How property and casualty and life insurance organizations board members can ask the questions that drive insights to “win”.

Insurance is built on trust with its customers and the initial reaction by many insurers as a result of the pandemic, COVID – 19, was to protect the trust of its customers and safety of its employees. Insurance organizations that include Property and Casualty (P&C) and Life & Health organizations have been in unique positions in their own verticals because of COVID-19. P&C organizations have been managing looming Business Interruption (BI) coverage regulations and mandates, while also supporting their customers with reduced premiums for auto insurance due to reduction in use and claims frequency. However, the rise in Directors & Officers (D&O) coverage premiums has been a current hot topic on the board agenda. Life insurance organizations are in various positions financially and operationally, and as a result the life insurers that had more digital capabilities, such as ease of online application acceptance and processing, use of automated underwriting,  and ability to adapt to remote workforce have shown resilience in the past few months and are better situated for the recovery.

Over the past three months, many insurance organizations executives, boards and committee members have been asking questions and discussing the impact of COVID-19, addressing remote workforce capabilities, employee safety, responding to “what if” scenarios, discussing actuarial and reserve implications and  discussing the road ahead.  The time is now to focus on recovery, and given each insurance organization’s unique position in the market place as well as within each sector, it’s the type of questions that are being asked, or not being asked, that will drive or hinder insights.

If you are on a board of directors for P&C or Life insurance organizations, we have included questions below that can offer valuable discussion for strategy and the path forward.

Board member questions to drive insights

On agent and distribution effectiveness

• How have we shifted our investment in ensuring our agents can successfully operate and meet compliance requirements?
• How has the sales success rate shifted in our distribution model plans?
• What are we doing to support our less tenured agents who may be struggling with new relationship developments?
• How do we strengthen the connections with our customers?