Happy Wednesday! In this week's Big I Buzz, a look at a recent study on middle-income Americans & life insurance. Plus, growing concerns over investors’ high profits from catastrophe bonds

 

Achieving Life Insurance Success with Middle-Income Americans

A recent 2024 Insurance Barometer Study by LIMRA and Life Happens found that middle-income Americans, with household incomes between $50,000 and $149,999, present the biggest market potential for the financial services industry. Two financial experts recently discussed their strategies for successfully selling life insurance to this crucial segment of the U.S. population. Read more here.

The Huge Profits Investors Have Made on Catastrophe Bonds Are Raising Eyebrows

Concerns are growing over high profits investors are making from catastrophe bonds, which have been handing double-digit returns. These bonds, issued by insurers, reinsurers, and governments, provide disaster coverage but are under scrutiny due to the high costs for issuers and the narrowly defined conditions for triggering payouts. The popularity of cat bonds has surged recently, driven by factors like climate change, increased population density, and inflation. Read more here.

For more news, check out the Action News section of our weekly e-newsletter, Big I Buzz. If you aren’t subscribed, click here to add your email to our emailing list.

By: Matt Banaszynski | CEO of IIAW

 

Congratulations! You made it to 2021. 2020 will almost surely be defined by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic, I see 2020 as the year I gained new perspectives, discovered five years’ worth of innovation in one year, and came to appreciate the little things in life that in a normal year often get overlooked. Recently, I was sitting in my office and was reminded of an article I read back in April titled, “What Hard Times Teach Us: 5 Pandemic-Inspired Lessons That Will Make You Better For The Long Term” by Tracy Brower. I thought I would combine some of her advice with my own words of wisdom that came to mind when I introspectively examined what I learned from this past year. I thought I would share them with you before I file away 2020 in hopes of making 2021 the best year yet!

 

 

Patience: If you have children, you may have an abundance of patience or lack it entirely, but one thing is for sure, this pandemic pushed it to its limit. Whether it was/is navigating and balancing the complexities of virtual learning with working remotely, waiting for the quarantine to lift, or anticipating your favorite restaurants to reopen and spring back to life. One thing was for sure, we are never going back to “normal”.

 

Finding patience can yield a different perspective and even at times, new appreciations in life. As importance as patience is to your well-being, it is also important to understand and recognize the sign of impatience.

 

According to Mindtools.com, “Patience is a vital quality in the workplace. It can reduce stress and conflict, lead to better working relationships, and help you to achieve your long-term life and career goals. Many of us struggle with impatience. Learn to recognize the physical and emotional symptoms associated with it, and to identify the situations that trigger it. When you understand the causes of your impatience, you can develop strategies to prevent or overcome it. These could include attending to your physical well-being by using deep breathing and relaxation techniques and developing your empathy and emotional intelligence skills”.

 

Playing the long game: A term often used to describe how taking the necessary steps now will to set yourself up to long-term success. It means not sacrificing long-term gains for short-term wins. Tracy Bowers says, “With a narrow perspective, current reality can be even more challenging, but by taking a longer-term view, you can reassure yourself that current realities will shift, and good things will come—ultimately—from today’s experiences and lessons”. Warren Buffet once said, “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone else planted a tree a long time ago.” Do not focus on the here and now, especially when the here and now are so tumultuous. Take solace in the fact that this too shall pass, you will get through it and you will be better because of it. The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself!

 

 

Adaptability: A term that most certainly comes to mind when you look to define 2020. You cannot always control what happens, but you can control how you respond. Benjamin Franklin famously proclaimed, “Change is the only constant in life. One’s ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life”. This guiding principle is one that has propelled the American spirit forward for generations and will continue to do so. Some consider this soft skill the most important. As Bob Dylan famously sang, “The times, they are a changin’.” Being adaptable allows you to take control and chart your own course, instead of just letting things happen around you. Remember, change is constant, even without global pandemics, our industry is undergoing a significant amount of change. Be empowered in the face of change.

