 Overview: Chairs from ACT's Strategic Future Issues (SFI) and Changing Nature of Risk (CNoR) work groups—Rick Morgan, Steve Anderson and Jerry Fox—led a group breakout at the March 2017 ACT Annual Meeting. The goal of the breakout was to get insights into the key areas where these two work groups need to provide resources. A Facebook Live recording of this session can be found here. On a biennial basis, the ACT SFI Work Group creates and updates a Hard Trends document, which is meant to detail the top technology trends that will impact our distribution channel—things like mobile first, the connected society, cyber, business intelligence and others. However, the SFI Work Group realized that creating a Hard Trends document every other year isn't nearly enough to keep up with the rapidly changing landscape. One of the directions from the SFI group was to create the Changing Nature of Risk Work Group. This group very quickly began creating Risk Advisories. These advisories address specific trends like the Internet of things, 3D printing, drones, telematics, smart homes, Blockchain and many others. The advisories are two to three pages in length and: - Define the topic (What is it?)
- Detail the global, insurance and economic implications
- Provide resources for more information
- Recommend actions to be taken by carriers, vendors and agents.
On behalf of the Changing Nature of Risk Work Group, Jerry, Steve and Rick looked for input from the attendees on ways to make sure their Risk Advisories are as effective as possible so that they are used and positively impact the direction of our distribution channel.- One response from the attendees was that the technology behind these trends is the easy part but that the coverages are more difficult to identify and address. The CNoR Work Group will focus on creating advice on this aspect to the greatest extent possible.
- Another suggestion was that the information needs to get to different levels of decision makers at companies, vendors and agencies: underwriters, technology groups, sales, C-level leadership, etc. So we need to use the greatest number of channels possible to communicate—ACT, IIABA channels, social, carrier partner communications, TrustedChoice.com—and ensure they are getting to the right people at each company. Also, attendees said we should use existing platform tools such as Reference Connect, because many groups, carriers and others use these tools internally with groups such as underwriting. ACT will need to ensure we look across the potential vendor/platform offerings. Other suggestions are IRMI and Rough Notes.
- It was suggested that, as much as possible, we explain WHY the subject is relevant. This will lead to more engagement.
- It was suggested that once per quarter we have an ACT News e-newsletter edition focused only on Risk Advisories.
- We also are working with broader topics, such as Internet of things (IoT), to keep a broad overview, as well as possibly split these topics into subsections as they make sense.
The SFI Work Group now wants to identify the top three to five topics that the CNoR Work Group has used to create Risk Advisories and determine the must-do actions ACT and the industry need to undertake. This could be creation of a new ACT work group or renewing/redirecting an existing group.
Attendees used PollEverywhere mobile software to vote on the top areas that the SFI Work Group should focus on. They are in descending order of number of votes: - Cyber Liability
- Smart Homes & Buildings
- Drones
- The Sharing Economy
- 3D Printing
- Artificial Intelligence/AI
- Work from Home/Virtual Employee Base
- Peer-to-Peer/P2P
- Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency
- Telematics
NEXT STEPS for the ACT Strategic Future Issues & Changing Nature of Risk Work Groups:- The chairs of the both work groups will meet to review the breakout takeaways.
- Both full work groups will then meet to review this information, agree upon specific ways to address the top "must-dos" for SFI and assess the suggested ways to improve effectiveness of the Risk Advisories for the Changing Nature of Risk Work Group.
FROM THE EDITOR: Thanks to Boyd McGehee for acting as an additional scribe. Interested in joining either one of these work groups? Simply send an email to act@iiaba.net. |