BIBA - Connections in the insurance industry

Nick-Hobbs-Director-of-Broker-Markets-Commercial-and-Personal

With the 2017 BIBA Conference just a week away, I am very much looking forward to heading to Manchester where there will be plenty of opportunities to connect with many of our broker partners. I’ll also be looking forward to exploring this year’s conference theme ‘Connections’, a topic which really could not be more relevant to the insurance sector right now.  

If you believe the hype, the world is changing, with technology bringing everything from internet connected toasters to drone deliveries and driverless cars. But, as this introduces a unique set of risks, our connections, both within the insurance sector and beyond, will be essential to support this exciting new world.

Just one example of this is the sharing economy, where insurance has played an integral part in its development. When peer-to-peer platforms such as Airbnb launched, their popularity grew on the back of trust. But, as tales of trashed apartments and hacked accounts surfaced, this trust had to be supplemented with insurance.

Understanding how new platforms operate and the needs of the users has enabled insurers to develop a variety of innovative insurance solutions for the sharing economy. As well as pay-as you go insurance, allowing sharers to take out cover specifically for the rental period, insurers have also developed products to protect sharing platforms, providing for instance a package of buildings, contents and public liability cover for property shares.

Our partnership with peer-to-peer rental marketplace RideLink is a prime example of this approach. While the availability of tailored insurance gives users reassurance, product features such as a £750 excess help to encourage more responsible driving.

New concepts are emerging too. On-demand insurance applications allow users to create a digital inventory of their valuable possessions, turning cover on and off as required.

But insurance is only half the solution. As more members of the public become involved in the sharing economy, whether renting out a hut in the garden, sharing lifts in their car or lending out their lawn mower, it's essential they understand the risks and how these affect their insurance.

Brokers play a key role in this education process. By acting as the connection between their clients and the insurance market they provide the reassurance that the right cover is in place. This in turn supports the future growth of the sharing economy and the benefits it offers.

And, with the sharing economy forecast to be worth a cool $335bn by 2025, establishing these connections between insurers, brokers and their clients, but also with the companies involved in these new ventures, will enable us to manage the risks and rewards associated with this growing sector.

For both insurers and brokers, being connected extends our abilities and our horizons. On our agenda at BIBA Conference is sharing our knowledge, expertise and skills with brokers to help them meet their customers’ needs now and in the future. We are looking forward to demonstrating how the experience of our people and the Allianz Group connects to build the most customer-focused and technically advanced trading business in the UK insurance industry.

 

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR
FREE BI-WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Nick Hobbs's picture

Nick Hobbs, Chief Distribution & Regions Officer at Allianz UK

Nick has been with Allianz group since 2001 and with Allianz UK since 2011. Prior to joining Allianz UK, he undertook various roles in AGCS (Allianz Global Corporate & Speciality) in the UK, Europe and North America.

If you would like to contact Allianz Insurance plc, please Click Here and submit your enquiry and youTalk-insurance will pass your comments on.

Add new comment

Filtered HTML

  • Empty paragraph killer - multiple returns will not break the site's style.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><p><br><h2><h3><h4><h5><h6><hr><img>
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Plain text

Agree to terms

By posting a contribution to the youTalk-insurance blog you will be giving youTalk-insurance your full consent to post your contribution, should we choose to do so and you will be deemed to have given us a free licence on a perpetual basis to adapt, modify and incorporate your contribution. By posting to the youTalk-insurance website you are fully responsible for the accuracy, completeness, veracity, honesty, exactitude, factuality and politeness of comments you make. All contributions to youTalk-insurance must not contain anything that is unlawful, offensive, abusive, threatening, defamatory, obscene or discriminatory nor shall it infringe the rights of anyone else.