 

In his article in Forbes entitled, “14 Signs of an Adaptable Person,” Jeff Boss identifies the following traits of adaptable people: they experiment, they see opportunity where others see failures, they are resourceful, they think ahead, they don’t whine, they talk to themselves, and they don’t blame others. They also don’t claim fame, they are curious, they open their minds, they see systems, and they stay current.

 

If you do not possess these traits or would like to refine them, there are ways you can train yourself to be more adaptable. Consider reading, “How to Survive Change . . . You Didn’t Ask for: Bounce Back, Find Calm in Chaos, and Reinvent Yourself” by M.J. Ryan.

 

Resilience: Research shows that resilience is enhanced by having a clear view of reality, a sense of meaning and an ability to improvise. In addition, according to Professor de Weerd-Nederhof of the University of Twente, resilience is both a personality trait and a skill. Hard times may be easier if it is part of your character, but it’s also a competence you can develop through today’s challenging times. The American Psychological Association has a great short read on “Building your Resilience” that is worth checking out.

 

If you would like to become more resilient, consider these tips:

 

• Get connected. 

• Make every day meaningful. 

• Learn from experience. 

• Remain hopeful. 

• Take care of yourself. 

• Be proactive. 

 

Responsiveness: Reacting quickly and positively is an art and an interquel part of good customer service. Responsiveness is a must-have in your communication and customer service toolbox. You show responsiveness through prompt attentiveness when asked for something. This term likely took on new meaning during 2020. Perhaps you found it more important than ever to be responsive to the needs of your loved ones, co-workers, customers, and other business partners. Being responsive creates an opportunity to build trust and respect by acting quickly and proactively, thus eliminating concerns and anxiety during a time of uncertainty. Being responsive during these turbulent times meant the opportunity to create a deeper, more meaningful connection. Consider these 7 ways to be more responsive to your customers according to SmallBizDaily:

 

1. Ask your customers what they want.

2. Manage customer expectations.

3. Develop procedures.

4. Educate your employees.

5. Provide self-service options.

6. Use technology.

7. Stay human.

 

Gratitude: Being grateful for the people and things in your life that have a positive impact is critical to happiness. Whether you’re appreciating the companionship of friends, extended time with family, or the bond you’re building with coworkers through shared struggles, there is a lot to be thankful for. Be sure to share your gratitude to those that have contributed towards it and do not be afraid to

“pay it forward”.

 

Happiness: Happiness is a mindset that can be difficult to explain or define. Much like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it’s different for everyone. Happiness is an important component to a meaningful life - it can provide a sense of purpose. It’s also something that doesn’t come easy and needs to be earned.   Regularly indulging in small pleasures, getting absorbed in challenging activities, setting and meeting goals, maintaining close social ties and finding purpose beyond oneself all increase life satisfaction. It isn’t happiness that promotes well-being, it’s the actual pursuit that’s crucial.

 

 If you want to learn how to boost your wellbeing with strategies from groundbreaking research, visit happify and read through the resources on The Science of Happiness and How to be Happy.

 

Self-discipline: Self-discipline is about controlling your feelings to overcome your weaknesses - something many of us may have found challenging in 2020. Sure, you can binge-watch your favorite tv show instead of working remotely from home, but as Tracy Bower puts it, “This is a great time to learn new approaches to managing your behavior and building new habits”.  Self-discipline is an essential quality, and it’s a key differentiator between people who are successful in life and those who struggle to be. Make sure that you take time to continually develop it!

According to MindTools.com: To develop self-discipline, follow these steps:

 

1. Choose a goal.

2. Find your motivation.

3. Identify obstacles.

4. Replace old habits.

5. Monitor your progress.

 

Instituting and refining self-discipline won’t always go according to plan. You will have ups and downs, successes and failures. The key is to keep moving forward. When you have a setback, acknowledge what caused it and move on. It is easy to get wrapped up in guilt, anger, or frustration, but these emotions will not help build or improve self-discipline. Instead, use the setbacks in your plan as learning experiences for the future. 

