Stock tips, inflation and rethinking the rule book

Sure, most insurance execs see the upside of artificial intelligence, but there's also a big chunk not buying into the hype. According to 凯捷咨询 , while 62% of leaders in this industry recognize the benefits, many P&C underwriters are wary of automated recommendations. “Today’s insurer is operating in one of the most precarious environments in recent memory," Capgemini's Adam D. said. "The industry must react to this volatility by rethinking the underwriting rule book.”

You might also want to rethinking the rule book when it comes to investing in stocks. Name, companies actively managing climate risk because, as a new study from the 美国佛罗里达大学 points out, that's where the gains are to be made. “The divide in strategies and outcomes between proactive and non-proactive firms is quite stark,” researcher Yuehua Tang explained. “Companies being transparent about their climate vulnerabilities but also demonstrating tangible responses to mitigate those risks seem to be rewarded by markets.”

On that note, a recent report from Swiss Re illustrates how climate-related weather perils, which now cause annual losses of $200 billion – are said to be “intensifying to varying degrees.” Swiss Re's Mohit Pande predicted that this “boosts their potential to make larger contributions to future property losses.”

Looking out a couple decades offers an even bleaker picture. In fact, climate change through the middle of this century is likely to be far costlier than thought — to the tune of $38 trillion per year, a new study finds . This at a time when the world economy is already headed for a loss of 19% of income per capita globally within the next 26 years due to historical emissions warming the planet.

While those numbers may be a bit foreboding, the here and now is looking pretty good for the indusry by many measures.. No doubt, there were some big hits in the first quarter: the quake in Japan and the Baltimore Bridge collapse, to name just a couple of the headliners. But, according to analysts over at J.P. Morgan , total global insured losses will likely come in at less than $10 billion, which is a far cry from the $15 billion average we've seen over the past decade.

Clearly, everything is getting more costly. Inflation, in general, has certainly been a pain point for U.S. consumers, and homeowner's insurance is really delivering haymakers. According to Bloomberg Intelligence , these costs, which surged by 21% last year, are excluded from the Consumer Price Index, leading to a skewed perception of surging costs. If it were to be factored in, as some believe it should, another 0.8% would be added to last year's CPI rise of 3.4%.

And yet, the price of kitten GIFs has remained constant. This one's on us...

Have a great weekend, everybody!