What tops brokers’ 2024 tech wish list?

Managing the needs of thousands of P&C insurance clients requires some high-tech assistance.

So say brokers responding to Canadian Underwriter’s annual National Broker Survey. This year’s survey, fielded in January and February 2024, was answered by more than 200 brokers nationwide. The CU survey is sponsored by Sovereign Insurance.

Related: Brokers tell us their Number 1 challenge for 2024

Seventy-two per cent of brokers say online claims tracking is the best way for carriers to help brokers support business objectives this year. That’s a dip from 76% saying the same thing last year but still higher than the 64% who called online tracking necessary in 2022.

Popularity of online claims submissions slides to 52% in 2024 after climbing to 56% the year prior. Online policy renewals are seen as a top need by 45% of respondents in 2024; that’s 13 percentage points below 2023 levels (58%) and also below 54% in 2022.

Portals and other problems

Desire for quoting tools also slips slightly, with 64% saying they want both quoting tools and broker portals that provide access to wordings, client policies and more. That’s down from 65% in 2023 and 70% in 2022 for both choices.

One broker with between 16 and 30 years in the business repeats the call for a single point of entry brokers can use to communicate with insurers. “Direct collaboration between the broker management system and the company system,” she says.

Another respondent was even more direct: “Get rid of portals!”

One challenge that had been waning, client price demands, takes an upward path this year, reaching 52% in 2024 compared with 40% in 2023. Current-year figures, though, are still below 2022’s 58%.

Given anecdotal evidence — and recent data from surveys by ratings agencies and other aggregators that show premiums for both personal home and auto lines rising — this challenge may prove a millstone for brokers until clients adapt to higher premium costs seen during an extended hard market in personal lines, and in several commercial lines.

This article is excerpted from one appearing in the April-May 2024 print edition of Canadian Underwriter. Feature image courtesy of iStock.com/daseugen