'Traditional distribution channels are often no longer fit for purpose'- Insurance 2025 speaker, Sam Evans of Eos

Do you see a different future for distribution? 

“Yes, traditional distribution channels (and insurance products) are often no longer fit for purpose. Changing expectations around engagement, service and speed are increasingly challenging the norm. We expect to see distribution for personal lines move to just in time/need engagement models driven by digital connectivity and affinity partnerships.

“For commercial lines, risk management and service led propositions will start to dominate based on behavioural underwriting and active risk management. In both instances, the actual insurance product may sit in the background behind a customer led engagement platform.”

Where do you think companies should be looking now for inspiration? Where is the next trend coming from?

“Affinity and data partners can unlock significant opportunities, both in terms of connecting with large, engaged customer groups and having data to understand their behaviour, predict their needs and provide advice to mitigate adverse events. As a result we think insurers should be looking outside of the traditional insurance players for strategic partnerships.

“To be successful future business models will no longer be able to rely solely on internal capabilities and data hence the importance of these new relationships

“Interesting new areas include the use of genomics, transition of insurance from protection to service led solutions able to prevent and predict losses and further innovation in claims which is still under served.”

Are these going to be sustainable models?

“Business models based on access to large differentiated data sets and the capability to drive insights from the data to improve underwriting or claims will be successful.

“As an example Concirrus a marine analytics firm has strategic relationships with companies like Maersk, Eniram, Marsh and Willis to help build a proprietary data set with billions of rows of data.

“The combination of the data with their machine learning capabilities is driving the significant traction they are enjoying in the market. The power of affinity relationships is illustrated by Player’s Health, an athletes health and wellbeing platform, through their affinity partners they have access to over 40 million athletes.”

What do the smaller firms, who don’t have as much capital and backing behind them, do to keep up with the others?

“Smaller firms have the advantage of agility, flexibility and speed. They are also less constrained by legacy infrastructure.

“Culture is also an important aspect as we often see larger organisations tying themselves in knots when it comes to innovation. Smaller firms are able to quickly identify market needs and go after the opportunity.

“As a general comment, US start ups have access to larger funding pools and can typically raise more money earlier in their life cycle. Conversely Europeans have to be smarter in how they build their businesses and this often leads to more innovative solutions.”