News comes in torrents in the digital environment, even the traditional masthead periodicals are issuing multiple digital headline bulletins each day.  Same goes for insurance periodicals, blogs, and newsletters.  So, I sit by the digital rapids, trying to catch a few drops from the current.  This week’s article is a sample of the tastes I was able to scoop from the stream…

Patrick Kelahan is a CX, engineering & insurance consultant, working with Insurers, Attorneys & Owners in his day job. He also serves the insurance and Fintech world as the ‘Insurance Elephant’.  image source

• Covid-19 remains a front-burner topic (how could it not?) and as business interruption cover concerns continue to wend there way through courts a sub-culture of observers, data collectors, and those who opine builds. Laura M. Gregory, a partner at Sloane and Walsh, a US-based law firm has established herself as the Socrates of BI legal doings, posting the latest information about cases in the US, and posing questions to her following.  The discussion that her posts generate can educate even the most legally grounded insurance observer.  Tech has facilitated this (instant, accessible news), Laura’s analog motivation to educate is the foundation of the discussions.  There are now case aggregators that are keeping track of the depth, breadth, and count of BI cover cases, e.g., University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Law school and its Covid Coverage Litigation Tracker .  The followers of the cases have almost instance virtual access to case documentation and readers have immediate access to court docs.  Of course, the more one knows the more one can adapt one’s legal approach, right plaintiffs’ bar?  As for insurers in the UK- still awaiting the outcome of the initial ‘taste’ of the court’s take on BI issues.
• One of the ‘Big 5’ property insurers, Allstate Insurance, an early adopter and advocate of virtual claim methodology experienced a jump in combined ratio for its Homeowners to a value more than 106% for Q2 (spending $1.06 on claims and expenses for each $1.00 of HO premium.) Leadership attributes the jump to natural catastrophes, and the H1 ratio is down overall, but some more proof that Mother Nature remains an unmet challenge for digitization.
• The Vermont Captive Insurance Association is holding its 2020 conference virtually this year, and the association reports interest in captive insurance vehicles is high, particularly considering limited cover for effects of pandemics. The VCIA discussions mirror what was discussed in the Daily Fintech last week, Become a captive and be freed .
• Remarkable discussion was held during InsTech London’s August 6 podcast, with host Matthew Grant engaging Trevor Maynard, Lloyd’s; Paul Merrey, KPMG; Kasper Ulf Nielsen, The RepTrak Company; Josephine Saunders, AXA XL . Through the wonder of webinar tech and RepTrak’s application of ‘big data’ one could hear how the effects of market reaction to a company’s actions can affect reputation, how that effect can be measured, and how- potentially- reputation loss can be insured.  Think GOYA Foods in the US- a perceived verbal misstep by the firm’s CEO has been quantified as a $47 million negative publicity hit for the firm.
• Lloyd’s Innovation Lab announced the ten firms that will comprise its Cohort 5 this fall, with qualifying pitches made virtually, Fusion session conducted virtually, mentoring conducted virtually, and excitement expressed, yes, virtually. The new normal for conferences and pitches, it seems.
• Not insurance innovation, but surely a provocative business outcome that might have parallels in how ‘traditional’ business can be adapted- the Toronto Blue Jays of US Major League Baseball are unable to host their home games in Toronto, Ontario, as is the pre-Covid-19 normal. Quarantine issues had to be overcome so the team adopted the Buffalo, NY baseball stadium as its home away from home.  There are no fans in the park, the players are the same, the television broadcast is the same, it’s an adaptation to pandemic reality.  Fans are served with the product, really doesn’t matter where the game is played.  Every business needs to consider how they would adapt.
• A colleague and social media connection advised me that Salesforce (digital CRM experts) published the top ten list of elephants in honor of World Elephant Day:

The Insurance Elephant must have just missed in the voting.

Keep an eye on the rivers of digital news- one never knows what will float (or rush) by.

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