The Future of Insurance Bryan Falchuk

Jean-Christophe Garaix, Head of Agriculture & Parametric Insurance for Liberty Mutual Reinsurance, and Andy Thompson, Co-Founder & CEO of Safehub, join the show to discuss their collaboration on addressing earthquake exposure.
Using Safehub's IoT sensors, they've been able to design a parametric insurance product that's live in Mexico City – one of the most quake-prone areas in the world – that brings building-specific shake accuracy to the adjusting of claims. This allows for an affordable coverage that can be provided quickly while solving for the basis risk inherent in previous earthquake data like shake maps.
Together, they're working to create great resiliency through the network effect of improved and more point-specific data coming together to paint accurate pictures of risk and how it plays out.



Highlights from the Show
Jean-Christophe (JC) Garaix oversees the parametric business for Liberty Mutual Reinsurance, looking for external / third party index for the basis to adjust a risk Andy Thompson, co-founder of Safehub, is a structural earthquake engineer by background who became acutely aware of the lack of individual-building performance during earthquakes and other shaking events, and sought to create a sensor-based solution that's easy to deploy to solve this Existing tools are about regional effects, which are helpful for municipalities or disaster response efforts, but not useful for a specific building, where the impact of one building could be completely different to that of a neighboring building Smarthub has been working with many building owners for years to help with business continuity, maintenance and general management of their properties, but thought this could increase resilience by solving the basis risk issue JC talked about by partnering with an insurer The size, simplicity and stand-alone nature of Safehub's solution allowed Liberty Mutual to extend a coverage like this to smaller insureds in addition to their large property clients For parametric coverage to succeed, JC jokes that you need education, education and education Liberty is looking at similar solutions for other types of events, like cyclones where there is broad-brush data, but they need to measure the wind speed at a specific location to offer coverage for an individual property Today, the issue is less about data availability (which was the issue a decade ago), and more one of product design A barrier to adoption of the kinds of sensors that allow for solutions like this has been the complexity of installation, making the commercial market more attractive for such products Bringing asset-specific data in a bigger network allows for more resiliency and protection by enabling parametric and other innovative products that can close protection gaps, offer cover options This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk.
Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes.
Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Nick and I sit down once again to talk about all the things on our mind. We recorded this in the hotel the morning after ITC 2023 ended, so we recap the event a bit, talk about insurability in Florida and how the rest of the nation is likely to follow that state, Hurricane Otis and more.
As always, Nick is a source of a ton of knowledge, perspective and new thinking on what is and what could be for our industry.
Highlights from the Show
Nick is the Managing Partner of Insurance Nerds, and has just co-founded the Insurance Advocacy Forum of Florida
It is an alliance of carriers, brokers, reinsurance brokers, insurtechs, claims professionals and more to advocate for and promote a healthy, stable insurance market Efforts in Florida will be important for the rest of the country since it's generally been a few years ahead of where the rest of the country has ended or will end up given the changing loss patterns driven by climate change and liability costs You need the conditions in place for risk capital to come in and the regulatory structure for the flexibility to use that capital efficiently and effectively and to drive the innovation needed to create product options for consumers to be able to afford to buy coverage and for carriers to be able to afford to offer them At ITC, Nick saw a lot of GenAI talk, but the substance behind it wasn't always there
This is driven by the need to compete for airtime and investor attention when GenAI is so hyped up in the conversation ITC has so much going on thematically that it's hard to say what the single theme of the event is It's really more of a networking opportunity given the concentration of people you need to see all being together, though the logistics of seeing so many people when you're running around and being grabbed by people who want to talk is tricky
Nick also saw a lot of private meetings rather than trying to fight through the crowds, including bringing people into town since so many of the folks they'd need to talk to are there anyway Outside of ITC, Nick has had conversations with several mutuals who are seeing a need for E&S paper to take advantage of risk opportunities that their strict, admitted underwriting guidelines won't allow them to write Insurance only works at scale, so finding ways to stay viable as a business if you have to contact too far could be a real risk for carriers who are left with pulling out of markets as the only tool in their tool box Hurricane Otis went from Tropical Storm to Cat 5 Hurricane in just 12 hours, which is incredibly rapid
This puts pressure on modelers to be able to accommodate for and predict that behavior This was also a strong example of the power of good building codes; Acapulco was built to withstand earthquakes given that this is the main CAT exposure the area faces, so a Cat 5 hurricane basically hollowed out the buildings there because they were only built to stand up to tropical storms
Floridian buildings are increasingly built to Cat 5 standards, especially in South Florida, so Nick believes the same storm in Florida would have left the buildings able to reopen within days instead of the extent of rebuilding needed


