Welcome to iLeads Insurance Market Minute, where we bring you the latest, most relevant news regarding the insurance market. Last week you were reading Innovation in Workers’ Compensation: Getting Ahead of Risk and Injury. This week we’re bringing you:
Why insurance is key when things go wrong*
In an age where everyone is plugged in and screen time is on the increase, hackers are getting more and more comfortable sinking their virtual teeth into insecure technology.
Coalition has seen three growing trends when it comes to cyberattacks: ransomware, funds transfer fraud, and business email compromise (BEC). The initial ransom demands made by a criminal have increased in severity by 170% from the first half of 2020 to the first half of 2021. With funds transfer fraud, Coalition saw the severity in the amount that companies are transferring out to criminals increase by 170% in the same period.
“That 170% has increased an initial demand of $450,000 to $1.3 million,” Catherine Lyle, head of claims at Coalition, told Insurance Business.
“The pandemic forced everyone to work from home so rapidly that the proper counter measures and proper mechanisms to protect transactions weren’t put in place fast enough, it exposed lot of venerabilities for hackers to take advantage of,” said Guy Simkin, CEO of the Cyber Insurance Academy.
“The remote nature of work and COVID-19 has changed the landscape of communication which then shifted the landscape of security,” Lyle explained. “In a click culture where everyone is trying to help their customers, hackers are able to stay in systems longer.”
Attackers have found their way into insecure technology and are going to continue to be aggressive, transverse the system, figure out where key servers are, what to encrypt and where backups are stored.
“Today loss ratios are at an all-time high and insurers are realizing that they need to increase their expertise and knowledge in order to evaluate the risks more accurately and minimize losses,” Simkin noted.
Insurance programs for organic and specialty crops on the rise*
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency is seeing growth in programs to insure a larger volume and variety of organic and specialty crops, reflecting increased consumer purchases of such products.
While the bulk of the USDA crop insurance program goes toward commodity crops such as corn, wheat and soybeans, the specialty and organic realm is thriving.
“Over time we’ve tried to expand outside those major crops because you have a growing organic sector, you have a growing specialty crop sector. You have people who are more interested in eating fruits and vegetables. We’ve really tried to make an effort to tap into that more,” said Richard Flournoy, USDA RMA acting administrator, based in Kansas City, Missouri.
Organic food and nonfood product sales totaled $61.9 billion in 2020, breaking the $60 billion mark for the first time, according to the Organic Trade Association.
The USDA RMA’s activities have grown in tandem with this increase. From 1990 to 2020, liabilities for insured specialty crops rose from $1 billion to more than $20 billion. Likewise, from 2010 to 2020, liabilities for insured organic crops rose from $207 million to more than $1.7 billion, and the number of policies has more than doubled.
Six insurtech solutions all insurance brokers need*
The last 18 months haven’t been easy, and we’ve all experienced rapid changes unlike anything the world has ever seen. We’ve had to re-evaluate how we live, work, communicate and serve others.
The insurance industry is no exception.
Every day clients expect more and more from their insurance agents and brokers. Since you may not have been able to meet with clients face to face recently, the digital tools in your tech stack are more essential than ever. Zywave is the leader in insurtech solutions that will help you as a broker or agent boost productivity, enhance communications, and better serve clients – no matter your location. Here’s how you can leverage these tools for your success.
Evaluate your current insurtech solutions
Take a moment and consider how your business solutions work together. Is there overlap? Are you still using different programs or workflows that don’t make sense anymore? Is there a gap in your insurtech that you haven’t addressed?
During the course of my career, I’ve had the opportunity to work with hundreds of agencies. And through these conversations, I’ve identified six core insurtech solutions that the most successful agencies and brokerages are leveraging in today’s insurance marketplace.
These areas are key in shaping your company’s strategy and long-term success—and having them all working together to support your team is critical.
AMS: Account Management System
Every company has a system for recording clients and keeping track of their activities, invoicing, billing, products they sign up for, and any support your employees handle. Compiling all of this data in a centralized location, an account management system (AMS) enables better organization and operational efficiencies, freeing up time for your staff to focus on more strategic or revenue-generating activities.
CRM: Customer Relationship Management System
The AMS is where your account managers and office staff live all day. On the other hand, your sellers and producers live in a customer relationship management system (CRM). It’s all about top-of-the-funnel activities and the accounts you’re trying to win. CRMs are vital to the success of your business because this is the centralized location housing vital sales activities. A few names you may recognize in this area are Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics.
Finding highly affordable leads to keep sales coming in
At iLeads, we have many great solutions for insurance agents at a low cost. If you’d like to see how we can help you bring in consistent sales for a great price, give us a call at (877) 245-3237!
We’re free and are taking phone-calls from 7AM to 5PM PST, Monday through Friday.
You can also schedule a call here.
