Expert insight, analysis and commentary across the entire protection industry.
by ProtectionReview 18/10/11
Is the PMI industry doing enough to attract new business? The PMI market has evolved considerably over the last 10 years, but there are questions that we should be addressing on an on-going basis. How does the consumer view medical insurance 11 years into the new millennium and how do we in the industry see ourselves and the products we provide? As an industry we should be asking ourselves whether we’re providing the products and service levels that the consumer wants, are we getting the right message across with regard to the benefits of PMI and are we keeping abreast…
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by ProtectionReview 11/10/11
It’s hardly surprising that those of us in and around the protection business don’t think much of consumers. For a start, they’re so lamentably ignorant about our world, it’s almost impossible for us to have a sensible conversation with them. Honestly, many of them can barely grasp the difference between PMI and PHI, for goodness sake. And whenever I try to explain the implications of Solvency II for the annuities market, I find most of them are snoring softly within five minutes. I suppose it’s just about possible that if we could manage to get personal finance onto…
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by ProtectionReview 05/10/11
Are Insurance Companies Immune to Developments in Digital Healthcare? Insurance is one way of managing risk. Managing information is another and, in this digital era, it’s gathering momentum. Today, three separate but related areas of development regarding the application of digital technologies to healthcare services promise to change the market in which Life & Health insurance companies operate. 1. Health Informatics (e.g. electronic health records). 2. Mobile Health applications. 3. New devices built around sensors and chips. (‘An Internet of things’.) They are of strategic significance and the evidence suggests that they are largely being ignored by…
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by ProtectionReview 04/10/11
Test-Achats can be good news for consumers and the Insurance sector This year’s Protection Review included a measured and informative piece (by Helen Tilley, Rona Doyle and Lucian Camp) on the ECJ ruling on gender. And there was another good article on the topic (by Joanne Wells) in the Hannover Life Re newsletter, infocus. Comments and conversations around the Protection Review Conference, however, were more emotion-laden. I got the impression that the widely shared view was that Test-Achats was a toxic combination of European bureaucracy and political correctness, and this also seems to be the Protection sector’s view if…
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by ProtectionReview 21/09/11
This quote, from Peter Drucker, the inspirational writer, thinker and pioneer in management philosophy, often comes to mind in conversations I have with insurers. For an industry whose economic viability relies upon a sound understanding of statistics, actuarial calculations and probability, it often surprises me just which areas insurers tend to focus on when it comes to measuring and therefore managing claims. Let me give you an example. When I ask some insurers about their claims performance and about their loss ratio, most simply say they do not use their loss ratio to measure claims. When you…
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