Mr. AV Devidas, Director Altius Tech Insurance broking Pvt ltd professionally qualified in insurance and financial services. and has vast knowledge in global insurance industry. Result oriented professional with strong organizational skills and a diverse experience. A total work experience of over 27 years. Over the last 20 years – has been a part of the Insurance industry and worked with Major insurance companies and broking firms in inception stages .Mr Devidas is an insurance analyst , speaker and Regulatory expert.

Q.    Insurance companies are into stress how you think this will affect your business?

We expect limited immediate profit and loss (P&L) impact for us, but the crisis is expected to further accelerate the shift to digital and direct distribution.

Our observations:

• A sharp decline in auto and home claims volumes during the crisis may drive a positive impact on short term contingency agreements and thus, revenue for brokers.

• At the same time, carriers are suspending premium payments or handing back premiums, which may impact commissions.

• We are also expecting an uptick in shopping behaviour as consumers are looking to manage the cost of insurance.

• More traffic will look to digital channels as social distancing remains in place (and will ‘stick’ afterward).

• Broker and distribution models may be reviewed in some markets, especially in the SME (small and medium enterprise) and mid-market segments - with more contact now taking place directly with customers as brokers struggle, some insurers may decide to do more business with customers directly themselves in the future, perhaps through digital channels, which in turn could impact how customized these products are in the future.

• Business continuity and resiliency planning will become a critical focus - this is something that regulators will press insurers on in any case. There will be multiple lessons to be drawn and a deeper penetration of plans.

Q.    There is a lot of redemption pressure on life insurance companies, what is your experience?

While the social and medical consequences of COVID-19 have been significant, the shock to the economy and markets is having a significant impact on life insurance and annuity companies. While life insurance and annuity companies already typically offer some form of grace period on receipt of premium payments, companies may also consider the goodwill impact of offering additional deferrals. Life insurers may experience an increase in policy lapses in certain segments of their business if individuals are unable or choose not to pay premiums to keep their policies active. This trend may continue until the economy starts to recover. Companies that can identify lapsed policyholders that are most likely to repurchase insurance may have an advantage over competitors in regenerating business. These operational impacts on new business, premium payments, and continuation of existing policies will likely drive the assumptions used in actuarial models for reserving and forecasting. These trends should be monitored. During the transition to a virtual work environment, most companies have not seen a measurable impact on the ability to process claims. Companies should carefully monitor the volume of claims received both during the pandemic and as it subsides, as well as the ability to process virtually for an extended period of time.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, most companies have been forced to perform many, if not all, of their operations virtually due to social distancing guidelines. While this created some initial business continuity challenges for companies, employees and employers are adjusting.

Q.    What kind of challenges have you faced in the last 5 months? 

One of the biggest challenges is that all of this is happening at the same time as a huge spike in customer contacts. Whether it's about travel insurance, critical illness, health cover, business interruption, or another issue, customers are deluging us with queries over what they may or may not be covered for or to actually make a claim.

Service and call centers associated with retirement products and Ulips are also getting significant inquiries ranging from understanding their account balance changes to options for withdrawal as customers are facing increasing financial hardship.

These issues necessitate a number of reactions. Firstly, We are needing to insist that customers contact them by phone with only the most urgent of inquiries; everything else needs to be routed online. It also means that brokers need to look at their internal resources and how they are configured - potentially moving as many people into claims as possible, even if that is not their usual job. They need to adjust their specialist teams too - such as transferring staff out of areas like motor claims and into hotspots like travel. This more agile way of working, some are calling 'volume shifting' could be one of the new ways of working coming out of this situation.

All of these factors raise another prevalent issue: mitigating against the potential for fraud. We are already hearing of a growth in fraudulent claim attempts, for example around travel claims where customers, having been turned away by their travel agent or airline for cancelled travel, come to their insurer and fabricate an illness or other condition to try to secure compensation.

