companies that are growing rapidly and potentially changing over time, where insurance and risk-management might be the last thing on their mind. We dove into the impact of Covid on many of these companies and how Vouch remains close to them (and other companies) as they mature through various phases of their development into mature companies. Though the episode seems to end, we added a wait-for-it moment at the end, where Vouch makes their latest announcement...so WAIT FOR IT!