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Articles by Shay Alon
8 Strategic Imperatives for Life/Annuity Insurers
From 2022 to 2024, the U.S. life and annuity industry delivered extraordinary results, with record sales, expanding margins, and strong capital inflows. That momentum began to soften in 2025, with early indicators pointing to a more challenging environment ahead. It is tempting to assume that 2026 will restore the conditions of 2024. I believe that is a risky bet. The market has moved on, the environment has changed, and the assumptions that supported recent growth no longer hold in the same way.
Beyond the boom: 8 strategic priorities for life & annuity executives in 2026
The US life and annuity industry experienced remarkable growth from 2022 to 2024, with record sales, expanding margins, and strong capital inflows. However, as we moved into 2025, early signs of a slowdown began to emerge. While it might be tempting to assume that 2026 will revert to the favorable conditions of 2024, I believe this assumption could be risky. As we enter 2026, I think there are several strategic areas that Life and Annuity executives should consider. Here are some thoughts: 1.
Life and Annuity Issuers Need AI Literacy
What is the temporary “senior deduction” deduction for taxpayers age 65 and over? What is the temporary deduction for auto loan interest? What is the temporary deduction for overtime income? What is the temporary deduction for tip income? What is a high deductible health plan for purposes of an HSA? Are remote workers eligible for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)?
Insurance News: Data & AI shaping the future of insurance
In recent times, the insurance industry has been at the forefront of addressing some of the most pressing challenges of our era. From the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles to the gender pension savings gap, the role of insurance in mitigating risks and providing financial security has never been more critical. In this Insurance News Analysis, I am joined by Deborah McBrearty, Chloe Harmer and Belinda Djamson to delve into how data and AI is shaping the future of insurance.
How to achieve profitable portfolio decarbonization in insurance
Throughout history, insurers have been pivotal in driving social change, enabling human progress, innovation, and prosperity. From seatbelts to vaccines and fire-retardant materials, insurers have fostered numerous innovations. Nowadays, they face a new monumental challenge: climate change. 2024 has been another record loss year for insurers driven by natural catastrophes linked to climate change. Insurers are hence seeking greener pastures.
3 life insurance underwriting predictions for 2025
Fueled by rapid technological advancements, demographic changes and shifting consumer expectations, the Life & Annuity industry is set for several transformative changes in 2025. Swiss Re forecasts average global real premium growth of 2.6% in 2025 and 2026, with life insurance projected to expand globally by 3% annually— more than twice the pace of the past decade. In this evolving landscape, staying ahead of the curve is not just a competitive advantage; it’s a necessity for survival.
Three key levers to reinvent insurance customer relationships
In today’s competitive landscape, the lines between product and price offerings among Asian insurers are blurring, compelling companies to find innovative ways to capture customer attention and secure their business. As a result, customer engagement and experience have become paramount to success.
The guide to generative AI for insurance
Insurers that focused on modernizing technology and improving their data, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities are now able to incorporate generative AI (gen AI) as a natural next step on their reinvention journey. Gen AI is changing everything. It is being used throughout the value chain to improve customer interactions, streamline operations and support decision-making.
Beyond premiums: What really drives customer loyalty?
Personal lines insurance is very price-sensitive. As discussed previously, maintaining a 20+% expense ratio is not feasible for insurers. Beyond pricing, what truly fosters customer loyalty, and how can insurers compete to increase their market share?
5 areas of algorithmic underwriting advantage
Use of algorithmic underwriting is increasing across the insurance industry. With enhanced decision-making and improved risk assessments, an algorithmic approach to underwriting can optimize operations for insurers and experience for their customers. In this post we delve into the evolution and advantages of algorithmic underwriting and share our insights on building and scaling an algorithmic underwriting platform.
4 strategic ways to achieve a 12 - 15% expense ratio
Navigating the competitive P&C personal lines market The global P&C personal lines market, which historically saw premium growth at 3%, has risen sharply to more than 15% in the last two years. Despite this premium growth, the expense ratio for most insurers remains in the high-cost range of 20 – 30%. The need for operational efficiency has never been more critical.
