My insurance career began 11 years ago when a pair of agency owners invited me to lunch. At that time, I worked as a payroll & benefits consultant and assisted them with a change in ownership structure. They were impressed by my professionalism, persistence, and marketing skills. I was interested in their laser-focus on the high net worth market and their vision for what they wanted to build in that space. Soon after our lunch, I joined the firm in a business development capacity and was also given the opportunity to work on projects the firm needed.

High Net Worth Designation Program Through Chubb and Wharton

In 2015, I was extremely fortunate to be offered the opportunity to participate in an educational program created through a collaboration between Chubb Insurance Company and The Aresty School of Executive Education at The Wharton School.  

The purpose of the program was to expand each participant’s knowledge about the high net worth space and challenge them to think outside the box. As part of the program, participants were required to create a project that solved a problem in the industry. Some projects focused on client education while others delved into marketing strategy. My project focused on using technology to attract high net worth clients online.

The problem or challenge I experienced was conveying my value proposition to a wider audience. My solution was to build a brand online where I could share my knowledge and expand awareness for my services through digital marketing.  The name of my project was InsureScope, which is a website that attracts new clients through digital marketing. This website is an additional source of new business leads and continues to grow.

 

InsurTech Influence

At the time I was going through the program with Chubb and Wharton, the InsurTech Revolution was taking off. Conferences focused on the convergence of technology and insurance were becoming popular, local organizations were sponsoring networking events and competitions, and thought leaders were starting to emerge.

I became interested in the movement and wanted to be a part of it. The opportunity to be involved in something that could cause massive change in the insurance industry was too good to pass up. So I jumped in. I started attending networking events in Boston, Hartford, and New York City. I met entrepreneurs, technologists, venture capitalists, and other people who were working to integrate technology into every aspect of the insurance industry.  It was an energizing environment with many interesting ideas and people.

I also participated in a hackathon, sponsored by InsurTech Hartford, where I led a team of impressive students and driven professionals to compete for a cash prize. Over the course of a weekend, we built a prototype of a business idea I shared with them. That business idea was RiskRevu.com.

 

What is RiskRevu.com?

RiskRevu.com is a client engagement platform for insurance agents to use with their clients. The platform provides agents with pre-built digital forms they can share with clients and other parties so they can gather information digitally.

There are three categories of forms currently provided on the platform: Renewal questionnaires, quoting forms, and service related forms. Users can login to their account to access questionnaire responses and copy links to the various forms. Form responses are sent by email to users once they are submitted and can also be saved as PDFs to be attached to an agency management system.

In addition, agencies can utilize the multi-user feature of RiskRevu to give everyone on their team their own accounts and forms. This allows them to avoid purchasing multiple licenses of a digital form software and spending a lot of time creating their own forms.  

There is also a collaboration aspect to RiskRevu.com when it comes to new digital forms development. We work with our users to generate ideas for new forms and then design and create those forms to add to RiskRevu.

 

Improving Agency Efficiency and Uncovering Hidden Exposures

I have been building digital forms to use with my clients for more than three years. There are many different products on the market that allow you to build digital forms and they all have similar features with variations in user experience. I enjoyed working with these tools, but mostly I appreciated the time they saved me with collecting valuable information from clients and related parties.

In my role as a producer, I was typing the same questions over and over again and playing phone tag trying to complete a risk profile for a new client. Digital forms simplified that process to one email or text message with a link to a form included. I was able to use the time saved to conduct more client reviews, cross-sell additional policies and add value to my relationships.

Forms also brought the additional benefit of being able to ask a client or prospect only the questions that were relevant to them. This was due to the use of “conditional logic” in the forms. Basically, the form would ask a “Yes/No” question and depending on how that question was answered another would show up. An example of this is below:

 

“Will you be renovating your new home prior to moving in?”

Yes or No?

 

If the individual filling out the form answered “Yes,” additional questions would show up asking the following:

 

“How long will the renovation take?”

“Please provide a brief description of the renovation.”

“What is the approximate budget for the renovation?”

 

If the individual filling out the form answered “No,” the form would move to the next question.

Another problem that digital forms solved was remembering the questions to ask for a particular type of insurance. There may be types of insurance that agents do not work with regularly, such as Travel Insurance.  It can be easy for agents to forget the questions that need to be asked to obtain a quote for unfamiliar insurance policies. The forms are designed to get all of the information needed to obtain a quote, and they never forget. This is helpful for producers who specialize in one area, but have clients requesting quotes for insurance outside of their specialty. The producer can simply forward a link to the appropriate quote form to their client to obtain the information needed to obtain a quote.

 

Improving The Client Experience

Digital forms were not only making my work easier, but they were adding significant value for my clients. I spoke with my clients after they completed digital forms to ask them about the experience and their feedback was very positive. Clients liked the ability to complete the form on their time tables.  They were also pleasantly surprised by how quickly they were able to complete the forms. It took less time than a phone call or email.

Beyond the actual experience of completing the forms, clients appreciated the value they received. I was able to deliver quotes faster, save them money, and offer advice about the risks they were most concerned about.

One of the forms I use most is the “Annual Personal Insurance Review” form. This form enables clients to answer risk assessment questions for their residence(s), automobile(s), valuable articles, watercraft, and liability insurance all in one form. The questions are designed to uncover areas of risk that can have an impact on the clients insurance needs or rates. One question that has saved clients money is, “Did you pay off any auto loans?” This is something that is sometimes forgotten in the review process, but can help reduce premiums. Another question that has brought value to clients and producers is, “Did you start a business?” I placed many business policies for clients because of this question.

Ultimately, digital forms made it possible for me to stay up to date with more of my clients in an efficient manner.

 

Collaboration Revolution!

The world is collaborating to do more together (than can be done individually) and technology is enabling it. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Salesforce are all examples of tools that people use to collaborate. Many industries are benefiting from the use of these tools to become more efficient. The same concepts that are successful for other industries can be used in the insurance industry as well.

The InsurTech Revolution is about people working together to improve the way the insurance is delivered to consumers. My belief is that agents should be part of this revolution and help technologist, consultants, insurance companies and other parties work to find solutions to the common problems facing the Insurance Industry. Agents have valuable information and experience that will help move the industry move forward.

I built RiskRevu.com to collaborate with fellow agents and to help push us all forward. I believe that we can accomplish a lot more together.

 

Note: Kurt was recently featured on Profiles in Risk Episode 109 in both video and audio and you can see a demo of RiskRevu.