 

Self-care: Taking care of your physical, mental, and emotional health is more important than ever during these stressful times. Develop a process of purposeful engagement in strategies that promote healthy functioning and enhance your well-being. Physically speaking, be sure to get enough sleep, eat healthy and exercise. Social and mental self-care can be difficult in times of isolation. Find ways to get face-to-face (virtually and physically), nurture your relationships with friends and family, make time for activities that mentally stimulate you and find ways to proactively invigorate your life. Set goals to realize your ambitions or aspirations.  Develop methods and outlets to allow you to process and recognize your emotions. Incorporate activities that help you recharge. Assess which areas of your life need attention and as your situation changes your self-care should as well. Self-care is vital for building a resilience toward those stressors in life that you can’t eliminate or predict.

 

Enhancing Your Community: You have probably heard the phrase, “It takes a village…” The truth is that it takes a village to achieve just about any meaningful change in your life. This term took on much more meaning in 2020. You leaned on your various communities, tribes, networks, cliques, associations or whatever you want to call it for support, and you worked harder to provide help and assistance to those that need it in your community. Your community may have evolved to include more people or it may have shrunk to focus more of your efforts on those who needed it most. Building, supporting, and connecting with your community is as important as it has ever been.

 

Tracy Bowers perfectly concluded her article (far better than I can for this one) by saying, “You’ve pushed yourself beyond your limits—not by choice—but by necessity. The good news is these hard times can be the catalyst for new habits, behaviors and lessons. You’re finding perspective by learning to operate your patience button (or just find it) and taking the long view. You’re learning more about resilience and your response by expanding your adaptability and coming up with creative hacks. You’re reinforcing your appreciation for community by connecting with others and embracing gratitude. And you’re managing yourself in new ways with self-discipline and self-care. Perhaps best of all, you’re finding new paths toward happiness. All of these will pay off for you today, but also in the new normal of tomorrow.”

 

My concluding opinion: advice is a form of nostalgia, and dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth!  If I can offer you one tip for the future, it is this… Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s!

This article was recently published in the August issue of Wisconsin Independent Agent magazine. Read more from Wisconsin Independent Agent here. 

Recently, we have seen an E&O claim trend around insurance limits based on values. The customer’s property has not been properly evaluated, but who should be responsible for determining the value? The advice from Swiss Re Corporate Solutions has long been that the customer is responsible for determining the value of the property. The agent should then take the value provided by the customer and provided insurance based on that amount. Many times, the agent takes on the role of the advisor and a customer will look to the agent to assist with the valuation. In this situation, the agent is likely creating a “special relationship” and has greatly increased their standard of care. If agents are using valuation tools, they must realize the answers they provide are only as good as the information that is entered into them. The agent also then assumes the responsibility of making sure the values are regularly updated to reflect any changes to the property.

Here is an example of what can go wrong and what an agency can do to avoid a $2 million E&O claim.

Andrew, an experienced agent at a large insurance agency, placed Commercial Property coverage for his client who was a real estate developer.  Among the properties he owned, the real estate developer owned a shopping center. The agent and his client had verbal discussions when the policy was initially placed regarding the value of the property.  According to the agent, the value of the building was ultimately determined by the real estate developer, but nothing was put in writing by the agent to reflect how the value was determined or whether the client agreed with the valuation. The agent procured a replacement cost property policy with $2.5 million in replacement cost for the building.

The policy was then renewed each year for 5 years. During this time period, neither the agent nor the client re-visited the issue of the valuation of the property or considered or discussed possible increases in the value of the property.