A new day for risk in insurance
Risk used to be relatively simple. If a local bakery wanted insurance, you would worry about the structure, the location, how it operated and could have a pretty good view of its risk profile.
3 ways insurance underwriters can gain insights from generative AI
Generative AI (GenAI) has the potential to transform the insurance industry by providing underwriters with valuable insights in the areas of 1) risk controls, 2) building & location details and 3) insured operations. This technology can help underwriters identify more value in the submission process and make better quality, more profitable underwriting decisions. Increased rating accuracy from CAT modeling means better, more accurate pricing and reduced premium leakage.
3 life insurance underwriting predictions for the year ahead Original
Life insurance stands on the cusp of a new chapter in reinvention. Until now, insurers have been gradually moving forward with wide-scale digital transformation. But with the impacts of AI, including generative AI, change is coming fast. We’re in a vibrant new year, and life insurers are starting to accelerate and implement their reinvention strategies. This is the time to be bold. These underwriting predictions offer insights into how carriers can take action to truly become digital this year.
Maximizing investment in policy administration systems Original
Today’s cloud-based policy administration systems (PAS) are designed to enable both P&C and Life insurers to manage policies through their entire lifecycle and are the foundation of carriers’ digital strategies. These types of platforms are a boon to carriers looking for ways to enhance their customer relationships and develop more effective offerings but many carriers aren’t leveraging the full potential of these systems.
New consumer paradigms for insurance
The way consumers shop for insurance has greatly changed over the past 20 years. From the rise of digital direct (and more recently, embedded) to having the option to provide data for better prices, consumers have more influence than ever before.
Life insurance ecosystems ignite innovation
I am encouraged to see ever-expanding ecosystems in the life insurance space. They’re helping insurers bring in more diverse data, specialized skills, leading-edge technologies and new ideas that spark innovation. Moreover, these benefits are accessible through trusted partners, rather than insurers making costly and time-consuming investments to build the capabilities themselves.
Insurance News: When states are the insurers of last resort
The insurance industry and public sector both play a critical role in helping to mitigate risk for customers and constituents. But, as costs to insure property and long-term care in the U.S. rise, states increasingly become the insurers of last resort. In this Insurance News Analysis, we focus on the U.S. market and the areas of risk that more states are assuming.
Insurance News: The heat is on-from climate change to claims
From catastrophic events linked to climate change to social unrest, the insurance industry is seeing big claims. While some risks are more easily predicted than others, new data sources may help insurers and customers find ways to turn down the heat. In this Insurance News Analysis, Abbey Compton and I talk about new data from satellites that show extreme land surface temperatures in cities.
Life insurers reveal tech strategies to boost CX
The tech-powered operating model research, shows that a broad enterprise technology strategy is crucial for business success. Part of that success comes from a leader’s ability to scale technology to drive exceptional customer experiences and new value propositions. In support of such an endeavor, insurers, driven by speed to market with new and differentiated products, are modernizing their core insurance systems and moving them to the cloud.
Insurers harness cloud power and reduce tech debt
Insurers understand the need to replatform by migrating to the cloud to enable innovation and growth. At the same time, they are taking a hard look at their legacy blocks to determine the business value of converting them. Doing so opens the possibility to decommission the legacy systems and reduce their technical debt. Some carriers are using their company’s enterprise cloud initiatives, while others are taking a hosted approach that lets them accelerate product innovation.
Insurance News: Generative AI experience, efficiency and risk
Every day we see headlines about generative AI. For the insurance industry, this technology offers acceleration in many areas in which AI-led transformation is already underway. But, like any emerging technology, it also introduces new areas of risk. In this Insurance News Analysis, Abbey Compton and I are joined by Daria Lee Sharman for a discussion of the topics she highlights in her article, 7 challenges the insurance industry is facing with generative AI.
Electric car insurance: making sustainable choices practical
As fuel prices rise and the world becomes increasingly conscious of the impacts of climate change, demand for electric vehicles is growing. Insurers can be key in helping their customers navigate the obstacles and opportunities of electric vehicles. As I shared in my post 5 predictions for the insurance industry in 2022, we expect the global market for electric vehicles to be $725 billion in 2026.
