Hurricanes, soft markets and the battle for relevancy

Batten down the hatches... June is here and the storm's are brewin'!

“All signs point to a hurricane season that will impact the continental U.S.,” said Sean Kevelighan , chief executive officer of the Insurance Information Institute . “Residents who live in coastal states from Maine to Texas are vulnerable to the direct impacts of hurricanes and tropical storms."

Drilling into the specifics, it's looking rather grim for some of the riskiest housing markets when it comes to the intensifying climate, according to the latest from?CoreLogic . This is especially the case in storm-torn Louisiana, where two markets top the list based on natural-disaster probability, specifically hurricane and inland flood primary risks: Plaquemines and Jefferson Parishes.

Meanwhile,?Aon ?President?Eric Andersen ?told brokers at a?CFC ?conference last month the industry is "losing traction" and has gotten itself "in a box" due to several issues, which were laid out by?Insurance Business America .

Does that mean a "Blockbuster moment" is upon us? According to?George Beattie , the head of innovation at?CFC , it's possible that we see a scenario in which the industry's "products and services are no longer good enough to serve their target demographic and they’re replaced by more agile players.”

Avoiding such a fate could hinge on the industry's embrace of the tech revolution. Insurers, in reaction to nosebleed rate increases, are flocking to digital channels to meet the growing online needs of the customer, according to research from data analytics and consumer intelligence firm?J.D. Power .

So, yes, we're still navigating a hard market, but as WTW 's John Drummond recently pointed out in the?company's Insurance Marketplace Realities Report , "the larger trend is bending in a positive direction for buyers.”

How long will rising rates last? RLI Insurance Company 's Jen Klobnak dropped a truism on Carrier Management . "We are in insurance, which means sometime it’s going to turn," she said. "No matter how much you try to improve, how you look at life – the softening of the market is a given in the insurance industry."

Death, taxes... and soft markets. Happy June, everybody!