This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk.
Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes.
Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Tanguy helps companies build out their digital capabilities to deliver rapid results and sustained growth. He leads the McKinsey Digital hubs across North America and Mexico. Until recently, Tanguy shepherded the firm’s property and casualty insurance work in North America.
In his client work, Tanguy helps leading global financial-services firms with analytics transformations, digitally enabled business model transformations, and core-technology-modernization programs. He also serves insurance clients more broadly on issues ranging from strategy and organization design to claims and underwriting.
In addition to his client work, Tanguy frequently contributes to industry publications and authors reports, and white papers on issues confronting the insurance industry.
Through his undergraduate and graduate studies, Tanguy was a Siebel scholar and Fulbright fellow. He is a trustee of Carano for Children, a former member of the MIT Sloan alumni board and of the Massachusetts chapter of March of Dimes, a non-for-profit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies.



Highlights from the Show
Tanguy is a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, working in their Insurance practice, and co-leads their digital practice, which covers such important things as AI McKinsey is talking to insurers, car makers, regulators and others around the concept of mobility Current Auto insurance products were designed for an industry in decline, where combustion cars without sensors or data are being replaced by things that look similar, but are fundamentally different, which means the existing products aren't going to be fit for purpose We're at the early stages of that transition, but this is when carriers should be thinking about how to respond They see a world in the not-too-distant future where 30% of mobility will be ride-sharing, 50% of vehicles will be Evs, and that has profound impacts on Auto insurance As evidence of this, look at the very high take-up rate for Tesla Insurance where it's available The pace of change will be slower than some say given that the car fleet needs to change over to newer vehicles with new capabilities Distracted Driving is working against the improvements in loss reduction faster than safety tech can lower it, so losses are increasing despite more tools to combat them You will see more partnerships amongst those who succeed, while those less open to partnership will struggle When it comes to AI, Generative AI is not just a buzzword, but is a real disruptor that will have tremendous impact because it's about content creation, which AI has never been able to do before Generative AI can tackle the one thing robots or computers couldn't – empathy at a human level Given that delivering insurance service is a moment of empathy, that means GenAI can be profoundly impactful in insurance in a way that no other technology could be The technology and training the models isn't the hard part of this, but culture, change management and getting the data available cleanly in the cloud is the hard part The dynamics have and are changing so much that Tanguy observes that the industry seems to be losing relevance, as shown by declining rates of CAT losses covered by insurers, which has dropped over time He sees the solution being around the massive unlock of moving from protection to prevention, which changes the importance of what we do With the support of investors behind insurtechs working on solutions and carriers willing to collaborate, there is hope Interestingly, while there was fear that Big Tech was coming for Insurance, they are so critical to cloud-based solutions that they can also be part of this collaborative effort  


This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk.
Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes.
Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music,

Rob is the Group Chief Executive Officer of bolttech, the fast-growing international insurtech, responsible for the company’s development and growth around the world. 
With more than 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry, Rob has previously held senior leadership roles in insurance, including President and CEO of AIG’s commercial insurance businesses worldwide and Chief Executive Officer of the Americas for AIG. Prior to that, Rob served as President and Chief Executive Officer of EMEA and was the Chief Financial Officer of AIG’s global property and casualty business. 
Before joining AIG, Rob was a partner at Deloitte & Touche L.L.P. where, for 18 years, he used his public accounting experience to serve global financial institution clients, including MetLife, The Prudential Insurance Company of America, and Merrill Lynch. 
Rob is a C.P.A. He earned his M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Rider University in New Jersey and Chairman of the Rider University Board of Trustees.



Highlights from the Show
Rob started as an accountant, and then moved to AIG He left AIG with a lot of lessons of what to do and what not to do, and used that to start bolttech as a an insurance distribution solution for the industry They work on embedded insurance, but with a broad definition of the term Bolttech runs an insurance exchange, connecting buyers and sellers of protection and insurance, and current have a scaled solution that's doing 25 homeowners quotes a minute, every hour of every day (that's 36,000 per day for just one line of business) Their take on embedded allows for the flexibility to offer choice of carrier and product, but also thinks much more broadly about how insurance can support the transaction around the core product it provides protection around, rather than trying to be the center of the transaction itself bolttech intentionally does not think about insurance as the center of the transaction, which helps them to think about other moments and areas to connect into the needs of the consumer rather than a single buying moment Part of this comes from the understanding insurers don't need to do or solve for everything themselves, and finding ways to solve a customer's needs whether it's with something you built or not is better than trying to force your own solution when it's not fit for purpose Two things have been holding embedded back from living up to the hype yet Before that, bolttech recognizes that they're fast but their partners aren't always as fast, so they need to slow down while helping their partners to speed up so they can meet in the middle The first element slowing things is the idea of DIY – I don't need anyone else to be able to build an embedded solution It is possible, but it is slower than if you worked with someone else Second, many players are working on embedded solutions in pockets, which end up being disjointed and subscale rather than what would be possible if we could connect those points together so they can help each other grow When you try to build the entire embedded solution alone, you will move slower and less ideally than if you cooperated and connected to others working on the issue, too You really need to think in the really big picture of everything around the customer rather than any one product, or even just insurance Rob thinks about bolttech as building the rails that enable the trains of products customers need can be delivered, regardless of who builds or sells the products themselves