AI is the transformative technology for insurers
For the insurance industry, the health and safety benefits of wearables and other IoT-connected devices is well established. But meeting new customer demands for protection goes beyond capturing user-generated data. What matters now is how an insurer and their ecosystem partners use the data shared with them by the customer. And whether they have the right mix of talent and technology to optimize its use.
5 predictions for the insurance industry in 2021
For many, 2021 can’t arrive soon enough. Whether or not COVID-19 struck close to home, it disrupted all our home and work lives. For insurers, it brought disruptions no one anticipated. Last January, insurers rang-in 2020 with every expectation of a prosperous year ahead. Global premiums had passed an all-time high of $5 trillion, and the World Bank projected US GDP would increase by 1.6 percent.
Innovating in the Ecosystem Space
In June I spoke with Manulife’s Sushmita Munshi to film our first “Evolving Ecosystems” podcast. Munshi heads ManulifeMOVE, a behaviour-linked programme that integrates activity-tracking and insurance solutions to motivate healthy habits. The first bloglooked at the importance of data, while the secondexamined how to develop ecosystem partnerships. In our final blog, we assess the technical aspects ofinnovating and developing solutions for such ecosystems.
Top insurance innovators shine despite COVID-19 cloud
Discovery named Global Innovator of 2020 as carriers across the world quickly adapt to huge changes sweeping the insurance industry. Insurance pioneer Discovery has won the top accolade at this year’s Efma-Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards. The carrier was named Global Innovator of the Year. This is a great achievement for the South African company, which has a long track record of innovation and creativity in insurance.
How customers have changed.
The swift response of many insurers to the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted an abundance of opportunities for carriers to enhance the services and support they provide their customers, employees and local communities. Insurance providers have rolled out an array of innovative solutions.
Upscaling is key to good returns on technology
A Future Systems strategy helps insurers quickly scale up innovation throughout their organizations and release value trapped in their technology investments. Smart carriers are turning to a Future Systems technology strategy to ready themselves for the growing disruption that is set to hit the insurance industry. This approach, as I discussed in my previous blog post, enables insurers to quickly scale up innovation throughout their organizations.
What is Descriptive Analytics?
When advanced analytics burst onto the scene several years ago, it was primarily the purview of actuaries and analysts, allowing many of us to ignore the science and practice of this new dark art. In the intervening years however, analytics has emerged as an important component of almost every aspect of successful insurance operations. As some began using analytics in more complex ways, most of the writings and discussion around the topic became equally more complicated.
The blockchain breakthrough in insurance
Beyond the hype, a glimpse of blockchain’s real value From blockchain’s early years, the insurance industry has grasped the potential advantages of a distributed ledger system that ensures consistency of data across a network. Many insurers were quick out of the starting blocks with distributed ledger technology (DLT) pilots and proofs of concept to experiment with its potential as a disruptive technology.
Key steps for optimizing your cloud transformation
We know from Accenture’s Cloud Readiness Study that insurers recognize the many benefits of cloud adoption and are ready to get started on their transformation. As I explained in my previous post, there are four key focus areas that can help you expand and accelerate your cloud transformation, putting you in the best position to begin a full cloud migration. The following four key steps can help ensure your journey to the cloud is smooth. Set priorities.
4 ways to strengthen digital insurance strategies
Insurers need to get out from under their multiple aging policy administration systems to unlock business value from data and to fund innovation. Insurers with a strong digital core will be able to innovate faster. If you follow fitness trends, you know the benefits of strong core muscles, including speed, balance and stability. Your policy administration system (PAS) provides the same benefits, particularly amidst our industry’s continued digital disruption.
Accenture ranked #37 in Interbrand Best Global Brands 2016 report
Interbrand has just ranked Accenture #37 on its Best Global Brands 2016 list, giving us the highest ranking on the list that we have ever received. Interbrand, a global brand agency specializing in brand strategy, creativity and technology, publishes the highly influential Best Global Brands and Breakthrough Brands reports annually. Interbrand’s methodology aims to provide a clear picture of how a brand contributes to business growth today, and how it plans to deliver further growth tomorrow.
