May 2021 – To enable rapid entry into profitable niches, specialty insurers are differentiating themselves in a competitive marketplace through investments in distribution (especially new business submission), product development, underwriting, and claims.
This report provides an overview of specialty insurers’ business and technology issues, data about the marketplace, and about 20 examples of recent technology investments by specialty insurers.
Topics
- Recent market and financial trends
- Active insurer landscape
- Technology issues, priorities, and examples by functional area
- Top technology priorities for 2021 and beyond
Key Points and Findings
Insurers are pursuing long-term data strategies. Specialty insurers are prioritizing reporting tools and investing in data science capabilities to optimize their portfolios and improve underwriting. Ingesting unstructured text is a newer area of focus, leveraging AI, ML, and NLP.
Improved underwriting and product development flexibility are key considerations. Insurers are upgrading to highly configurable policy administration systems to improve underwriting and enable product development flexibility to accelerate entry to profitable niches.
Specialty insurers are investigating automation support for ingesting new business application documents and building out broker platforms. Digital broker platforms and API catalogs are also assisting in automation.
About the Author
Mitch Wein
Mitch Wein is an Executive Principal in the Insurance Practice at Datos Insights. He has expertise in international IT leadership and transformation as well as technology strategy for banking, insurance (life, annuities, personal, commercial, specialty), and wealth management. Prior to joining Datos Insights, Mitch served in senior technology management positions at numerous financial institutions. At Bankers Trust (now Deutsche Bank), he automated...
Other Authors
Eric Weisburg
Eric Weisburg is a Senior Principal at Datos Insights. His expertise lies in insurance technology, data, and analytics, and distribution, underwriting, and finance. Eric has over 20 years of LAB and P/C insurance industry, consulting, and IT experience. Prior to Datos Insights, Eric served as Managing Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Tower Group Companies and VP at AIG, where he...
Steven Kaye
Steven Kaye is Head of Knowledge Management at Datos Insights, and lead editor of the firm’s Business and Technology Trends in Insurance series. He has managed a wide range of research projects since joining the firm in 2008. Previously, Steven worked for Accenture as an insurance researcher focused on the U.S. life and property/casualty markets. He also served in both knowledge management...