The INSURTECH Book

InsurTech – Problem or Solution for Agents and Brokers?

By Michael Jans

CEO, Michael Jans Advisory

Twenty years ago, where would you have gone to find thousands of brokers gathered in one room? One of the national trade association conventions. Where would you go to find thousands of brokers today? At the technology conventions. Technology drives the insurance business. Even at the broker level.

And the biggest changes are yet to come.

Many brokers may not be aware – yet – but a lot of professionals and market experts are betting against them in the upcoming “technology tsunami” of InsurTech. Some predict that the gradual trend-line of slow erosion will become the rapid drop-off of disruption.¹ Clearly, some industry macro-trends leave legacy providers behind, such as buggy whip makers, for example. Others challenge us to wake up, catch up – and win.

What will the InsurTech revolution mean for today’s broker channel? Most InsurTech investments are somewhere between “unfriendly” and “hostile” to today’s incumbent broker. But not all. Some, in fact, help make the broker an important part of the InsurTech revolution. The right technology helps brokers fulfil the promise no other channel really makes. That’s the promise of real people serving real people. It’s the promise of human connectedness. It’s the promise of personal advice and personal advocacy. And it’s the promise of the comfort and confidence of having people on your side. This is the soft but powerful magic that binds ...