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Unica Insurance Announces Partnership with QuickFacts 0

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Unica Insurance Announces Partnership with QuickFacts

Mississauga, ON (Sept. 19, 2024) – Unica Insurance is proud to announce a partnership with QuickFacts, a revolutionary software solution dedicated to transforming insurance brokerage operations, enhancing efficiency and elevating client services. The partnership will give Unica brokers exclusive pricing to access the QuickFacts platform and immediately benefit from a 20-30% increase in efficiency. QuickFacts is a tool for brokers, built by brokers, and brings the power of comparative rating to the product level. It will allow brokers to generate side-by-side product feature and coverage comparisons from multiple carriers, with easy access to current manuals, bulletins, forms, decline rules, binding guidelines and more. This means a significant reduction in research time for brokers to find the best product and coverage solutions for their customers’ unique needs. “Unica specializes in tailored insurance solutions for a broker’s best clients, who prioritize comprehensive protection and trust their broker’s expertise,” said Chris Weston, VP of Business Development and Broker Financial Solutions at Unica Insurance. “We are committed to providing innovative products and empowering brokers with the tools and ongoing education they need to meet the unique needs of their customers. This reflects Unica’s dedication to delivering ease-of-doing-business solutions for the broker channel.” “At QuickFacts,...

Roots Automation Raises $22.2 Million to Unlock the Value Held within Unstructured Data across Insurance with AI 0

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Roots Automation Raises $22.2 Million to Unlock the Value Held within Unstructured Data across Insurance with AI

Capital will accelerate growth and build upon Roots Automation’s made-for-insurance AI, enabling carriers, TPAs, brokers, and agents to drive significant improvements in overall business performance New York, NY (Sept. 17, 2024) – Roots Automation, creator of the AI-powered Digital Coworker and InsurGPT™, the world’s first generative AI model for insurance, is pleased to announce the closing of a $22.2 million Series B funding round. Harbert Growth Partners led the round, with follow-on investments from MissionOG, Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures and Vestigo Ventures. Unstructured data trapped in everyday correspondence – including submissions, legal demands, and medical records – constitutes around 80% of all data across insurance. The inability to effectively harness this data for decision-making costs insurance companies $100 billion annually due to underpricing premiums, insurance fraud and overpaying claims. To address this, Roots Automation created the most advanced AI-powered Digital Coworker. It leverages Roots’ proprietary generative AI, InsurGPT, and the Roots Autonomous Workforce Platform to transform unstructured information into clear, actionable insights. This allows insurance leaders to make faster decisions with greater confidence. Roots Automation has delivered transformative results for the company’s 35 customers in the US insurance industry, including: 99% accuracy on data extraction for an East Coast-based regional P&C...

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On the Hunt for HNW Clients? Look to In-House Investment Banks

What You Need to Know A lack of product access has been cited as a critical source of attrition. Access to internal resources and products can give advisors greater trust in the solutions they recommend. Smaller independent wealth management firms can focus on providing access to capital to mid-market businesses, Wirehouse advisors know that going independent allows them to earn more money and often provide their clients with a more comprehensive range of services and products. However, a common refrain among these advisors is that elite clients will not stay with them without ready access to banking solutions. Yet, it seems that many high-net-worth individuals are considering making this move anyway.  A recent PwC survey found that 46% of HNW investors plan to change wealth management providers or add new wealth management relationships in the next 12 to 24 months. That’s in addition to the 39% of respondents who said they had already switched or established an additional relationship. While there are many reasons that affluent clients switch advisors, a lack of product access has been cited as a critical source of attrition, with over 27% of clients who have made a change in the past three years saying that...

