Canadian Underwriter

A new kind of model for assessing risk


June 15, 2016   by Staff


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Forget auto policies or travel premiums or even coverage for high-end bicycles. The future of insurance could one day involve “an overall comprehensive mobility policy that would also include things like car sharing…” says Eric Schuh, head of the casualty centre at Swiss Re in Zurich. “Engaging in a ‘riskier’ mix of modes of transport would then incur a higher premium, as it should.”

Under this model, insurance companies could also calculate policyholders’ risk as pedestrians or public transit passengers by tapping to wearable technologies, smartphone apps and transit schedules and safety records.

Schuh points out that insurers use more and more social and biological factors such as age, marital status and property ownership status when calculating traditional auto insurance. “On a more visionary note, more holistic insurance solutions based on policyholders’ lifestyles are thinkable, taking into account not just driving behaviour for motor but… potentially even a sustainability or public transit score,” which could, for example, be lower in heavily polluted regions.

Schuh also predicts a rise in spot insurance where customers’ smartphones register once they land at a foreign airport and offer one-click travel policies.

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Copyright © 2016 Transcontinental Media G.P. This article first appeared in the May 2016 edition of Canadian Insurance Top Broker magazine

This story was originally published by Canadian Insurance Top Broker.


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