SIX TRENDS HELP SHAPE THE FUTURE OF INSURANCE BROKERS

By Accenture Insurance—Financial Services

How emerging digital technologies are putting the broker’s role at risk. The future will reward digital insurers, those that adapt to, and embrace, digital transformation. Disruptive technologies
continue to disintermediate insurance brokers, whose future relevance is at risk. Brokers are currently facing stagnant business growth and lost revenues as customers seek out value-added services that deliver the transparency and control they need.

Brokers would do well to mind these six trends in insurance broking to find ways to adapt and thrive in this changing environment.

Brokers at risk: Digital disruptors, particularly in fintech, are changing the way people interact with insurance brokers. The broker’s role is being displaced by technology that serves customers convenient and personalized offers that are quicker and more accurate than even the most highly experienced broker can manage.
Revenue erosion: Digital improvements and automation are saving customers money in the form of lower intermediary commissions and fees. This could cause broking revenues to decrease by up to 20 percent. Brokers must be looking for ways to combat this decrease through innovation and service changes.
Startups target insurance: New entrants are finding ways to provide the SME (small-to-medium enterprise) market with customized solutions that, in many cases, disintermediate brokers.
Poaching large accounts: Brokers will need to protect and defend their core business from carriers, reinsurers and other farsighted brokers, who are luring accounts with their attractive direct-to-customer services, such as analytics-driven aggregation.
First-mover advantage: In Accenture’s report, “The broker of the future: Winning in a disruptive environment”, 84 percent of surveyed insurance executives agree that traditional organizations must evolve their business before they’re disrupted. Brokers taking the lead in digital transformation are reaping significant rewards.
Platforms beat products: Insurance executives expect platform business models to become a big part of their growth strategies. As brokers look for ways to provide more value to customers, platforms are becoming more vital by increasing efficiencies, risk prevention and scalability. Insurance brokering will not become obsolete. Customers will continue to seek out brokers’ independent advice. But, if brokers want to remain competitive in a time of stagnating growth, they must respond and adapt to increasing trends caused by digital disruption.

“MAXIMIZE YOUR POSITIVE IMPACT””

Addressing the questions: Am I making progress? Does my work really impact? Or What should I really do with my life? Isn’t just a productivity issue: it’s more of a moral imperative. It’s how we hold ourselves accountable to the opportunities we are given. Have you asked yourself after a long day at work, “what’s my calling?” Your calling isn’t something you inherently “know,” some kind of destiny. Far from it. Almost all the people I know found their calling after great difficulty. They had made mistakes before getting it right. So what do you do in order to maximize your impact?

As soon as you begin the work, begin also to improve on the work. Try and observe what’s going wrong, what’s going right, and adjust accordingly. Don’t use being busy as an excuse for being ineffective. Make the effort, and make the effort bring results. Just because you are occupied doesn’t mean you are making progress. Stay busy, and look for signs to confirm you’re moving forward, not merely running in place. It’s admirable and useful to push through your own frustration. Yet when you’re repeatedly encountering frustration, figure out a more effective approach. You’re investing irreplaceable time and skillful effort, so don’t invest wastefully. Seek to maximize your positive impact and expand the value you’re able to create.

Do the work, and hold your work to a high standard. Don’t let yourself do any less than the best you can do. When you wake up and realize that you have more impact than you think, you also have a choice: Will you have a positive impact or a negative impact? You have a great deal of power over your environment and your influence on this world. Your impact equals your legacy. The impression you leave on this life and others is your legacy. You have the ability to become responsible for your actions and be intentional about your path. You can be intentional about your influence and your impact. Based on what you want your environment to reflect, your influence will matter a great deal. There’s an old saying: you get what you give.

So why care about your impact? Because your impact defines your reality, you either care or opt out of hav-ing an opinion. It’s like voting. If you don’t vote, you can’t complain about who got elected. If you aren’t intentional about your impact, you can’t complain about where your life takes you. If you want to drive the bus of your life, you must be own your impact.

IIZ ANNUAL FUNDRAISING GOLF TOURNAMENT – FRIDAY 14 JUNE 2019

“If you think its hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball.” IIZ brings you The IIZ Annual Fundraising Golf Tournament at the Chapman Golf Club on the 14th of June 2019. Join us for yet another exciting Par-Tee-Time for a round of Golf. Lot’s of exciting prizes to be won. Register today for Exhibition, Sponsorship and Participation. Visit our website for more information www.iizim.co.zw