This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance, Volume IV. Asia Rising which features bolttech, available at future-of-insurance.com/asia) by Theresa Blissing.
Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes.
Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and

Ema Roloff is a passionate educator and digital transformation expert with a unique background in teaching and over a decade of experience guiding companies through their digital evolution. She is the co-founder of Roloff Consulting and the Host of Leading Change. Ema has received prestigious awards and accolades, including the RISE 35 under 35 Award and recognition as an Industry Influencer by InsurTech Hartford.

Ema's diverse experience spans various industries, enabling her to identify patterns and facilitate insightful discussions that transcend industry boundaries. With over 300 expert interviews conducted in Digital Transformation and Innovation, Ema is a trusted voice in the field.



Highlights from the Show
Ema and her husband run a sales consulting firm called Roloff Consulting for companies in the insurance space to help companies sell the way people want to buy, using education and digital channels At ITC this year, Ema has seen
A change from just talking about the hot, trending topics like GenAI, and trying to get into practical ways to take advantage of the tech
A meaningful use of AI as an example was what IRYS did to use in-context support for agents driven by the data IRYS has on the agency's business to support things like marketing activities and book management This was only possible because of the way the data model behind the solution has been contemplated with tools like this explicitly in mind Ema also was engaged in a panel about attracting and keeping new talent
Updating tools and processes can make the industry more attractive to new comers to the industry Reverse mentorship is another way to help the industry do better at meeting the needs of new or different talent than we've ever had, and broaden the understanding of more senior people in the industry   This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk.
Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes.
Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Tim Hays has spent the last couple decades leading digital transformation efforts for pharmaceutical & manufacturing companies. With a track record of over 30 successful full-life-cycle ERP implementations, he has been constantly at work transforming companies through technological innovation & business intelligence. Tim is currently Vice President & CIO of Mountain West Farm Bureau & 360 Insurance companies where significant digital transformation is being enabled by the implementation of the Guidewire Cloud Insurance Suite, and multiple cloud ready platforms. He currently lives in Colorado & Wyoming with his wife of 26 years and their children. Outside of really enjoying his work, if it involves gasoline or gunpowder, he’s probably into it!



Highlights from the Show
Tim has done ERP modernization projects 34 times across different industries, and he sees them being the same despite the context being so different
Scope, budget, time all seem to be problematic, where we run out of money, cut scope or need more time when we get to the end of the project Tim sees this as a fundamental failure of project management starting in the first 90 days rather than happening at the end Projects that don't finish on time as a surprise didn't know half way through that they didn't have enough runway to finish the second half, which means they don't know what a days work looks like Mountain West setup weekly steering committee meetings so they could make decisions at speed once While they finished the work in 12 months, because of the past failed attempts, they wanted to take time with testing and release to ensure people were comfortable and had trust in what came out To deal with the desire to customize the solution to look like what they always had, Tim said, "I don't care what you don't like, but I really care about why it won't work, and then we need to address that" You have to make decisions at speed, once. Rework kills you. The way you do this is in how you organize the project
That means having the right people in the project – people who are painful to lose from the business Having these people gets you the right insights about what the system needs to do, and forces you to move fast because you can't afford to keep them out of the business for years on end Don't ask people what they want since they'll just tell you what they already have, but new They demoed new development early and often, and there were no contractors doing the demoes so Mountain West's people owned what was being built and grew more and more comfortable with what they were putting out The way they went about this resulted in a system that has allowed
70% straight through processing (from 0% before), writing 50% more business with fewer people They're more efficient, but it's really about how much faster they are now, moving from taking 3-5 days for a policy change to minutes Making product changes and updates in a single sprint (30 days) instead of 6 months (at best) Ultimately, they can make better decisions with better information in the moment This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance Volume III. The Collaborators, part of the Future of Insurance thought leadership series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk.
Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes.
Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.