INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Hub Announces Hub Benefits SmartView
Hub International Limited, a leading full-service global insurance broker and financial services firm, is pleased to announce the launch of Hub Benefits SmartView. Benefits SmartView gives employers richer insights to optimize and customize their benefits programs. The platform provides benchmarking across several key categories of employee benefits and risk control and creates contextualization of where a program could be improved, enabling an employer to enhance their competitive offering. Read more.

Verisk, Magnifact Collaborate On Life Insurance Distribution Data Analytics Solution
Magnifact is joining its award-winning insurance analytics capabilities with Verisk's top-ranked FAST technology platform to help carriers and their distributors gain a broader scope of real-time, data-driven insights and automation. Read more.

Agents Expect Surge In Online Commercial Insurance Shopping
Most independent insurance agents expect a significant increase in online commercial insurance buyers over the next three years, according to a survey from Semsee, the go-to platform for selling commercial insurance, and TrustedChoice.com, the nation's largest digital marketing platform for independent agents and brokers. Read more.

Players Health Launches Sports Coverage On Socotra Modern Policy Core Platform
Player's Health, an innovative sports platform and InsurTech MGA, is pleased to announce the launch of a unique insurance product enabling amateur and professional sports teams to buy comprehensive insurance to protect players, coaches, and owners through agents or a direct-to-consumer portal. Read more.

Orion Enlists Anthropologists To Reinvent Purchasing Travel Insurance Online
Orion Travel Insurance, a CAA company, is pleased to announce the launch of a reinvented online travel quote and purchase system that makes learning about and buying travel insurance an easy and seamless experience for travelers. Read more.

Navacord Enhances Dealership Expertise In Ottawa
Navacord Corp. is pleased to announce its latest partnership with Binks Insurance Brokers Limited, headquartered in Ottawa, effective July 1st. Read more.

Zendrive Expands Its Reach Through Partnerships With Leading Consumer Apps
Zendrive, a mission-driven company making roads safer with data and analytics, has partnered with leading apps to expand its reach to over 50M users in the US through its Insurance Qualification Lens program. Read more.

Natural Disaster Review For 2022 H1: Munich Re
The first half of 2022 saw lower natural disaster losses than in the comparative period of 2021. Floods, earthquakes and storms caused overall losses of some USD 65bn compared with USD 105bn in the loss-heavy previous year. At around USD 34bn, insured losses were roughly in line with previous years. Read more.

U.S. Employees Not Saving Enough For Retirement: WTW Survey
Seven in 10 U.S. employees recognize they are not saving enough for retirement, according to new research by WTW. Additionally, those closer to retirement are now more likely than before the pandemic to say they will retire beyond the age of 70. Read more.

Back-to-School Spending Surges Amid Inflation: Deloitte Survey
After two years of disruptions spurred by the pandemic, parents are ready for a more "normal" shopping approach to the coming school year. But inflation and other pressures will likely add complexity to the back-to-school season. Read more.

In the InsurTech Spotlight this week:

Goose Insurance
Goose is a consumer-facing InsurTech challenger operating a digital mobile-first platform called the Goose Insurance Super-app. Goose is solving two major problems in consumer insurance. First is accessibility to insurance: consumers want direct access. Secondly, consumers are underinsured globally: people do not have enough or proper insurance coverage to meet their life needs.
Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.

From Doug Death by Automobile There were 43,000 auto-related deaths in USA in 2021, or 115 per day. Imagine a commercial passenger plane falling out of the sky each day. Insurance has helped by: • Funding safety groups like IIHS-HLDI; • Lobbying governments for better roads, vehicles, drivers; • Incenting drivers to drive safely through surcharges and discounts; and • Offering telematics-based programs to influence behaviour. Governments play a role through laws and regulation. In July, the EU introduced laws to reduce speeding. Auto manufacturers are now required to install “Intelligent Speed Assistance” (speed-limiting) hardware on new vehicle models, and on every new automobile by next July. Following research indicating fewer hospital admissions and deaths, the EU's new rules go further than speed governors by allowing cars to actively detect speed limits on any given road and then limit the speed. There are, of course, concerns about privacy and individual freedom. Read the article; some comments at the end add further insights. Reducing auto deaths and losses due to speeding would be a good thing; all too often it is the innocent who suffer. Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca