MSV Life, Malta's largest life insurer, recently held a half-day staff conference on the significant trends that are reshaping the life insurance industry.
MSV Life CEO David G. Curmi addressed the conference stating that the insurance industry is currently passing through a phase of brutal disruption by people from outside the industry. These so-called "disruptors" are using approaches and business models that are unfamiliar to the insurance industry. As a consequence, Mr Curmi said the rate of change inside the insurance industry was far slower than the rate of change outside the industry. Mr Curmi suggested that rather than resist the disruptors, people in the insurance industry should become disruptors themselves. Insurance companies need to break traditional models and fast. Mr Curmi stressed that technology will redefine insurance business at a pace never seen before.
To discuss these trends, three guest speakers where invited to tackle the subject from different perspectives, from overcoming psychological and physical limitations, to the latest developments in IT which will completely change the customer experience.
Reinhold M. Karner, a fellow of various international top-level think tanks and Chairman of the Advisory Board for Enterprise Systems at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, gave a presentation on the digital business revolution and how the advancement in technology will change the way people connect with each other, making businesses more efficient and delivering results in real time.
On a completely different note, water treatment engineer and hydrologist Marco Cremona who climbed the world's highest peaks including Mount Everest, took the audience on an interesting journey of mental determination to challenge the comfort zones to reach goals and conquer more challenging ambitions. Engineer Cremona emphasized that one is not necessarily born a natural star, but commitment and mental strength can make one achieve anything in life, so long as one is ready to face fear in the face and have the courage to believe in oneself and abilities one may not necessarily be aware of.
To round up the seminar, Darryl Stewart made a presentation on 'Save Up - Rethinking the Insurance User Experience'. Mr Stewart is a senior actuary within the Life Financial Solutions business at Munich Re in Munich with responsibility for the development of structured reinsurance transactions targeting financial risk transfer or strategic capital management objectives.
"Today the secret in life insurance business is about providing clients with products that offer financial flexibility that match the ever-changing lifestyle of people," said Mr Stewart. "It is also about offering minimum performance guarantees, so that clients do not feel that they have to bear all the risks themselves."