Life Insurers Search for Ways to Better Protect the World
Life insurers face intense competition from other financial services providers, and concerns about how to hold the attention of consumers who are dealing with inflation, a somewhat cooler job market and the effects of the return of student loan payment bills and rising bills for variable-rate mortgage loans and credit card debt.
LIMRA and Boston Consulting Group released a life insurance executive survey report showing that about 33% of executives list finding a way to grow as a top challenge, up from 24% in 2021 and up from 22% in 2019.
About 66% identified investments in customer service technology as a priority.
At the conference, speakers suggested that improving wellness tech is another way to demonstrate their relevance to consumers and, possibly, manage their own exposure to health and mortality risk.
Brooks Tingle, the CEO of John Hancock, talked about his company’s high-profile Vitality wellness incentive program, and Sears Merritt of MassMutual talked about his company’s efforts to help people get access to Grail’s new cancer screening blood test and Genomics PLC’s genetic risk assessment program.
The world: Life insurers in many countries outside the United States face new capital standards and accounting rules that are even more challenging than those facing life insurers in the United States, and speakers at a general session on the global environment emphasized that their companies must operate profitably and reward shareholders.
But Watson, the AXA executive, said he believes insurers have to find ways to stick to their core mission and improve customers’ lives by assuming risk.
“We’re here to protect what matters,” Watson said. “Not just to sell bank substitute products.”
Alexandra Quiroga, the CEO of AXA Colpatria in Colombia, said one key element is persuading middle-income consumers to use some of the large sums they’re spending on restaurants and travel on insurance. “I do believe there’s a lot to do in terms of education,” she said.
Augusto Diaz-Leante, Swiss Re’s head of life and health for continental Europe, said one way to make a difference is to develop life insurance products and other protection products for the many people in the world with diabetes, hepatitis and other serious chronic conditions.
Amy Friedrich. Credit: Principal
