Back in 2014, we wrote an article called “7 Ways to Keep Up With Insurance”, since then MUCH has changed, so here is an updated version.

As the Insurance Industry goes through tumultuous change, it is imperative that dedicated insurance professionals stay up to date with what is going on in our industry. What follows are InsNerds.com’s favorite ways to keep up to date and stay on the cutting edge:

1. Read The Insurance Journal, PropertyCasualty360.com and at least one trade journal from your area of the industry

IJ is my personal favorite, and I really love that they publish the full PDF version of their magazine for free for the first 4 weeks that it’s out. You can get your free copy here. Make sure you put it on your schedule to check it out every couple of weeks, and at least, download it while it’s free, so you can read it when you have time. IJ also has an App which is worth checking out. PropertyCasualty360, by National Underwriter, is also available here and free to download on PDF, but it’s a little harder. Click on the “Download” link on the top right of the page.

2. Become a Google News Alert Ninja

GNA is an amazing tool that you can set up to notify you whenever a new article appears about a topic you’re interested in, making it so you are one of the first to know about the article. Set up alerts for whichever insurance topics you’re most interested in, and automate the process of staying up to date.

3. Twitter

Every company has at least one twitter handle. At a minimum, you should follow your company’s feed. Following your competitors’ feeds is also interesting. You’ll be kept up to date on new product offerings and may even learn something from outside your sector of the industry.

4. Attend CPCU Society Events and Read Their Publications:

One of the best ways to keep up to date is to become active with your local chapter of the CPCU Society, and if at all possible, attend the Annual Meeting and/or Leadership Summit. You will always find quality speakers at these events. Finally, the quarterly publication, Insights, and the newsletters of the interest groups are some of the best technical insurance publications out there.

5. Browse McKinsey Quarterly and McKinsey Financial Services Insight

World class consulting firm McKinsey has a free in-depth quarterly magazine that has a collection of interesting articles, and there’s usually at least one or two on issues that affect the insurance and financial industry. Though this is not a dedicated insurance publication, at least browse it, and make sure you do read any related articles. Their Financial Services area is especially worth checking out.

6. Read Emphasis, a quarterly magazine for insurance executives by insurance consulting company extraordinaire Towers Watson

The articles are in-depth, cutting-edge, and genuinely excellent. We don’t know many lower and mid-level insurance professionals who read it, so this one is a bit of a secret. Give yourself the upper hand by reading the magazine the executives in our industry read. Read it here.

7. Our very favorite source for cutting edge thinking in our industry is without question Dave Dias’ Insurance Thought Leadership

Since 2010, ITL has strived to become an invitation-only platform where the top thought leaders from all corners of our industry post their best ideas about everything from Actuarial Analysis to Workers Comp. ITL has developed a loyal following of 300,000+ readers, and if you’re not one of them, you’re quite simply falling behind! ITL was the inspiration for InsNerds.com which of course you should also check out often to keep up-to-date!

8. To keep up with the daily pulse of the #insurtech world Coverager is the place to be:

Coverager posts multiple posts each day about everything going on with insurtech. Their newsletter is a MUST read.

9. For in-depth technical commentary, don’t miss Insurance Commentary

Bill Wilson is a living legend in our industry, technically he retired in 2016 but he keeps contributing to our industry at Insurance Commentary.  We were also honored to have him on The Attachment Point, recently!

10. For agents and brokers, Agency Nation is a must:

Ryan Hanley’s Agency Nation is backed by TrustedChoice and is something like the InsNerds of that side of the industry.

11. Rough Notes:

Serving insurance agents since 1878, Rough Notes had a bit of a rough transition into the information age but now has a solid website and is well worth checking out periodically.

12. Hugh Terry’s The Digital Insurer

With a strong focus in Asia and Europe The Digital Insurer is a great way to keep up with the world of insurance outside the US.

13. Sign up for the InsNerds Newsletter:

Finally, to make sure you never miss one of our awesome articles sign up for our newsletter: Click here to sign up!