Tech Is What Could Really Kill Us: Life Insurer Bosses

The world’s top life insurance company executives may be thinking a lot more about Amazon, Haven Life and Ethos Life than they are about changes in accounting rules.

Analysts from LIMRA and the Boston Consulting Group have celebrated Halloween week by releasing a new batch of survey data concerning what external forces scare (or, possibly, excite) life insurer executives now.

LIMRA and BCG conducted a survey that brought in responses from 508 top life company executives in 62 markets around the world, including 98 life company presidents and chief executive officers.

One of the questions was about what the survey participants saw as the “external forces with the most impact.”

LIMRA and BCG released the report earlier this week in Boston, at LIMRA’s annual conference.

LIMRA and BCG both have an obvious stake in the results: The groups offer a variety of tools, data streams and support services that can help life insurers change their organizations.

BCG, for example, is the same company that created a report in the spring on the future of life insurance distribution. In that report, which was distributed by Morgan Stanley Research, Tim Calvert, a BCG partner, and Nathalia Bellizia, a BCG principal, predicted that better use of technology would help agents increase their overall income about 10%, in spite of cuts in commissions.

(Related: Where in the World Is Your Income Going?)

The survey results could reflect the services LIMRA and BCG are recommending, or plan to recommend, to companies that issue life insurance, annuities, and related products and services, as well top life company executives’ own priorities.

For a look at five of the nine external forces LIMRA and BCG asked about, drawn from the results in the LIMRA-BCG survey summary report, see the data cards in the slideshow above. (To see the slideshow control arrows, wiggle your pointer over the first slide.)