 The shopping center then burned to the ground. When the client submitted the claim, the carrier paid the limit of the policy. However, the property owner claimed that the replacement cost of the property was actually $7MM and claimed that the property was undervalued. The real estate developer admitted receiving the renewals each year but not reading them. He further claimed that he completely relied on his agent to determine the appropriate insurance coverages, that it was the agent that set the initial value of the property and that the agent never recommended an appraisal at any point. The real estate developer proceeded to file suit against Andrew and his agency.

 What are the major issues in this case?

·       Agent’s failure to document property valuation process in writing

·       Agent’s undertaking to set the value of the property when that is potentially outside his/her area of expertise and the agent may not have a duty to undertake this task.  In addition, the property owner is in a superior position to know the value of his/her own property

·       An insurance broker is not required to ascertain the levels of coverage for a risk.  However, if the agent assumed this obligation even though he didn’t have to, he thereby created a special relationship that obligated him/her to exercise a greater degree of care and diligence.

·       Agent’s failure to consider and discuss increases in value of the property over time i.e. by not performing a yearly analysis of coverages and making necessary modifications to the level of coverage.

What could have been done differently by the agency?

·       Yearly review of property values with sign off by client

·       Written documentation of valuation with client sign-off

·       Written recommendation that the client have the property appraised

What do you think was the outcome?

The case was tried and the agent paid almost $2MM in damages for taking on the responsibility of valuing the property and not doing it properly as well as failing to review the value

If your agency needs to review internal processes such as property valuations, please call IIAW Vice President Mallory Cornell. There could even be E&O premium savings for your proactive E&O Risk Management!

By: Chris Boggs | Big "I" Virtual University Executive Director

 

This article was originally featured in our July Wisconsin Independent Agent Magazine. Read the full issue here. 

 

An insurtech firm I prefer not to name, other than to say they think they are geniuses when it comes to policies, was founded by two people who believed purchasing insurance was too frustrating. In fact, their website specifically states, “Navigating the world of insurance is confusing, stressful and a step backward in time....”

 

Because the founders were “consultants to the top insurance companies,” they knew there had to be a better way for consumers to purchase insurance. Their stated mission is help consumers get the insurance they need and feel good about what they got. Sort of sounds like something an agent does, but that’s not the point of this article. 

 

Towards this goal, the firm publishes consumer-facing articles. I recently read through several of the articles and felt they were relatively well written for consumer consumption and largely correct. What disappointed me was the “level” of credit they gave the writers; each writer was listed as, “Insurance Expert.” 

 

The title “insurance expert” caught my eye - in a big way. It stands to reason that obviously these writers have many years of insurance experience since they are “experts” Uh, they didn’t. Here are partial bios as examples: 

 

• [Author’s name redacted[ is an Insurance Editor at [Insuretech name removed] in New York City and an expert in homeowners insurance. Previously, he was working as a freelance writer for the  New York State Nurses Association and wrote for the Michigan 

Information Research Service. [Writer] has a B.A. in journalism from [University Name Redacted.]

• [Author’s name redacted] is the Associate Director of SEO Content at [Insuretech] in New York City. His writing on insurance and personal finance has appeared on Betterment, Inc, Credit Sesame, and the Council for Disability Awareness. [Writer] has a degree in English from the [University name removed].

• [Author’s name redacted[ is the co-founder of [Website name removed], a groundbreaking personal finance site for millennials that was named one of Time’s 25 Best Blogs of 2012. [Author’s] work has been published in New York Magazine, Glamour, The Guardian, BuzzFeed and more.

 

Am I missing something? Would the background of ANY of these writers qualify them to be considered an “insurance expert”? I don’t think it does, but the public doesn’t know any better. Calling yourself an expert doesn’t make it so. 

 

Unfortunately, the combination of missing or incorrect policy information and the misappropriation of the title “insurance expert” pushed me to send a rather 

“snotty” email to this group. As of this writing, I have not received a response. Would you like to see what I wrote? Before you read it, remember, I’ve already 

acknowledged I was a bit pompous. With that as prologue, what follows is a slightly edited version of my email.

