World Fund and Finance

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX)—named for its chief sponsors, former Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D–Md.) and former Rep. Mike Oxley (R–Ohio)—was intended to restore trust in the transparency of publicly traded companies after the collapses of WorldCom and Enron Corp. revealed that their auditors had certified financial reports that overstated the firms’ assets and massively understated their liabilities.

But, of course, “transparency” isn’t quite the same thing as prudential safety and soundness. In the insurance space, more specifically, transparency doesn’t necessarily equal solvency.

A new paper from Martin Grace of Temple University and Juan Zhang at Eastern Kentucky University looks at how property and liability insurers have responded to the enhanced disclosure and attestation requirements, both of SOX itself and of new auditing rules subsequently adopted by state insurance regulators. The latter were closely modeled on SOX, but also applied to nonpublic insurers, primarily mutuals.

They reach a counterintuitive conclusion:

This post is part of a series sponsored by AgentSync.

The evolution of technology in any industry follows a similar pattern. Transformation doesn’t happen overnight. Rather, we see a progression from infancy to maturity in the way an industry uses the tech at its disposal. At the same time, the actual capabilities of technology keep progressing so that what was “cutting edge” one day soon becomes standard, and there’s room for the next innovation to take its spot as the latest and greatest.

According to AgentSync’s Co-Founder and CEO Niji Sabharwal, the insurance industry is at an inflection point. As the major players in the industry have reached a moderate, baseline level of digitization (expedited by the necessity of a more distributed, remote workforce thanks to COVID-19), the next wave of insurance technology (insurtech) can begin to take hold. We’ve seen this progression happen more quickly in other

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.

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

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