Increasing Demand For Reinsurance in Volatile Environment: Swiss Re 0

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Increasing Demand For Reinsurance in Volatile Environment: Swiss Re

Growing demand for protection in property and specialty lines driven by elevated natural catastrophe risks, macroeconomic instability and politically charged environment Refined data and modelling, as well as optimised capital management important topics in the current environment In casualty, elevated litigation environment in the US a growing concern for the industry Armonk, NY (Sept. 9, 2024) – As the insurance industry convenes for the start of the renewals at the Rendez-Vous de Septembre, Swiss Re expects growing demand for reinsurance protection to be a key topic of discussion. The conversation will also revolve around forward-looking risk assessment and capital management – as adequate risk views and volatility management are important requirements in the uncertain environment. Urs Baertschi, Swiss Re’s Chief Executive Officer Property & Casualty Reinsurance, said: “The key topics for the industry remain largely unchanged from last year, but the challenges have intensified, leading to higher demand. Faced with elevated natural catastrophe risks, economic uncertainty and geopolitical instability, reinsurance is the natural way for insurers to protect themselves from outsized losses. We are ready to support our clients with our capital, expertise and solutions.” More demand for property and specialty Higher property values, urbanisation and rising repair costs due to inflation...

August hailstorm in Calgary results in nearly $2.8 billion in insured damage 0

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August hailstorm in Calgary results in nearly $2.8 billion in insured damage

2024 Calgary hailstorm is the second-costliest insured event in Canada’s history Toronto, ON (Sept. 11, 2024) – A record-breaking hailstorm that hit the Calgary area in early August resulted in nearly $2.8 billion in insured losses, according to initial estimates from Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ). This hailstorm is the second-costliest event in Canada’s history, following the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire. With yet another record-setting summer for insured losses due to severe weather, these losses will create claims cost pressures. On August 5, 2024, severe thunderstorms developed over southern Alberta and moved east, producing significant and damaging hail, strong winds, heavy rain and localized flooding in parts of Calgary. Environment and Climate Change Canada said it received multiple reports of hailstones the size of chicken eggs damaging homes and vehicles. Hail and wind damage are covered by standard home and business insurance and by comprehensive auto insurance policies. By the end of the storm, almost one in five homes in Calgary was impacted. “Catastrophic weather has hit our province hard this year and the impact on Calgary residents from this summer’s hailstorm is unprecedented,” said Aaron Sutherland, Vice-President, Western and Pacific, Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). “Alberta’s insurers have...

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Zywave Names Simoncic New CEO, Kasper CFO

Article 0 Comments Insurance technology provider Zywave said Martin Simoncic is its new chief executive officer and Christian G. Kasper has joined as chief financial officer. Martin Simoncic Simoncic most recently served as president of PROS Holdings, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions company using artificial intelligence. Here he also held roles as chief customer officer and vice president of production management. Previously, Simoncic was vice president of customer success and professional services at Zywave competitor Vertafore. Simoncic succeeds Jason Lui, who left in April and took the CEO role at London-based Wood Mackenzie, a provider of data and analytics for renewable energy industry. Christian G. Kasper Milwaukee-based Zywave said Kasper has been CFO for six companies, including three cloud-based software companies. He was most recently CFO of EnterpriseDB Corporation, a software platform for managing database analytical and AI workloads. Kasper replaces Paul Rybecky, who had been with Zywave since June 2022. Zywave is owned by private equity firms Clearlake Capital Group and Aurora Capital Partners. “We believe that Martin and Chris’ deep software industry and scale operating experience, combined with Clearlake’s O.P.S. operational improvement approach, will further support the company in executing our strategic plan and providing innovative software solutions to...

