“Insurance is broken” claims start-up CEO
There’s another new tech-based insurance industry disruptor preparing to launch this summer. Quilt is being launched by the former CMO of insurance comparison website Goji, Blair Baldwin, along with others from the insurance tech space.
CEO Baldwin says that “insurance is broken” and claims that his new business is going to fix it. In a blog post he says that insurance is a thing of value in theory but “rarely feels like a good thing” in practice. He says it is “complex, abstract and confusing, expensive, irrelevant, adversarial…”
Baldwin is not likely to make any friends among brokers and agents with his view that the consumer-agent model is outdated for the vast majority of the population. However, he does acknowledge that they are necessary for commercial lines, at least for speciality insurance: “those cases are still best handled by an agent, whose expertise in navigating the options and tradeoffs that come with complex choices is invaluable.”
The initial offer from Quilt will be life and renters insurance products; whether it manages to live up to its promise to “fix” insurance, only time will tell.
Chubb names Canadian region leaders
Chubb has named two region leaders for its Healthcare Industry Practice business in Canada. Jennifer Devereaux, vice president, Excess Major and Specialty Casualty, and Kimberley Higgins, vice president and Toronto commercial insurance manager; will take on the new responsibility in addition to their existing roles.
"I am pleased that Jennifer and Kimberley will manage our Industry Practice in the Canadian Region. Both individuals possess deep industry knowledge and underwriting expertise making them well-suited for these key roles. They will be instrumental in ensuring we deliver consistent and best-in-class healthcare solutions to our Canadian customers," said Caroline Clouser, executive VP, Chubb Global Healthcare Industry Practice.
Chubb announced the formation of its Global Healthcare Industry Practice in March 2016 to provide a comprehensive range of products for the healthcare industry.
Wellness, cyber security hiring expected to increase in 2016
A survey of human resources managers has found that hiring is set to increase in roles connected to wellness and cyber security.
The CareerBuilder survey shows that 9 per cent of respondents are expecting to hire employees focused on employee wellness while 8 per cent expect to hire cyber security staff.
Although the insurance industry is not directly acknowledged, the survey also shows that the wider financial services sector is one of the four areas where hiring levels are predicted to be higher than the national average, along with healthcare, IT and manufacturing.