Q.     Do you think online sales will take over traditional sales in the next 3 years? 1) If Yes, Why? If No, Why?

Yes,

With the rise in penetration of the internet, there has been a gradual change in customer preferences around buying insurance products. This change has been both behavioral and attitudinal in nature, and is more prominent among younger customers. Customers currently use the internet primarily to research and compare various policies, view policy details, make policy changes, pay premium bills, and contact agents/brokers. Most of their activities are focused towards interacting, communicating, and transacting with insurance providers. Such behavior signifies tremendous growth opportunities ahead for this channel as customer penetration increases and as more insurance-related activities is carried out via this channel. The internet also helps insurers and intermidiaries provide a robust self-service portal for its customers, which serves the dual purpose of increasing customer satisfaction while reducing operational workload. However, trends in internet usage vary across life and non-life insurance products. While customers still value agents’ advice when buying life insurance products, they are increasingly using online channels to buy non-life products. Market segments like motor and home insurance have become commoditized and require less advice when buying these products, making them more suitable to be sold over the internet. While sales via online channels have been slower than initial expectations, they are still expected to continue growing in the future.

Q.     What are the challenges you anticipate for the next 7 months? 

• Remote onboarding, underwriting, claims settlement, and policy servicing

• Personalized customer communication and proactive customer support

• Customer-friendly products, pricing, and payment terms

• Integrated network of  Marketing team

• Online distribution channels in lieu of face-to-face customer interactions

• Telemedical processes for prospective life and health insurance buyers

• e-KYC and video KYC processes for touchless, paperless onboarding

• Redefined parameters for risk profiling and rating

• Gap assessment and market analysis for product redesign

• Faster go-to-market to roll out new product

Q.     Are you into Retail marketing, if yes what are your future plans?

We  will  deliver life ,motor, fire & engineering, personal accident, health & medical, marine and other insurance products to individuals and small-to-medium companies   Operating in  India a these retail businesses have strong track records of success,. We will deliver innovative insurance products and quality services to our customers built on the extensive local expertise of our retail teams who are recognized leaders in their respective countries.

We are adopting a digital-first approach to address our customers’ sales, servicing, and support-related needs quickly and efficiently. We  can optimize our distribution costs and provide a secure, personalized customer experience by automating their end-to-end processes for policy issuance and management

Q.    Do you have POS network, if yes how it’s doing and what are your future plans? 

Yes.  To increase insurance penetration in the country, the industry needs more distributors to travel the last mile. To achieve that goal, what’s needed is a simple certification process for these distributors. We are planning to recruit and train more than 2000 POS in this financial year and we will take a challenge to make them competent in the present market scenario.

Q.    Where will the growth come from in your company?

Altius Tech is an insurance technology company obsessed with innovation

Our enterprise Altius Platform and APIs accelerate digital transformation and maximize distribution channels. With our Systematic approach, Excellent partner relationship, and Outstanding customer support features, we will stand out in the crowd!

Professional Customer Support

We are a customer-centric organization, we have built an experienced team with great technical skills, excellent negotiating skills and first rate insurer market relationships. The team is made up of individuals from a broad range of insurance backgrounds, including a number of specialists, to ensure that our Partners can always compete. Above all, they are experts at getting the deal; our stock in trade.

Strong Partner Relationships

We share good terms with Insurance companies, Assessors, and the Insurance fraternity. Trouble-free claim management & higher claims settlement ratio are our specialties.

System Based Approach

Having the best resources on board and a robust system is our strength. Our indigenous ‘Lookup’ tool suggests suitable insurance products with 100% accuracy.

Q.     How many Covid-related claims your company has received so far and how many have been paid?

Yet to start business

Q.     Which product do you think will do well in the next 2 years a and why?

Health insurance and BI (Business interruption) policies

Health insurance - The health insurance industry is evolving and undergoing significant changes. As the risk landscape shifts, it is necessary to improve operational efficiencies, cater to evolving customer preferences, and align better with the changing business environment. Payers must adapt and align their business and offerings accordingly. A tactical approach is required to cater to the emerging risks and needs of the customers.

BI (Business interruption) Insurance. The coronavirus pandemic has led to widespread disruption and business closures resulting in substantial financial loss. Many customers have made claims for these losses under their BI insurance policies. There has been widespread concern about the lack of clarity and certainty for some customers making these claims, and the basis on which some firms are making decisions in relation to claims.