InsureTalk14 – hot topics discussed on a chilly winter’s day

Thursday, 22 July might have been the coldest day of 2021 so far, but the conversation at InsureTalk14 was definitely hot!

Our MC, Nonnie Mhlungu of SHA, was outstanding as always. She welcomed delegates to the 14th instalment of our popular insurance webinar series and seamlessly kept the proceedings going.

Seamus Casserly (pictured below), CEO of Lockton South Africa – the eighth-largest insurance brokerage in the world – spoke on corporate account trends and the recent riot and Covid claims.

There has been massive change in the past 50 years in the way businesses operate, he said. Examples include just-in-time production, technology, AI, increased production, automation, etc. – especially automation. Our policies are 50 years out of date. If we don’t update the basis of those policies we will always be disappointing our customers.

We need to talk to our clients, he advised. Brokers and insurers often don’t explain to our customers exactly how their policy will work. For example, it’s far better for a business to carry on trading than rely on a BI insurance policy to kick in. Make sure your clients understand what you’re doing on their behalf. As brokers we are advisors to the client to get the policy to work in the way the client wants it to work.

Seamus touched on automation, specificity, values, VAT (inclusive or not?), sub-limits, business interruption, perils, Covid, policy drafting and the implications of the Gauteng and KZN riots.

Bheki Mahlobo (pictured above), Analyst and Economic Researcher at the Centre For Risk Analysis, gave a broad overview of the South African economy in a talk entitled Business Unusual.

Businesses face severe financial constraints due to Covid-19, he said. The number of liquidations Jan 2020 to May 2021 totalled 236. There has been a small recovery in business confidence in the past year, but we have a long way to go to reach the levels we saw in April 2006. The outlook remains pessimistic. We see a similar pattern when it comes to consumer confidence.

Bheki went on to discuss the gold price, GDP growth, electricity generation availability and outages, GDP vs. protest action, employment levels vs. ANC support, unemployment rates (we have the highest number of unemployed people since 1994), wages vs. inflation and key risks.

The IISA’s Thokozile Mahlangu provided an IISA update focused on the upcoming African Insurance Exchange, which takes place online on 2 and 3 August. Thokozile highlighted some of the speakers, panellists and topics that will form part of the conference.

For more information on the conference, visit the IISA website.

Ilan Ossin, head of telematics for Discovery Insure, discussed the ever-increasing relevance of telematics-based insurance. He spoke about the shared value business model that creates value for the insurer in the form of less claims, which is then fed back to the policyholder

His presentation touched on the increase in interest in usage-based insurance (both among customers and insurers), value-added services (such as accident detection and stolen vehicle recovery), the evolution of telematics device types, the Vitality drive sensor, smartphone-enabled telematics, rewards programmes, risk-differentiated pricing, safety features, claims, driving behaviour, telematics in fleets and social investment.

Staying with Discovery (the headline sponsor of the event), our next speaker was Nonkululeko Pitje (pictured above), the company’s head of employee health solutions and group strategic client solutions, who spoke on corporate trends in wellbeing during these difficult times.

She shared the video below, which provides a peek into how we can integrate our personal and professional lives with technology and the built environment:

Nonkululeko continued by sharing the results of a research project into the overall state of mental health and wellbeing before and during the Covid lockdown and unpacked Discovery Health’s holistic corporate wellness programme.

Nonkululeko’s presentation was followed by the traditional entertainment slot, this month filled by the bluesy Bottomless Coffee Band, who did a live performance from their pad in Paarl.

Cover Publications’ Tony van Niekerk held a discussion with Tavio Roxo of Owls Software on the question of whether users can keep up with technology.

According to Tavio, MS Office users only use 5% of the software’s capability. We simply don’t have the personal bandwidth to keep up!

That being said, Tony and Tavio discussed some of the ways technology can assist to solve real problems faced by individuals and companies in today’s environment.