(Posted by David Schapiro)
Just returned from IEA’s Future of General Insurance conference in London.
Having attended this event for three consecutive years, I found this year’s event the most thought provoking and candid. UK Insurance executives delivering keynote speeches at events like this are never too smug about themselves and the industry they serve. Most presentations I heard in recent years by Insurance chief executives were candid and thoughtful. This year’s event, however, set a new standard of self criticism.
The main point I took with me from this conference was about a deep crisis of trust between the industry and its customers. This theme was driven by a keynote speech made by John O’Roarke, Managing Director of LV General Insurance. John started off by welcoming us all to a gathering of the least trusted industry in the world, citing as his source the Edelman Annual Trust Barometer, which describes itself as a global survey of opinion leaders.
Other speakers pointed out that Insurers need to become more innovative and entrepreneurial, reminding us that in IT, which by the way rated #1 in the Edelman survey, some of the biggest companies today did not exist 15 years ago, when IT was positioned low on the list of trusted industries.
Other key participants pointed out the need to fill the growing gap between customers’ evolving insurance needs and the much less evolved products and coverage offered by insurers (as the CEO of an SME, I can identify with this statement).
There was quite an agreement that on the technical side, Insurers are quite competent, but on the customer relations side there is a major challenge. One executive told a great story about how a claim of his was underserved by his own insurance company.Unfortunately – not that much was said about how to solve the trust problem. Anand Medepalli, Earnix’s Vice President of Sales, attended the conference as well and is posting his own views on the proceedings on this blog.