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House OKs Steeper Penalties for Leaking Tax Data

“When Americans file their tax returns, they expect their personal data and tax information are confidential,” Smith said in a statement. But between 2017 and 2021, Littlejohn “stole taxpayer information, and he stole a lot of it,” Smith said. “He gave it to The New York Times and ProPublica, who published articles containing that confidential tax information about President Trump and other notable figures. Mr. Littlejohn then destroyed evidence and obstructed law enforcement investigations.” Those notable figures included billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. ProPublica used the data to report on tax avoidance techniques used by the ultra-wealthy, such as Thiel’s use of a Roth IRA to grow shares of a nascent startup into a tax-free multibillion-dollar retirement haul. Current law “failed to deter Mr. Littlejohn from stealing and leaking private and sensitive taxpayer information,” Smith said. Moreover, Smith continued, “the Department of Justice only charged Mr. Littlejohn with a single count of unauthorized disclosure of private tax information. Increasing the punishment for this crime will result in better deterrence for potential criminals, and fewer crimes of this sort being committed.” The bill has 25 co-sponsors, all Republicans.

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California Commissioner, Cal Poly Humboldt Working on Public Wildfire Model

Article 0 Comments California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and Cal Poly Humboldt plan to form a strategy group to undertake what Lara says will be the nation’s first public wildfire catastrophe model. The plan is for the group to draw from California’s research and higher education communities to make recommendations for a publicly accessible data source to predict future wildfire losses. Related: California Commissioner Invites Input on Final Phase of Wildfire Modeling Regulation A public wildfire catastrophe model would predict future losses and serve as a benchmark for insurance rates, provide accessible data for wildfire safety efforts and create educational and career opportunities for California students, according to the California Department of Insurance. Cal Poly Humboldt will chair the group and invite researchers and higher education leaders from across the California State University, the University of California and other areas. Cal Poly Humboldt is home to one of the state’s three accredited forestry programs. Related: 2.6M Homes with a Cost of $1.3 Trillion at Moderate to Very High Risk of Wildfire The strategy group will create recommendations for a public wildfire catastrophe model in alignment with a new regulation on catastrophe modeling and ratemaking that the Department of Insurance is...

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SelectQuote Sees Drop in Medicare Plan Sales Due to Payment Delay

SelectQuote is still happy with the Medicare plan market, and the insurance agency is hoping for strong sales in the upcoming annual enrollment period. But one of the big Medicare plan issuers it represents has changed its commission payment schedule, and that has forced the company to adjust its Medicare plan sales strategy for the upcoming annual enrollment period, company executives told securities analysts Friday. The new commission structure “resulted in a temporary capital constraint, which prevented us from hiring a larger agent class,” Ryan Clement, SelectQuote’s chief financial officer, told the analysts during a conference call. The cut in the number of Medicare agents will probably lead to a 10% to 15% drop in Medicare plan sales this fall, Clement said. He noted that the issuer’s overall commission payment rate is still attractive. What it means: Clement’s comments add to the evidence that the upcoming annual enrollment period could be challenging because of factors such as changes in federal Medicare plan support levels, Medicare plan marketing rules and Medicare Part D prescription drug plan benefit design requirements. The annual enrollment period for Medicare Advantage plans and Medicare prescription drug plans for 2025 is set to start Oct. 15 and run through...

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California Commissioner Issuing Moratorium on Cancellations for Wildfire Victims

Article 0 Comments California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has identified areas in the vicinity of the several ongoing large wildfires in the state that will be protected by a one-year moratorium on homeowners insurance non-renewal or cancellation due to wildfire risk. Lara’s action is in effect for communities affected by the Line Fire in San Bernardino County, the Bridge Fire in Los Angeles County and the Airport Fire in Orange and Riverside counties. The action follows emergency declarations from Gov. Gavin Newsom. The Bridge Fire east of Los Angeles has burned 54,690 acres, burned at least 33 homes and six cabins and forced the evacuation of 10,000 people. The fire is 11% contained. The Line Fire in Southern California has burned 39.026 acres in the San Bernardino mountains. It is 42% % contained. The Airport Fire in Southern California has burned 23,519 acres. It is 31% contained. Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire Was this article valuable? Thank you! Please tell us what we can do to improve this article. Submit No Thanks Thank you! % of people found this article valuable. Please tell us what you liked about it. Submit No Thanks Here are more articles you may enjoy....