Innovation Committee February Highlights

Authors: Megan Nelson and Meredith White

The innovation committee meets once a month and we’re charged with bringing examples of innovation that we see in the insurance industry to share with our colleagues.

Here is our February Top 5:

1.

Lemonade recently added Bestow term life insurance to its platform

Bestow has an API that integrates with the underwriting process to shoot out coverage options in minutes without a doctor’s visit. Bestow does this by quickly searching outside databases for prescription and financial history.

The advantage Lemonade has is that it can provide “instant” quotes for things like rental, home and pet insurance. Lemonade also has an AI chat box (Maya) that guides the user through the process – making what used to be confusing policy questions, easy for the common person to understand. Like rental insurance, term life insurance is something that younger people tend to forgo during challenging economic times. If the AI used to deliver renters coverage (in as little as 90 seconds) is any indicator – this partnership should provide a quick, convenient and easy mechanism for reaching that customer base.

This merger suggests that Lemonade is looking to become a “one-stop shop for all insurance needs,” taking its easy-to-use technology platform and extending it to other coverages – where there are companies underwriting the risk, but may not have Lemonade’s advanced technology.

2.

LexisNexis Matches Data to Improve Customer Experience

In the insurance industry, we understand our data really well and have plenty of it but that can all fall apart when it comes to the customer experience. When companies merge, linking customer data can be a daunting task as it usually involves disparate systems or inconsistent customer IDs. This becomes even more complex when the identifying data is based on names and addresses, which can change.

LexisNexis has developed a unique identifier, LexID, to match consumer identities from various sources. Unlike traditional rules-based or fuzzy logic, LexID finds records with intersecting data points (using both public and policy data) and looks at the term specificity to determine the relevance/weight of a particular field. This technology allows the customer to benefit by receiving more relevant communications without having to repeatedly input their data while they shop for insurance. The insurance company would benefit from a more accurate customer profile and improved cross-selling opportunities.

3.

EquipsMe MGA partners with Brisk to deliver healthcare support to small businesses and the self employed

In UK news, EquipsMe MGA has partnered with the business insight and protection platform, Brisk, to deliver healthcare support to small businesses and the self-employed.

Brisk provides its customers with insights around security threats, financial health, employees, customers and more. Brisk markets a “holistic approach to protecting businesses” by bringing together data from all areas of the business into one dashboard. Machine learning algorithms are then applied to the data to deliver actionable insights to users.

Through this partnership, small businesses will be better able to manage employee benefits with the ability to buy EquipsMe health insurance directly from the portal. These plans are affordable (starting at £7 per person per month) and are not based on employee age. EquipsMe does not require employees to complete medical questionnaires, meaning businesses can receive quotes in seconds!

4.

Companies creatively tackling virtual onboarding for new hires

As many companies complete their first year with a remote workforce, some completely rethink their approach to virtual onboarding for new hires. Companies have developed innovative ways of tackling equipment setup, training and cultural engagement of new hires.  Some of our favorites were HubSpot adding case studies to its onboarding and Verisys Corporation delivering its equipment with balloons.

5.

Jupiter Intelligence provides analytic software that tracks climate change and the impact it has on different insurance needs based on location.

Jupiter Intelligence provides analytic software that tracks climate change and the impact it has on different insurance needs. Companies can choose any location in the world and see the potential impact of climate change over the next 50 years.

Jupiter quantifies the risk of climate change for its clients so they can prepare for how it might impact their business. For example, a company may want to understand which areas of operations have a high risk of flooding over the next year so they can prepare the potential business impact.

If you’ve enjoyed learning about these examples of innovation in the insurance industry, join the Innovation Committee to stay in the know!