 

I was reading through several of your homeowners’ and personal auto insurance coverage articles today and wanted to get in touch with you.

 

Yes, insurance can be confusing to those not in the business, but there is a way to explain it so the uninitiated can easily and quickly grasp its concepts and realities.

 

Secondly, I would be very careful calling anyone an “insurance expert” unless he/she has many years of experience in the insurance business - and is well-versed in insurance coverages and concepts. Writing ABOUT insurance in newspapers and blogs doesn’t make someone an insurance expert; neither does being in the financial and investment business. Property and casualty insurance is far more complicated than can be known just writing about insurance. You have to be “covered in the mud of an insurance policy,” you have to have actually read the policy from cover to cover, several times, and you have to know how deep the depths of insurance really are before you can begin to be considered an expert.

 

Further, a true expert doesn’t consider himself or herself an expert. In fact, those who truly do qualify as experts quickly shy away from being called experts; the reason, because they are so well versed in insurance, they know there is far more to know than they already do. Any person who calls or truly believes he or she is an expert doesn’t know what he/she doesn’t know.

 

Someone holding himself or herself out as an “expert” without the credentials to back it up is dishonest and harmful to those depending on the information the so-called “expert” has provided.

 

So, my recommendations are: correct the incorrect information; and don’t refer to anyone as an insurance expert who doesn’t have the necessary time and training to qualify as one.

 

Just my personal recommendations to you; take them or leave them as you so desire. 

 

OK, I realize I let my emotions get the best of me. I also realize nothing I said will change their attitude or actions. And lastly, I know that “insurance expert” is just their way to market their “brilliance.” But it needed to be said. 

 

But this is what I find truly interesting, they note on their site that the information they provide should not be relied upon; in fact, they intimate that agents are the better source of information. Here is the disclaimer: 

 

[Insuretech’s name withheld] editorial content is not written by an insurance agent. It’s intended for informational purposes and should not be considered legal or financial advice. Consult a professional to learn what financial products are right for you.

 

I take certain satisfaction in this disclaimer. Evidently, their “insurance experts” are not as valuable as  insurance agents.

 

Here are some thoughts about being an “expert” of any kind.

 

• True experts worry more about what they don’t know than what they do know, continually looking for ways to fill their knowledge gap. Self-proclaimed experts ignore the breadth of what they don’t know and are satisfied (mainly because they don’t know what they don’t know). 

 

• True experts are rarely absolutely certain. Self-proclaimed experts are rarely in doubt.

 

• True experts admire other experts and desire to learn from them. Self-proclaimed experts don’t see anyone else as an expert, feeling others have nothing to offer. 

 

• True experts listen to and value the opinions and advice of others. Self-proclaimed experts think theirs is the only opinion that matters. 

 

• True experts openly admit when they don’t know the answers. Self-proclaimed experts ALWAYS know the answer - even when they don’t.. 

 

• True experts apply the experience learned from past accomplishments to accomplish more. Self-proclaimed experts rest on past accomplishments. 

 

• True experts don’t really like being referred to as experts. Self-proclaimed experts revel in such an introduction.

 

• True experts desire to give all their knowledge away so others can be better. Self-proclaimed experts hold on to their knowledge so others have to come to them. 

 

• True experts do not proclaim themselves experts - others do. Self-proclaimed experts use the term as a marketing ploy. 

 

• Be wary of anyone who eagerly takes on the mantle of “expert,” they probably aren’t. If you call yourself an “expert,” you probably aren’t. 

 

One last thought, if the word “expert” is used anywhere on your website or in your marketing, you better be one because that is the standard/expectation that you have set. Afterall, who do you expect more from, the apprentice of journeyman electrician or the master electrician? The best course of action is to take the term “expert” off all websites and marketing materials.

 

When you are an expert, you won’t feel like one. If you feel like one, you aren’t one. The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know. And people who don’t know, aren’t experts - at least in their minds.