BIBA Conference 2024: exploring the future of insurance

This year’s BIBA conference saw the top players in the industry asking a crucial question – what’s next? From the sentiments of Graeme Trudgill, chair of BIBA, to the proactive stances of the esteemed panel of ‘What’s next for insurers?’, the overall feeling of the conference was one of collaboration and communication to foster the best results for clients and consumers.

The “What’s next for insurers?” panel at the BIBA Conference 2024 featured an illustrious lineup of industry leaders, each bringing a wealth of experience and unique perspectives to the discussion.

Richard Tuplin, CEO of Towergate and Ethos, emphasised the importance of broking distribution and client care, drawing on his 30-year career in broking.

Nadia Côté, Allianz’s commercial managing director for the UK, discussed her 28 years of experience in corporate insurance and her strategic business initiatives across multiple regions.

Jason Storah, CEO of UK & Ireland general insurance at Aviva, offered insights from his international experience, particularly his tenure as CEO of Aviva Canada.

Sue Coffey, personal lines director at Covéa, focused on distribution, portfolio management, and pricing within the personal lines market.

Tim Bailey, CEO of Zurich UK and president of the Association of British Insurers, brought a strategic viewpoint from his extensive leadership roles within Zurich across various regions and sectors.

The panel began by addressing the importance of client outcomes. “Without the client, we wouldn’t have businesses,” Richard Tuplin emphasised, underscoring the industry’s foundational dependency on customer satisfaction.

Looking ahead, they highlighted the opportunities for insurers to engage and create value. “The future for insurers is full of opportunities. The opportunities to maximise, the opportunity to engage and the opportunity to create,” Richard commented, setting a forward-thinking tone for the discussion.

Nadia Côté stressed the importance of education, early discussions, risk awareness, and transparency: “Its all about education and talking about things early. Risk awareness and transparency on topics are really important.”

Sue Coffey, emphasising the need for collaboration and information sharing between insurers and brokers, stated, “Personal lines is a different market but there are much similar themes. Nadia used the word ‘educate’ and Tim used the word ‘collaborate’. The thing for me that’s key is that the insurers hold a lot of information that needs to be shared with the broker so that they can have sensible conversations with the customers.” She added, “I don’t like the educate word, because to me that sounds condescending. Sharing the problem, not educating.”

“The future for insurers is full of opportunities. The opportunities to maximise, the opportunity to engage and the opportunity to create,”

The discussion then turned to the need for better consistency and collaboration in underwriting. Jason Storah advocated for clear communication and relationship-building between brokers and underwriters: “Really clear communication is not rocket science. Make sure you know your underwriters, make sure they know you.” He emphasised, “Insurance is a game of inches. Those inches are achieved by underwriters on the frontline.”

Nadia Côté highlighted the need for granular pricing structures through data and AI to smooth out pricing cycles: “We need to make pricing structures and the cycle of pricing more granular by leveraging data and AI. By doing this we are less inclined to have such steep changes in the cycle and make it more smooth.”

Sue Coffey called for customer-centric strategies and collaboration to ensure comprehensive coverage and effective pricing: “Sounds a real cliché, but you have to start with the customer. As an insurer we have to have a clear strategy that gets communicated to the brokers. We need to use as much data as we’ve got, and all the data that brokers have that we don’t have, and create pricing for those target customers.”

“It’s important for insurers and brokers to support customers through economic change. We’ve got an incredibly important role to play when we look at everything that customers have gone through.”

Supporting small brokers was another key topic. Jason Storah emphasised the shared challenges of brokers and insurers in the regulatory landscape, advocating for open communication: “The regulatory landscape is complicated in UK. Brokers and insurers can work together because we’re facing the same issues. I don’t think size of broker really matters.” He added, “If you’re concerned about anything from a broker perspective, just communicate.”

Sue Coffey discussed initiatives to gather clusters of brokers and experts to address market-wide issues collaboratively: “We’re trying to get clusters of brokers to come together and discuss the ideas that are affecting the whole market. We’re looking to bring experts round the same table and come up with solutions together.”

Tim Bailey highlighted the importance of supporting customers through economic changes: “It’s important for insurers and brokers to support customers through economic change. We’ve got an incredibly important role to play when we look at everything that customers have gone through.”

“Insurance allows people to go about their everyday lives, it allows businesses to invest and recover. There’s a lot to be said for simple language and effective products.”

Finally, the panelists discussed how to help customers and brokers see value in insurance. Jason Storah addressed the issue of under-insurance and the importance of clear communication to prevent claim surprises: “There’s nothing worse than someone who has a claim and doesn’t realise they’re going to have issues based on what they’re insured for. If we can fix under-insurance that would be a great start.”

Nadia Côté focused on cyber protection, the speed of service, and the need for adaptable service touchpoints: “We protect a lot of cyber. It’s about protecting the companies. It’s about providing good product and also about the speed of service. We’ve done a lot of work in system thinking. It’s created more touchpoints, service is never static.”

Tim Bailey emphasised the importance of clear wording and empathetic communication: “We’re really focused on wording and communication channels. We’ve focused on ensuring our teams on the frontlines are empathetic. Insurance allows people to go about their everyday lives, it allows businesses to invest and recover. There’s a lot to be said for simple language and effective products.”

Sue Coffey echoed this sentiment: “That’s the thing about under-insurance. When they’re taking out those covers they think they have one thing and then when they’re making the claim they realize they have something else. Simplifying language will go a long way.”

Overall, the panel highlighted a shared commitment to leveraging technology, enhancing communication, and fostering collaboration to navigate the evolving landscape of insurance. By focusing on client outcomes, supporting brokers, and ensuring clear value propositions, the industry leaders underscored a vision of a more transparent, efficient, and customer-centric future for insurance.