Where will tech change leave the broker?
Listening to the technological advances being made in the US, Sian Barton wonders where the broker is going to fit in.
Key messages coming from the Guidewire Connections were about the insurance of the near future. The focus was ease for the customer and in some cases we saw insurers already making the best use of current tech to allow consumers to buy, amend and claim.
MetLife's new personal lines motor product, My Direct, was a case in point. Gary Hoberman, exec VP and co-CIO at the insurer, told visitors to the conference in San Francisco, that Met Life adopted a start-up attitude in order to develop the product with the aim of taking it from the drawing board to finished product in just 60 days.
Catching up
The new motor product allows customers to buy insurance quickly, on whatever device they choose, add new people to their policy and claim, and actually won the PR Week Gold prize for best using of digital beating competition from digital giant Amazon in the process. For me this is clear sign that some insurers are catching up with retail on digital trading.
No-one would disagree that this ease of use is good for the customer - but where in the chain does the customer get advice beyond an underwriter popping up in a chat box on screen?
The event also saw Aviva's Angus Eaton warn that the sector is experience an "age of disruption" and faces "serious disintermediation".
Despite this worrying evidence conference hosts and software provider Guidewire pointed out it was developing its software for the good of brokers and customers. A video illustrating its software put brokers at the centre showing brokers being given access to client policies from anywhere - even the golf course.
Advice
And, PwC consultant , Paul McDonnell told me that in the UK customers were trending away from direct and aggregators seeking a great level of advice.
So despite this apparent move of technology and warnings about brokers being cut out of the loop it seems the software providers are still designing to include intermediaries and customers, in the UK at least, are looking for more advice.
Whether customers will choose advice over ease long term and if the software providers and insurers are just paying lip service to the broker market as technology fundamentally changes the landscape remains to be seen...
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