Insurance predictions for 2021

Insurance predictions for 2021

This interview is with the Managing Director of LexisNexis Risk Solutions where he discusses the changes to the market.

Could you talk us through the current landscape for your industry as we look ahead to 2021?

The insurance market is undergoing a huge transformation driven by changes in customer needs and expectations, the growth in data sources to understand risk, ongoing advances in vehicle technology, as well as the very real threat of climate change.

This transformation was happening prior to the pandemic and in some respects, COVID-19 has only accelerated the process.

There is a big focus on digitisation, personalisation and innovation, with data as the backbone to deliver the types of insurance products and services consumers and businesses want and will value to suit their changing lifestyles.

How have you seen insurance evolve over the past year?

We have seen a real hunger for data to better predict and understand risk, not just for pricing but to support the whole customer journey.  In commercial property and household insurance, the use of mapping tools and near real-time data direct from the Environment Agency and other third parties are putting insurance providers in a much stronger position to help mitigate environmental risks.

In motor insurance, policy history and quote data is helping the market price more accurately and identify fraud risk, to help keep costs down.

But perhaps the biggest evolution is in connected car and vehicle build data to help support more personalised insurance based on the safety features of the car, as well as how it is driven.  The work to bring this data into the insurance ecosystem has gathered real momentum during 2020.

What technologies and approaches have you seen emerge in the industry due to COVID-19? How do these compare to before the outbreak?

The way we live and work has changed dramatically over the past year: consumers are under different pressures, risks have altered and insurance providers are keen to use data that will help them understand those changing risks and treat customers fairly.

Some of the new risks are around vacant properties or changes in property usage, new pricing and risk dynamics to do with changes in vehicle usage, employee safety concerns in the remote working environment and the growth of digital distribution and ‘self-service’ for insurance generally.

Responding to these changes for example, we’re just about to launch a new solution to help the market to factor for changes in motor policies such as cancellations and gaps in cover that were a direct consequence of the pandemic.

What are your predictions for the industry in 2021 and beyond?

Innovation from insurtechs and the insurer/insurtech collaborations will gather pace while data from the IoT, connected cars and from shared claims contributory databases will deliver new insights that may help mitigate risks and take the pain from claims.  I also think there will be increasing focus on achieving a single customer view, knowing the full history of the relationship with a customer across all parts of the business.

What are the current challenges in the industry?

The insurance market faces multiple challenges: increasing regulation, the effects of Brexit, changes in consumer behaviours, the threat of extreme weather events, legal challenges over business interruption cover, as well as the ever-constant threat of fraud to name a few.

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