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COVID-19 has led to significant loss of life and has adversely impacted the worldwide economy. While anecdotal evidence indicates a growing interest in life insurance among U.S. consumers during the pandemic, little is known about how the pandemic may have affected the life insurance market. We utilize insurer-state data to create a measure that captures an insurer's exposure to COVID in each state in which it conducts business. Using this measure to examine the impact of the pandemic on the market for individual life insurance, we find that greater insurer-state COVID exposure is associated with smaller changes in issuances and surrenders in the U.S. We also find that observations with the greatest COVID exposure are more likely to experience declines in issuance and surrender activity. These results indicate that insurers were deliberate with respect to their policy issuance decisions while policyholders kept their policies in force during a period of significant uncertainty. [Key words: COVID-19;life insurance;pandemics;policy issuances;policy surrenders.] JEL Classifications: D12, D22, G22
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This paper investigates how employer attractiveness has been affected by developments in the attitudes, values, and goals of Generation Z (born between 1995-2010) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Research shows the challenging environment for employers who are increasingly facing a 'war for talent' and the need to focus on generational needs and expectations. Work concepts in many cases have been adapted to Generation Y, but a revision of strategies is needed for the newest generation on the labour market. The insurance industry has long struggled to attract young talent and along with retail, logistics, tourism, and banking has been ranked the lowest in employer attractiveness by Generation Z. This is corroborated by the fact that larger corporations are also often perceived as unattractive by young people. While many industries have struggled with the consequences and challenges of the pandemic, the insurance sector can be seen as having mastered the crisis comparatively well. This paper questions whether the relative job security offered by the insurance sector, can be increasingly influential in post pandemic job choices. Since Generation Z was already described as securityoriented before the pandemic, this is expected to have increased as a result of COVID-19 and be reflected in their career and employer choices. The perspectives of Generation Z and employers from the German insurance industry are compared through survey and interview data. The young cohort suspects a worsening of their situation particularly in job offerings and security. At the same time, the insurance industry positions itself well in exactly these areas. Furthermore, the aspirations and expectations of Generation Z towards the professional world coincide strongly with the offerings of insurers as employers. However, the respondents see the sector's image as a deterrent. Although this paper focuses on the insurance industry, strategic recommendations given on how the sector can position itself, are relevant for other sectors facing the challenge of attracting Generation Z employees. © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.
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This study sought to investigate the challenges in the adoption of AI and ML in the Zimbabwean insurance industry. The TechnologyOrganisation-Environment (TOE) model was selected as the base theory underpinning the study. The study adopted a pragmatic research philosophy and a census was carried out on twenty insurance companies. Questionnaires were administered on operations managers representing their insurance companies. Interviews were used to collect data from 12 operation managers. NVivo version 16 was used to analyse the data thematically. The study results show that adoption of AI by the insurance sector in Zimbabwe is hindered by shortage of resources, lack of expertise and high cost of AI compliant products. These researchers recommend resource allocation, training of employees, culture change, and updated technological environment to ensure effective adoption of AI. This study will contribute to the body of knowledge, be significant to insurance practitioners and policy makers whilst giving direction for future studies. © 2022 IEEE.
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India is among the nations most severely impacted by COVID-19, which has affected practically all global industries and sectors, including the insurance sector. The covid pandemic has forced businesses in all industries to alter the way they conduct business, and the health insurance market is no exception. The prolonged lockdown following COVID-19 has forced insurance companies to extensively rely on their digital architecture for everything from selling new policies to customers to handling claims. Many insurance companies create specialised policies to guarantee coverage is not impacted. This essay attempts to explore the effects of COVID-19 on health insurance and how they affect the industry as a whole.
