Books
Firsthand Accounts Help Peers Move Forward

• John Weber
• January 2021
• 

The Future of Insurance: From Disruption to Evolution

For more than a hundred years, insurers have stood by customers at some of their toughest moments, helping people go about their lives and pursue their business ideas without worrying about the risks involved. As customer expectations change, however, so do the ways that insurers respond, says Bryan Falchuk in his new book. Falchuk is managing partner of Insurance Evolution Partners. Following is an edited transcript of an interview with AM BestTV.

What was the inspiration for this book?

I was traveling all over the country, talking to carriers about helping them move forward. I kept hearing the same refrain: 'pressure on the outside, and yet we're stuck internally to meet it; legacy software and systems issues; culture; change aversion; regulation, etc.' ... I think customer expectations are becoming demands. I could help those carriers one-on-one, but I wanted to have a broader impact. This was a mission, if you will, to help our industry move ahead.

What went into the writing of this book?

It was a series of interviews with seven carriers that all have different constraints, different stories, different things they worked on, to hear what went well. What didn't. What did you learn? How did you move ahead? So we can pull some lessons out that all of us can take from.

What did you learn?

The carriers had three common themes. Customers: Talking to customers, involving them in problem-solving, genuinely listening to them. Employees: Genuinely empowering and engaging them in this process [of moving forward.] ... And lastly, it's focus: How do you move forward quickly enough to keep learning and changing, but not get taken off the path?

Were there any particular surprises?

The honesty. What I didn't expect was, “We didn't do this well.” …There are stories throughout where that honesty is where you actually get the insights.

The title of your book is “The Future of Insurance.” What IS the future of insurance?

I think the future is going to be driven by flexibility. …There's flexibility in the tools, but flexibility in what we're ultimately offering out to the market is what's brewing right now. Giving carriers the ability to respond to that and to plug in those tools to meet customer expectations—that's the new normal for this industry.

Publisher: InsNerds LLC (June 2020)

AM Best Trilogy

AM Best details the history of AM Best, credit rating agencies and the life of Alfred M. Best.

The Company—A History of AM Best

The Industry—A History of Credit Rating Agencies

The Man—A Biography of Alfred M. Best

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