The Declining Value of Insurance
Value is a relative term often specific to a given asset. For example, if the price of gold declines from $1,800 per ounce to $1,250 per ounce, as it has, then gold is less valuable. The price of insurance is …
Burand’s State of P/C Insurance Industry: How P/C Insurance is Becoming Less Valuable
Value is a relative term often specific to a given asset. For example, if the price of gold declines from $1,800 an ounce to $1,250 an ounce, as it has, then gold is less valuable. The price of property/casualty insurance …
Agency E&O: In Praise of Those Who Know Their Coverages
I was conducting an errors and omissions (E&O) audit for an agency that needed improvements. The easiest part of the audit was drawing a bright line between the couple of producers who knew their coverages and the 10 who did …
I Used to Walk to School and Home Uphill Both Ways
An interview was recently published in a major industry publication with a notable ex-CEO of a prominent insurance company. Throughout the article, the ex-CEO bemoaned how power and profit has shifted to brokers from companies. In some ways, the specific …
Burand’s State of the P/C Insurance Industry 2018: Pricing Cycle Effects on Agents
The property & casualty insurance and group benefits industry is changing faster than ever, or at least faster than any time in any reader’s history. Many factors are the parents of such change. In part one of this two part …
What If Tech Companies, Carriers Conspire to Denigrate Consumer Protections and Agency Value?
Here’s to ruffling feathers: Indeed, entities do exist in the insurance industry that do not look after their customers adequately. Carriers also exist that scrimp on claims, and some take shortcuts in underwriting, capitalization and accounting. One can complete an …
The Competitive Advantage: Best Practices – Just Kidding!
Almost 30 years ago, I sat in a large carrier meeting, in an upscale hotel meeting room. The company had brought 20 or so people together from their offices around the country in multiple divisions to discuss “The Next Big …
The Death of Underwriting and Underwriters
Underwriting is not dying. It is just being automated into digital algorithms versus analog human beings. Technology’s effect on life insurance underwriting is easiest to show by example. It is also further advanced in many ways. For example, what if …
The Competitive Advantage: The Death of Underwriting and Underwriters
Underwriting is not dying. It is just being automated into digital algorithms versus analog human beings. Technology’s effect on life insurance underwriting is easiest to show by example. It is also further advanced in many ways. For example, what if …
The Competitive Advantage: The Value of an Employee Handbook
Most small agencies, and quite a few middle-to-large agencies, lack a current employee handbook or at least one of quality. Honestly, day-to-day, an employee handbook really is not that important, especially with just a few employees. More importantly, employee handbooks …