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Introduction: There is a variety of wearables and health applications available in the market which allow the tracking of various health and lifestyle measures like blood sugar, calorie counter, number of steps, sleep patterns, etc. After the Covid-19 pandemic, people have become more aware of their health and use these wearables to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Insurance companies in India are also eyeing the potential usage of these wearables in life and health insurance. Purpose: This research aims to look at the emergence of wearables and health apps and their usage in India's life and health insurance industry. This study also focuses on how these devices might benefit insurers' business models and some of the pitfalls to consider. Methodology: The study used both primary and secondary data. A survey was conducted to understand the customer perception towards usage of wearables. The secondary research included the analysis of the integration of wearables by insurance companies. Findings: The research would be helpful to the insurance companies as it would help them to understand the customer's viewpoint for the usage of wearables in the insurance industry. This study would also allow insurers to understand new dimensions, such as where the wearables improve customer satisfaction and engagement. The study results would be helpful for the customers for the appropriate usage of wearables and the internet of things (IoT). Insurance companies can provide better pricing and make personalised insurance plans that ultimately help customers. © 2022 by Emerald Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
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As the global economy grapples with the advent of novel coronavirus and its variants, the aftermath has left all industries with ongoing uncertainties and incalculable loss of life and livelihood in most countries worldwide. In such unpredictable situations, the insurance industry and governments worldwide have become the prominent source of optimism to sail through the situation. This applies to the insurance industry globally, which is currently in the grip of fear due to the COVID-19 outbreak and anticipating significant economic slowdown and hardship because insurance rides on the back of other Industries. Therefore, to overcome a few of the tenacious roadblocks due to the COVID outbreak, Insurers will be forced to reassess all aspects of their business life cycle and take necessary steps to continue operations with minimum disruption. Precisely, the impact of COVID on General Insurers and Life and Health Insurers varied depending on the lines of business, product lines, and a bouquet of benefits offered by the insurers. The pandemic has taken a hit on new gross written premiums on specific lines of business, such as medical, travel, commercial, and business insurance. Few lines of business such as motor and home have remained muted during the COVID timeframe. However, the claims volumes for personal insurance (e.g., motor) have significantly decreased due to the lockdown and travel restriction;the industry has witnessed the highest claims volumes in life and health compared to the past several decades. They say, "As every dark cloud has a silver lining,” it has given an opportunity to many insurers to develop new products (e.g., Pay Mile Auto insurance) and push toward greater productivity, i.e., digital capability across product range which will result in an elevated position to understand and address to the customer and intermediary self-service (such as Portals) and implicit and explicit needs. Notably, the Insurance industry is likely to lean toward offering personalized yet custom-made products and services, which are sharply focused on preventative care and embracing digitalization across the value chain. Besides enabling scalability and connectivity, insurers are strategically focused on digitizing the core of the business and cloud implementation;automation across the insurance value chain is necessary to compete successfully with new innovative product development or inclusive business models. Around the globe, the insurance industry is continuously putting a deep focus on revitalizing the technology paradigm to grow and strive to achieve cost-effectiveness amid emerging markets, rapidly changing economic conditions and stiff competition from Insurtech. According to industry experts across geographies, growth may be a balanced blend of preventative and protective approaches, with a gamut of new and improved services and products, and insurers are deeply fostering redefining service-oriented strategies and innovative products. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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China's modern insurance market is the largest in the world in terms of several key indicators: both the number of contracts concluded and the volume of premiums collected. At the same time, insurance products related to property insurance are the second most popular among the population. However, the development curve of the insurance market in China is significantly different from the trajectories of changes in the insurance markets in Europe or the United States. This article is a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of insurance relations in the Chinese market under the influence of various factors, such as changes in the macroeconomic environment, the introduction of innovative technologies and the COVID-19 pandemic. During the transition from a planned economic system to a market one, as well as after China's joining the WTO, external economic factors changed the development trends of China's insurance industry. Based on the data of the National Bureau of Statistics of China for 2007–2020 and the Wind database, the authors built an econometric model that allowed analyzing the impact of various factors on the growth of property insurance in China. Special attention is paid to the impact of modern trends associated with the active introduction of digital technologies and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) on the development of the property insurance segment. The ongoing optimization of the system of insurance protection of the property of the population is primarily due to its risk management function. China's experience in the development of insurance relations in the national market may be in demand in Russia, which belongs to countries with a developing insurance market. © 2022 Educational Autonomous Non-Profit Organization Nephrology. All rights reserved.
