Nathan Golia

In the mid-2010s, it was taken as truth that insurers lagged behind other companies, especially in financial services, in implementing new technology. Looking to disrupt that perception, insurers launched innovation organizations, hiring senior executives to oversee ideation and execution with the goal of catching up to peers in banking and retail. Many of these innovation organizations followed the “skunkworks” model popularized by Silicon Valley.

Claims handling continues to account for the majority of consumer complaints, according to the NAIC. Data for 2025 finds the top three complaint categories to be delays in claim handling (22% of the total), unsatisfactory settlements (13%) and denials (12%). Those numbers are rising year over year. Despite moderation in insurance rates in 2025, complaints rose by 7%. That’s the second straight year of that level of increase.

Reports abound that the U.S. P&C industry performed better than expected in 2025, with the combined ratio for many bread-and-butter lines falling below 100 for the first time in several years. Especially in auto insurance, claims were lower than expected -- a welcome relief amid a flood of bad news in the early post-pandemic era. Many insurance companies are filing rate decreases in several states, but years of rate growth means there's still a tidy profit to be made.