The THiNK Blog

Managing resources  on your underwriting team is a tricky balance.  In fact, I’ve often heard to it referred to as a game of chess.  Like chess, it requires you to always be looking ahead and making the right move at the right time. But even the most skilled chess players encounter challenges.  When they are challenged, what do they do? 

Instead of hastily making a move, they step back and take a hard look at what’s in front of them.  They carefully consider the possible outcome of the chess piece they are about to move.  They anticipate what move their opponent may make and the impact their move may have.  Then they carefully and methodically move their chess piece.

Winter is here its time to tighten the bootstraps. I mean that both literally and figuratively.

Literally because if you live in the northern hemisphere, you know what’s coming. And figuratively, if you’re a Life Underwriting Manager, the combined pressure to finish year end strong and plan for the following year is always an uber-laid back and relaxing time.

Just kidding, of course. This sprint to the end of the year is always fraught with balancing competing priorities and business pressures including:

If you couldn't tell from part I of this guide, InsurTech is making its way onto several agendas for the 2017-2018 life insurance conference season. Given the huge impact it is having on the insurance industry, it should be no surprise that InsurTech has taken on a conference life of its own. Part II of my guide explores the top InsurTech conferences happening all over the world and what you can expect from them.

 In Part 1 of our Global Trends in Life Insurance series, we looked at product innovations in wearable tech, the offering of coverage to HIV-afflicted clients and the switching to non-smoker class rates for marijuana users. In Part 2 of this series, we will focus on millenials and wearable technnology trends, as well as quicker and simple medical testing that can provide instant results.

When it comes to innovation in the life insurance space, developing products that attract the millennial generation seems to be a major trend in the US. And it is something that will likely expand to other areas of the world as the millennial generation gains more buying power. Nonetheless it is definitely on our radar for global trends in life insurance product innovations.

While our friends at Cookhouse Lab are currently tackling this challenge in an innovation sprint, I am going to look at what is currently happening in the market.

The speed of the life insurance industry can be excruciatingly slow. But as new technology emerges, the more agile insurers will move to harness it in the hopes of enhancing existing product lines or constructing new ones altogether. So too is there a need to attract new markets and generations to buy in to life insurance – the baby boomer population is aging, and perhaps that pool of insurance clients has become a bit exhausted.

With the vast majority of the insured population being over the age of 45, the focus must eventually shift to a younger demographic. What are some of the ways that insurers are approaching this? What new products are being employed to appeal to older or substandard risk populations? In this blog I’ll explore what’s making waves in the sea of life insurance ahead.

As a hiring manager, interviews should help you accomplish two things. One, get a better sense of the candidate's knowledge, skills and ability to handle situations specific to their role. Two, get a sense of the candidate's personality. Asking questions to understand both the professional and personal side of a candidate will give you a true sense of who you are. Plus it will help you identify well-rounded, dynamic talent - which is key to developing an all-star team.

Picture this. It is your first day of a new job. You show up bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to seize the day and take on your new role. But to your dismay, you are left sitting at your desk for the first week awkwardly twiddling your thumbs and wondering how to appear to look busy. Maybe thinking, does this company even care that I'm part of the team? Not the greatest start you were hoping for in your newest adventure. And as a manager, probably not how you want your new hire to feel. Not to mention having someone trying to look busy is seriously unproductive. How can you eliminate this and make new hires feel like the made the right choice from day 1?

Welcome to Part 3 of the Impact of AI series. To recap, Part 2 of this series looked at the impact of selling and distribution and Part 1 looked at the impact of underwriting and risk.

Part 3 of this series will focus on the impact of the product development phase of an insurance product.