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Introduction: At the end of 2019, the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 pneumonia has developed from a mass health event to a global epidemic disaster. Its impact extends from human health to social, economic, political, international relations and global governance. In the process of fighting against the epidemic in China, almost all economic sectors were affected, and the insurance industry with epidemic sensitive characteristics was particularly affected. Methods: In order to identify the impacts of COVID-19 on China's insurance industry, this paper uses the event study method to calculate the changes in the cumulative abnormal return rate and the cumulative excess return of Chinese listed insurance companies before and after the outbreak of COVID-19. In the empirical analysis, five different typical events are examined, including the first outbreak of COVID-19 in China, the closure of Wuhan, the dredging of Wuhan, and the listing of vaccines in China. Results: The results show that the return rate of listed companies in the insurance industry showed an "inverted N" curve with the "decreasing, rising and then decreasing." The epidemic mainly has negative effects on the insurance industry in terms of premium income and indemnity expenditure. According to the supply shock theory of the new supply economics, the epidemic has a negative impact on the insurance industry in the short term and a positive impact in the long term. Discussion: In this context, insurance enterprises should attach importance to the change of business model, strengthen the development model of public-private joint venture insurance, promote product innovation and the application of insurance technology, and the experience and practice of the insurance industry in responding to the impact of the epidemic are of great significance to the transformation of China's insurance industry.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Insurance , Humans , COVID-19/epidemiology , China/epidemiology , Health Expenditures , CommerceABSTRACT
As of May 2022, the Covid-19 pandemic records over 1 million deaths in the United States. Pertinent to the reported number of deaths, it is questioned whether life insurance firms gained or lost from those incidences. This paper pursues an event study that examines life insurer share price behaviors by the announcements reporting the cumulative death numbers when they reach a certain threshold. We find that life insurers' share prices drop with every announcement. Specifically, our analysis finds evidence for the support of the damage hypothesis based on two competing eses in the literature: damage and revenue hypothesis. Our post-analysis also finds that the pandemic penalized overvalued firms and discouraged dividend cash spending.
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[...]this Note supports the use of a co/reinsurance policy that protects insurers and insured businesses alike. A. The Current State of the COVID-19 Crisis At the time of writing, the impacts and effects of COVID-19 are ongoing.6 However, the pandemic's effects on New York, particularly New York City (NYC), cannot be overstated.7 While the impacts of COVID-19 are diffuse and variable, almost every effect arising from this pandemic implicates the insurance industry in one way or another, and early estimates indicate insurance claims will total in the billions of dollars.8 In an effort to shore up costs for businesses and the resulting employment impacts of the pandemic, the United States Federal Government (USFG) passed the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).9 While the CARES Act did not explicitly target the insurance industry for relief, additional pieces of legislation were introduced that could have impacted the industry early on.10 At the state level, Governor Cuomo officially declared a Disaster Emergency in New York on March 7, 2020.11 As of December 2020, there have been 87 continuations and amendments to the declared Disaster Emergency.12 Of the various measures Governor Cuomo enacted, the most significant for the present study are the non-essential business closure and stay-at-home orders, which ordered many business closures and obliged the population to avoid leaving their homes.13 By September 2020, New York had already seen 6,000 businesses close and a 40% increase in bankruptcy filings.14 In May 2020, Governor Cuomo announced a phased reopening scheme, New York Forward, in which restrictions were linked to local infection rates.15 As New York and the rest of the country began to emerge from what has been the worst of the pandemic so far, hundreds of businesses looked to their insurance policies to mitigate their losses, many insurance companies rejected their claims, and litigation ensued.16 New York courts construe insurance coverage for business losses stringently, and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has already rejected a business policyholder's request for an injunction, pending the lawsuit result, that would require the insurer to pay most of the amount claimed.17 While the suits are just beginning, the insurance industry will likely see changes of the scale it has not seen since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.18 Estimates put the total national cost of 9/11 between $50 and $100 billion.19 By contrast, the COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to cost the nation tens of trillions of dollars.20 To understand where the legal environment is headed, it is first necessary to understand the current legal environment surrounding BI insurance in New York. "22 Typically, BI is not a separate insurance policy, but rather BI is a supplemental endorsement to a policyholder's property insurance.23 Unlike standard general liability insurance policies, BI supplements do not have standardized language and often contain language that is unique to the specific insurer and industry.24 As a part of commercial property insurance, BI is offered either as an all-risk policy or a named-perils policy.25 Under an all-risk policy, the policyholder may recover for all losses resulting from any cause barring their express exclusion in the policy.26 Alternatively, a named-peril policy only covers a policyholder's losses for specific causes of loss expressly named in the policy.27 