Risk & Business

Everyone knows the problem the healthcare.gov website has had in its first year of operation. Success stories from insurance buyers have been slow coming. The website however is successfully changing the paradigm of buying complex insurance products online. It has been a decade or more since the big auto insurers have been selling auto insurance online, along with the life insurers. However these products in comparison to other insurance products, are relatively less complex. Health insurance on the other hand is a very complex insurance product. What healthcare.gov is doing, along with the navigators that assist during the process,  is showing a whole population that complex insurance like business insurance can be bought online. This is a major wake up call to insurance companies and agents/brokers. The Federal government is going to make insurance buying online the "new" normal, even for business insurance. It may take a while but the days of  business insurance company we...

Google is one of the few companies that are developing a self driving car for mass production and sale.  The other car companies like Toyota, GM, & Ford are doing the same. I can  imagine in a few years these cars will be blazing down the highway at 60 mph with the passengers reading their IPads and texting because the car is doing the driving.  Now comes the insurance question. If the robot malfunctions and the car crashes into another, who is liable?  This is a question that insurance companies are asking right now. The answer is important because it could change car insurance as we know it.  People buy car insurance to protect them from the financial risk of causing injuries with the vehicle. As a matter to fact most of the premium in auto insurance is the result of  driver caused liability losses. If robots drive, one it is expected that accidents will be minimum and also the car owner would not be responsible for crashes, or at least minimally resp...