Last month, Alex Astengo, UK Country Manager at Root, joined a panel of experts to discuss all things embedded insurance for the latest instalment of the  PropertyCasuatly360 “Future of” webcast series. Here we share some insights as to how those discussions played out 

By 2030, embedded insurance is expected to be a $70 billion market, but to make the most of this opportunity, insurers need to expand their product offerings and create a smoother, obstacle-free journey for middle-market buyers. But what exactly will it take to achieve this? 

To gain a greater understanding of this rapidly evolving market, PropertyCasuatly360 dedicated a "Future of" webcast episode dedicated to the future of embedded insurance, in which Roots’ very own Country Manager Alex Astengo was invited to join as a panellist. 

Moderated by Manmeet Singh Bawa, Senior Manager, Deloitte, Astengo was joined by fellow industry experts Keith Kremers, Director, Business Development, TruStage; Oliver Winkenbach, Senior Director, Go To Market Strategy, Guidewire; and Steve Hallo, managing editor of PropertyCasuatly360.com, who opened the episode with an overview of the embedded insurance market.

Embedded insurance comes in many forms; the most common is insurance that is offered at the point of sale of a third-party product; this could be car insurance during a car purchase, or travel insurance when booking a holiday. Such transactions are completed via the salesperson: at no point would the customer speak to an insurer. At the other end of the spectrum is hard embedded insurance, where coverage is automatically included as part of the transaction. There is also invisible embedded insurance, where insurance is embedded within the product sale, such as a warranty. 

As with any product lines, embedded insurance has its own fair share of pain points to contend with, such as integrating with third-party platforms, regulations, and data privacy laws. There are also distribution systems to think about. But above all, embedded insurance has to be seen as a value-add; for both insurers and customers, as was discussed by the panellists. 

“Embedded insurance is going to disrupt current ways of distribution, but it is likely to create new sets of alliances, particularly between carriers and non-financial insurance providers,” Manmeet said. “Data will be the value-add for insurers, to make embedded insurance real, to carry out product design and business models.”

“There is a huge hype around embedded insurance, everyone wants to jump in; but my advice would be to choose your partners carefully, and think strategically,” Alex said. “Insurers can generate whole new business models with embedded insurance, but only if they have the right building blocks; they need to align with their business partner's operating model, have a flexible base architecture that is highly configurable, have APIs, and the ability to plug and play. The customer experience needs to be seamless, and importantly, it needs to feel like it is part of the brand experience. This is harder to do with traditional technology stacks.”

As Alex added, the Open Embedded Insurance Observatory has recently identified how SMEs are a hugely underserved market. This naturally led conversations onto how to serve other areas of underserved sectors, and importantly, what insurers need to do to offer these customers value, at the right time, and in the right place, and above all – seamlessly. 

“Embedded is changing the dynamic of customer reach,” Keith explained. “We have the potential to reach uninsured demographics in middle markets. It is about finding opportunities where you have underserved consumers, finding out what they need, and then offering them a product at a meaningful time that broadens their protection.”

“Working from a technology perspective, sometimes we can overlook behavioural aspects of the equation,” Oliver added. “And while we can’t differentiate as much as we would like (from a consumer perspective) we can remove search costs. But if the premium is too high that will incentivize consumers to shop around, which means they jump out of the frictionless experience.”

Of course, to keep customers engaged and interested in embedded insurance products will take more than just a seamless experience; the products need to be on point too. Data – as the panellists agreed – will play a critical role in the future of embedded insurance, for both customers, insurers and their partners. Whether for product design, risk mitigation, capacity or preventative measures, data will be a critical component of the embedded insurance journey. It is, as Alex concluded, time for insurers to really think about their place in the ecosystem of protection.  

To listen to the webcast, please click here.