Nation’s First Gun-Insurance Mandates Take Effect. Will They Hold up in Court?

As the calendar flips to 2023, among the scores of new laws taking effect are a pair of legislative mandates that would, for the first time anywhere in the country, require firearms owners to obtain and maintain liability insurance. What remains to be seen, however, is whether either measure will survive Second Amendment challenges, particularly given the standard handed by the U.S. Supreme Court in its June 2022 New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen decision.

There are good reasons for skepticism in both cases, although one of the two—a municipal ordinance passed in San José, California in January 2022—has already cleared its first court challenge. The other mandate—an arguably more carelessly drafted statewide bill signed by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy just before Christmas—may raise insurance-law questions pertaining to coverage for intentional and criminal acts, even before it is subject to Second Amendment analysis.

Read more Read more →

How customer experience drives growth for life insurers | Insurance Blog

Customer experience can be a competitive differentiator for life insurers, and many of them are making strategic investments in customer experience across the enterprise to bolster business growth. These investments in people and technology are providing the 360-degree view of their customers that’s needed to uncover new opportunities. At the same time, they’re enabling a better experience for customers and employees, which is helping to drive business results.

Transforming customer portals into digital customer engagements

The customer portal is an insurance staple that’s long overdue for an overhaul, especially now as consumers embrace digital technologies. Specifically, it needs to shift from transactional to experiential and personal if insurers are to meet the rising expectations of this next generation of insurance buyers. And whomever is first to meet the needs of these potential and existing policyholders, will win their business and perhaps even their loyalty.

One way to quickly transform the

Read more Read more →

Insuring the programmable world | Insurance Blog

As we move into a new phase of innovation after the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, insurers need to look ahead to determine what their technology priorities should be today. Our 2022 Technology Vision report focuses on the expansion of the digital world and the increasing overlap between physical and virtual reality. One of the trends I think is most relevant to insurance carriers is Accenture’s vision for the Programmable World.

In the report, Accenture found that 74% of global executives said that the number of IoT or edge devices deployed in their organizations significantly expanded over the past three years. With that data in mind, insurers need to understand how their products and customer interactions can stand out in an increasingly digitalized reality.

If insurance leaders want to pull ahead, they need to focus on functionality rather than novelty. A truly programmable world will rely on robust technology

Read more Read more →

The case for composable architecture in insurance | Insurance Blog

Within the insurance industry, we understand that in order to remain relevant and retain market share we need to be agile, innovative and adopt new technologies. From a technical point of view, this means that insurers need to be able to adapt their enterprise architecture quickly and sustainably in order to reinvent themselves and grow. However, in an industry rife with legacy architecture, systems modernization is a pressing problem. How can insurers design future systems that both uphold the legacy they have created and integrate into the modern world?

Accenture is working alongside its insurance clients to address this challenge. The result is a new frontier in how technological infrastructure is built.

Insurance architecture design is changing

We need to change how insurance architecture is designed for greater agility and growth. This is not confined to our industry alone. Across all industries, there is a seismic shift from inflexible, monolithic

Read more Read more →

Economic headwinds usher in challenging climate for fleets

This post is part of a series sponsored by IAT Insurance Group.

Historically high inflation, a looming recession and serious supply chain struggles continue to plague fleet owners and owner-operators who are the backbone of our economy, moving 72% of the nation’s freight.

Consumer spending is showing signs of slowing and an economic downturn or full-scale recession would significantly impact freight demand and margins.[1] Although that lower demand could help alleviate some of the pressure of the fleet driver shortage, smaller fleets are likely to feel more pain.

While larger fleets, with shipper contracts, will typically weather the economic storm, some will be forced to park trucks and reduce staff. With an estimated driver shortage of 80,000,[2] some fleets will have an opportunity to expand as there will be less competition for quality drivers.

While significant, these strong economic headwinds represent only of a few of the challenges

Read more Read more →