Although BI contains the word "interruption," more often than not, the interruption must precipitate from actual property damage or loss.28 1. The second element, loss of covered property, refers to physical losses of, or damage to, commercial or personal property within or touching commercial real estate listed in the policy.35 This element typically addresses what commercial or personal "property" is covered by the terms of the policy, as property is increasingly digital or otherwise intangible by its nature.36 Barring indeterminate language or language to the contrary, New York typically requires physical property damage.37 This element will be of particular importance, as many all-risk policies explicitly exclude viral or bacterial causes of loss, many named peril policies do not name pandemics, and in any event, physical damage may be difficult if not impossible to prove for COVID-19-related business losses.38 While causal links between each element are a requirement, the third element most expressly requires causal analysis to prove the cause of the covered property loss results in an interruption of business.39 Beyond the issue of proving the causal relationship between the damaged and/or lost property and interruption of business, policyholders will frequently be required to prove that the level of interruption experienced rises to the level described by the policy's language.40 As a result, BI can come off as a misnomer because business is
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This paper examines the earliest evidence of the Covid-19 pandemic's impact on corporate results. We study the cross-sectional dispersion of corporate revenue and other performance impacts attributed to the pandemic as of the first quarter of 2020. The early business reports on this were mostly accessible through the business press or piecemeal corporate announcements. Market sentiment emerged that associated the spate of individual corporate news items with market-wide steep price declines. The Dow Jones' Index spiked downward, for example, and this was likened to a harbinger of a pandemic-induced crash. The sample is a random selection of public American SEC registrants. Our data is drawn from financial statements they filed with the SEC a short time after those early, informal reports. We examine the notion that the pandemic's immediate impact on revenue across the market in that first quarter of 2020 was pervasive and uniform. The research tracks revenue through to earnings and return on equity (ROE). We test the hypothesis that revenue changes are systematically correlated with a similar change in ROE. We also test the hypothesis that management acted to offset the reporting impacts of the pandemic at this early stage of it. We demonstrate greater cross-sectional diversity in the pandemic's impacts than reported. We demonstrate that revenue changes do not map into similarly systematic earnings and ROE changes. We continue our research into how the pandemic impacts corporate performance beyond these first financials.
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Motor vehicle insurance (MVI), which is the most effective and widespread means of protecting personal property, has attracted a great deal of attention. It is crucial to understand the current development of Malaysia’s motor vehicle insurance industry. Based on this context, this article examines the development model of the Malaysian motor insurance industry and its relationship with the Malaysian economic development. This article reviews ways to achieve targeted product promotion and customization of motor vehicle insurance (MVI) according to regional characteristics. The purpose of this document is to lay a solid foundation for promoting the development of the Malaysian automobile insurance industry and its relationship with motor production in Malaysia. The article investigates the MVI policy’s effect on the economy and the production of car motors in Malaysia compared with other advanced countries. In addition to that, the article highlights the effect of COVID-19 on the MVI industry. © 2022, World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society. All rights reserved.
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Much less attention has been given to South Korea's more recent political economy, and even less to its financial liberalization and how that has impacted not only economic growth but also democratization and social equality. [...]this serious study based on careful examination of economic data has something new and important to add. Except for the insurance industry, the financial markets never really opened up much, and five big domestic banks still dominate the banking sector. [...]as every South Korean knows, the power of the major chaebols, such as Lotte, LG, Samsung, and Hyundai, and the families that control them has not been effectively curtailed.
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The collapse of Greensill Capital, a company whose self-styled owner experimented with innovative supply-chain finance, led to parliamentary inquiries in the UK during the course of 2021. This paper tells the story of the collapse and analyses the justifications mobilised by the company’s owner, Lex Greensill, in defence of his acts. His exculpatory narratives contain classical components that characterise white-collar and financial crime, but also some innovative aspects that may prefigure the future development of these types of crimes.
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Since the mid-1980s, the share of household net worth intermediated by US financial institutions has shifted from defined benefit plans to life insurers and defined contribution plans. Life insurers have primarily grown through variable annuities, which are mutual funds with longevity insurance, a potential tax advantage, and minimum return guarantees. The minimum return guarantees change the primary function of life insurers from traditional insurance to financial engineering. Variable annuity insurers are exposed to interest and equity risk mismatch and their stock returns were especially low during the COVID-19 crisis. We consider regulatory changes, such as more detailed financial disclosure and standardized stress tests, to monitor potential risk mismatch and to ensure stability of the insurance sector.