Organizational DNA holds new, untapped opportunities for insurers
There is vast potential for the insurance industry to tap into its own workforce data As one of the oldest, most established and data-rich industries, the insurance industry has a wealth of internal data at its fingertips. It is accepted practice to use external data to help understand customers and make strategic decisions. However, if not prioritized at a strategic level, internal data and its intrinsic value can remain trapped within an organization.
Ultimate Guide to Small Commercial Insurance
Highlights Small commercial is at an inflection point with digital. Four of the top five carriers now have a direct offering. From 2010 to 2018, insurtech spend in small commercial spanned 50 companies, 111 deals, with a total of $1.5 billion invested, showing a compound annual growth rate of 41 percent. Introduction Small commercial insurance is a highly desirable market, and one that is going through a digital transformation.
Research on how usage-based insurance is viewed in the insurance industry, plus seven examples
The sales pitch to consumers is compelling: “Get rewarded for driving safely.” Insurers are offering discounts just for signing up for usage-based insurance (UBI), primarily based on telematics data, and a recent market survey suggests that the approach is resonating. In November, Belgian consulting firm PTOLEMUS reported a 40 percent rise in global UBI penetration in the 12 months ending June 2018.
Bold insurers are taking the lead in data monetization
While many insurers have been slow to capitalize on their vast stores of data, some far-sighted carriers have begun monetizing this increasingly valuable resource. They’ve started harnessing data from their own operations, and often external sources, to boost profits by improving efficiencies and creating new businesses. These innovative companies are likely to secure a significant “first-mover” advantage over their more cautious rivals.
Carriers must keep agile to stay in step with data laws
The introduction of new data protection legislation in Europe has shown how international laws and regulations can have a huge impact on companies’ data monetization initiatives. Multinational insurers looking to monetize their data need to be constantly ready to adjust their systems and processes to comply with changes in local data laws and business regulations.
Veracity is critical to the success of insurance data monetization
Data monetization offers insurers huge opportunities. But it also presents them with some big risks they need to carefully manage. Inaccurate or corrupt information can quickly scupper insurers’ plans to monetize their data. Information is the life-blood of the insurance business. If it becomes suspect, the consequences are likely to be grave.
Partnerships are the key to insurance data monetization
Partnerships are likely to be critical to the success of insurers’ efforts to monetize their data resources. Most insurance companies don’t have sufficient skills, infrastructure or experience to use their huge stores of data to improve their operational efficiencies or create new markets. Innovative insurtech firms, as I mentioned earlier in this blog series, can provide insurers with much of the insight, expertise and agility needed to effectively monetize big data streams.
Insurers must delight their brokers as well as their customers
Customer expectations and behavior are changing dramatically because of digital disruption and rising consumer clout. Customers want service providers to offer them enticing and rewarding digital experiences. What’s more, this trend is also taking place among business customers. Insurers don’t just need to revamp their direct channels to meet the growing demands of their customers. They must also change their indirect channels.
Is the insurance industry losing its edge on data? - Accenture Insurance Blog
Once upon a time, insurance companies were the envy of other industries in terms of the history and depth of their data. In the coffee shops of London, underwriters wisely selected ships to insure based on their knowledge of the captains, ships, routes and cargo. Since those early days, competition has heavily focused on that underwriting knowledge and accumulated expertise of companies and the industry. The fact that there has been a data revolution is nothing new.
As data soars in value, it’s time for insurance execs to step in and take the reins - Accenture Insurance Blog
The digital transformation of the insurance industry has dramatically elevated the importance of data management. It’s no longer a utility function that’s the domain of the IT department. Instead, data management is a vital strategic practice that demands the oversight of business leaders. Insurers that fail to properly respond to this shift are likely to impair the performance of their businesses.
Reaping the benefits of a modernized annuity platform
As the baby boomers retire and the annuity business continues to grow, the importance of a modern, flexible annuity platform becomes more and more evident for insurers. Annuity purchasers have many more choices today and insurers must be able to provide competitive products, carefully tailored, in terms of underwriting and pricing, to the needs of individual buyers. In addition, new regulatory requirements call for insurers to change the way that annuities are administered.
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