Insurance Transformation: The protection Gap and the Latam opportunity.
Rodrigo Valiente
Vice President, Head of Digital | Business Development | Partnerships | Insurtech | Fintech | B2B | B2B2C | Go to Market | Business Builder | Team Builder | Startups | Latin America & USA
I've been holding off this article for quite some time, a lot have happened in 2021 (a yet another pandemic year) lots of action and changes within the industry, at Chubb, with my team, other teams, and myself that it was very hard to find the time and focus to put my thoughts down. So what better date than January 1st to share some ideas of what I see going forward for this year and beyond.
There couldn’t be a better time to be working in insurance than right now. Nowadays, Insuretech together with Fintech are probably the hottest sectors for anyone looking to work for a meaningful purpose.
Few industries offer a more noble and compelling value proposition, i.e. security forces “I’ll give my life for my country and/or its people”, healthcare “My job is to save your life” yet?in the middle of a pandemic it has really become?more like “I might lose my life by saving yours”, getting closer to the former ones really, thank you healthcare providers, you are our heroes!
For insurance has been “if you pass away we’ll make sure your family is taken care of”, “if your house becomes inhabitable, we’ll put you in a hotel and help you rebuild it until you can come back to it”, “if you got into a car accident we’ll lend you another one until it gets repaired”, and the list could go on and on. That is the promise, and is so powerful.?It has been proven time and time already that people who have protection recover their lifestyles, homes, and businesses much faster from catastrophic events for example than those who don't.
Traditionally, Insurance provided peace of mind: “if something happens to you, your loved ones, your business or your stuff we will be there for you”
Digital came to make the fulfillment on that promise a completely different experience, it has the potential in making it way easier and faster for you to get back on your feet when you are in trouble, eg: thanks to smart contracts (blockchain) and scrapping or mining publicly known information clients on certain situations would not need to file a single claim, “Rod, we learned that your flight got delayed, we credited $200 in your bank account, additionally you could click here to find hotels close to the airport or chat with one of our concierges if you need more personal assistance”. Digital makes true anticipation more feasible and that reduces stress and anxiety during those times of need. But that is just one example of what is possible in the short to mid term, it could actually go beyond that by helping to prevent certain particular problems to ever happen to you. Digital could actually reverse Murphy’s law "what could go wrong, will not go wrong this time".?
Imagine a world in which thanks to sensors, deep analytics, quantum computing, IoT and more connected devices, AI/ML, blockchain & DLT, and bioengineering, we would avoid car crashes, we could help you stay more active, eat smarter, sleep better and meditate so you can live a healthier and happier life, reading your DNA makeup we could help you take preemptive life choices to avoid suffering from certain diseases.
Wow!!! Mind bending. And this is not stuff from the Netflix show Black Mirror, all this tech and capabilities are out there already.
And in particular for Latin America, the potential to help the people of?our suffering and young region to have a better life?is extremely exciting.
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The protection gap in Latam is massive (Emerging EMEA, emerging APAC and Latin America have a combined gap of USD 816 billion), and by "insurance protection gap" we mean as the difference between the amount of insurance that is economically beneficial and the amount of coverage actually purchased.
Our region has more cellphones than people, smartphone usage has increased from 6hrs to +8hrs a day in 2021, internet penetration is at 75%?vs 90% in some developed nations, e-commerce penetration grew to 10% of retail sales but still far from USA at 30%, social media engagement is the biggest in the planet (Brazilians and Mexicans must have suffered a lot more during the outage of Mark Zuckerberg's conglomerate of facebook, instagram and whatsapp), until 5 years ago we had 6 unicorns now we are +30 , and few more rising to that status in upcoming months, VCs have invested $5B last year alone, 40% of that went to Fintechs, according to some estimates from investors and experts say that $1.5/$1.8 B would be invested in Insuretech within the next 2 years in Latin America, and all of these rounds are not just happening in Brasil or Mexico as it has been traditionally, now is much more frequent to see bigger rounds in Chile (which has +3 unicorns now), Colombia, Ecuador. Mobile wallets and digital payments are popping up like pop corn (see this great article by Gabriel Lazaro ) and when you read the surveys with the main reasons as to why customers are rapidly adopting these technologies you learn that is convenience and access. It is indeed super easy and fast to open a digital account and with it acquire products and services that couldn’t be accessed before. That is called inclusion! A problem we have had for decades, where a big chunk of the population couldn’t get basic financial services or services in general. Insurance penetration goes from 2% to 4% of GDP in the region compared to 12% in USA, 8% in Germany, the upside is phenomenal.
It is indeed super easy and fast to open a digital account and with it acquire products and services that couldn’t be accessed before. That is called inclusion!
Yet, its not going to be easy, there are several big challenges, despite these new payments systems is still a pretty much cash based economy, COVID has hit us harder than any other region. We have only 8% of the world population but we have had 32% of the deaths worldwide, people dropping below poverty line have increase to 40%, the region’s economy depends 99% of the SME’s activity and thousands have shut down permanently, governments have increased their debts to riskier percentages of their GDP, corruption is still very high in many countries of the region, connectivity and internal logistics are still inefficient. Vaccination rates are still low, we need Mexico, Brasil and the rest of the countries to catch up fast to help the dynamics of the region to get back on track.?
But hey! nothing is really meaningful if is not hard to achieve.?
I’m very bullish about the prospects of the region for this 2022 and beyond.
Digital brings such a radical change to Insurance, that is so exciting. I got into this amazing journey +5 years ago and already seeing some glimpses of what that New World could look like, feeds my heart, that is my “why?” , that is my purpose, that is why I wake up every morning and try to give my very best for the transformation and make of my region a better place for our lovely people.
Sources:
Global Business Leader | Dedicated Volunteer | Bridging Corporate Expertise with Community Impact
2 年Great motivating article Rodri!
Consultor Senior em Transforma??o Digital
2 年You are the man for the job!!!!
Insuring the things that you love | Creative Consumer Lines Solutions | Specialty Personal Lines
2 年Excelent and inspiring article my friend.
Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at La Caja | Generali Group
2 年Great post! Thanks for sharing Rodrigo
CEO & Founder
2 年muy bueno!