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PURPOSE- The Covid Pandemic has coerced the insurers to determine how best to meet the demands of their customers, provide service with minimal effort, and achieve their cost efficiency objective. The cost-efficiency objective of the insurance industry should also be aimed at freeing up funds to invest in new technologies and not lose sight of the transformation imperative. The insurance business, despite its size, is underrepresented in the literature. As a result, this paper explains how blockchain technology and IoT might benefit the insurance business. We go over the fundamentals of blockchain and IoT, the most prominent platforms already in use, and a short theoretical description of the insurance sub-processes that both the technologies can positively alter. We also go over the roadblocks that must be overcome in order to properly utilize blockchain technology in the insurance industry.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY- This study provides a qualitative assessment and analysis of journals, articles, and white papers on the implementation of Blockchain and IoT in the Insurance industry, as well as research trends. In addition, the study attempts to identify potential opportunities in the insurance business. The systematic review aims to bring together findings from several fields of study. The goal of this review article is to analyze both the literature sources to comprehend the actual levels of implementation and use cases, as well as to determine the direction in which the insurance industry is now heading in terms of technological adoption.ORIGINALITY- It also covers a wide range of study topics, as well as the most significant articles from the best journals. This paper also covers book chapters, conference papers, journal articles, review papers, white papers, and reports from various organizations.IMPLICATION- The research can prove to be a useful beginning point for new researchers looking for interesting and relevant research on the application and implementation of blockchain and IoT in general insurance. © 2022 IEEE.
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This paper aims to investigate the main drivers of sustainable profitability trends in the Serbian insurance industry over the years 2008-2019 (inclusive). Our study is motivated by the fact that insurance companies contribute to economic growth, and thus it is essential to understand the factors that contribute to their financial strength and stability. We use a set of standard panel regression models, including the mixed-effects model, followed by a more robust GMM estimation to uncover the linkage between selected micro-specific, macroeconomic, and institutional factors, and return of assets (ROA) and return on total premiums (ROTP). The present paper constitutes a significant contribution to the existing literature on the account of its comprehensiveness both in terms of the institutional datasets that we use, and in terms of the methodologies we apply (in particular, mixed effects and the generalized method of moments (GMM)). The estimated parameters are model-specific, and we find that firm size, GDP, the population growth rates, political stability, and the degree of specialization (in some empirical models) all lead to higher profitability. On the other hand, we observe that excessive risk-taking and inflation (in some specifications) are inversely related to profitability. Finally, we note that regulatory quality, average wage, and life expectancies are found to be not statistically significant. Accordingly, we argue that a profitability-centric managerial strategy should be based on expanded market share and stringent risk management protocols. At the macro level, we conclude that pro-growth and pro-population policies, combined with a well-oiled institutional setting that ensures political stability, constitute the best possible prescription for strong operational performance and profit sustainability in the Serbian insurance industry.
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The COVID-19 pandemic comes up with an opportunity for many industries to remake themselves strategically financially and operationally as per the changing needs of the markets. Application of various technologies is helping industries in moving forward and embrace the fifth Industrial Revolution. Technologies like big data analysis, artificial intelligence, fiber optics, image recognition, drones, are playing an important in the growth of industrial service sectors. Technology has transformed every industry of the countries and needless to say, the Insurance industry is no exception here. The term 'Insurtech' has been around since at least 2010, but its reach and influence have accelerated in the past few years and it will continue to with the advancement in big data, AI, IoT, wearable devices and nanotechnologies. In most basic term, Insurtech is applications of various technologies in the insurance industry. From both product and process perspectives, Insurtech is transforming the insurance industry. It is helping the Insurance Industry to become more customer-centric and create operational excellence. Now with Insurtech applications great results were seen in fraud detection rates, effective access to insurance services, low-cost to the customers and the company, increase in operational efficiencies and enhancement in customer experience. This paper discusses about digital growth and development in insurance sector and the ways the Insurtech is transforming the Insurance industry to a greater extent. Also focus of paper is on how insurtech is fostering the automation of insurance process using deep learning and other technologies. © 2022 IEEE.
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After joining ASSP in 1996, Sullivan first became actively involved in chapter activities, and was eventually asked to join the Professional Development Conference Planning Committee for the 2002 conference in Denver, CO. Sullivan was elected senior vice president on ASSP's Board of Directors in 2020 after concluding two terms as vice president, finance. "Environmental, social and corporate governance criteria will play a role going forward with issues such as climate change," Sullivan says. Advice for Safety Professionals Improving your safety industry skills hinges on communication skills.